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I Need a Change & a New Business Venture

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

AubreyJ

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This may be the wrong section, if so I apologize.

A brief re-introduction, as it's been a long time since I posted a thread.

I have been on this forum for a long time now, I signed up for this forum when I was in high school and had six figures in my bank account from investing in the stock market (I believe there is probably a thread around here somewhere when I spoke about it)

Since my high schools days, I have started or explored a ton of different business ventures.

Back in high school I explored making apps (I believe there is a thread about that somewhere here as well haha), I owned rental properties for a while, I traded penny stocks...literally dozens of different things.

I am now 24 years old and my big "claim to fame" is that I opened a sandwich franchise when I was 22.

Since, opening my franchise I've explored a few different businesses- I have a few cars that I rent on TURO and I have a consulting businesses I started last year, where I help people open franchised businesses.

Now, to be honest I am making this thread because I am a bit disappointed where I am so far in my life. I see some young entrepreneurs doing incredible things with their lives, and I feel like mine lacks in comparison.

My franchise is doing well, but it requires me to work 50-70 hours a week and all my employees are teenagers which I don't enjoy.

My TURO businesses is doing well, but again this is something that isn't location independent, and logistically it is tough whenever I go out of town or can't be around to inspect the cars before and after rentals.

As for my consulting business- I believe in my product for this, I believe in helping new franchisees in order to help prevent them from getting screwed by the franchisor (which happens ALL the time), but I sometimes I feel like a slimy "guru" when I try to get new clients.

My businesses are doing well (not amazing, but they all pay the bills), and I've learned a TON over the last few years, but I feel like my overall happiness has taken a major toll over the last few months.

My personal relationship with my boyfriend is suffering terribly. I am tired of going into my franchise everyday to essentially be a GM of a sandwich shop (I am not really passionate about restaurants or the food industry, I just like business), I don't feel like I am challenging myself mentally. I need a change.

I didn't want to become an entrepreneur so I could just do "well", but I want to do something great, something I am proud of and something that excites me.

So, that is why I am creating this thread.

I've put a lot of thought into this in the last few months, and I am going to put my franchise up for sale- I want to get out of the restaurant industry as a whole.

I am going to reread TMF , and I've already begun the beginning phases of starting my new business venture (an online based business) which is something I am really stoked about.

All in all, this forum is still the number one place I go to for business advice, for motivation, and for overall guidance- You guys have taught me a ton over the last few years, and I want to document this latest journey on this forum as well, I appreciate you all for all the information you've given me and I am really excited to begin what is hopefully the newest chapter of my life.

Thank you for reading!
 
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Niptuck MD

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As for my consulting business- I believe in my product for this, I believe in helping new franchisees in order to help prevent them from getting screwed by the franchisor (which happens ALL the time), but I sometimes I feel like a slimy "guru" when I try to get new clients.


Consulting realm is huge if you are a standout “authority” I also believe in the same (albeit my realm was corporations that set up shop overseas)

I hope you never feel “slimy” as obtaining new clients and providing them insane value from past experiences are as beneficial and time saving to them as it is beneficial to you.

If you are planning on selling the franchise to free up time and resources for your already established systems would you scale your consulting services?

Thank you for sharing your story.
 

AubreyJ

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Consulting realm is huge if you are a standout “authority” I also believe in the same (albeit my realm was corporations that set up shop overseas)

I hope you never feel “slimy” as obtaining new clients and providing them insane value from past experiences are as beneficial and time saving to them as it is beneficial to you.

If you are planning on selling the franchise to free up time and resources for your already established systems would you scale your consulting services?

Thank you for sharing your story.

I just feel as though, in today's society there are SO MANY self proclaimed "experts", and so many of them are just gross. That even though I know I can provide value, I know I have experience that is incredibly valuable to a newcomer to this industry, I can't help but feel like one of those slimy guys that you see on FB ads, even if I truly due believe 100% in what I am telling people.

But, with that being said it is something I am for sure interested in pursuing and scaling at some point in the future, though at this point it is pretty far from even needing to be scaled. I am in the stage right now where people aren't asking me to help them, I am having to hunt people down and convince them that they need my help. But, it is certainly something I plan to continue to pursue for now and for the future.
 

Niptuck MD

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I just feel as though, in today's society there are SO MANY self proclaimed "experts", and so many of them are just gross. That even though I know I can provide value, I know I have experience that is incredibly valuable to a newcomer to this industry, I can't help but feel like one of those slimy guys that you see on FB ads, even if I truly due believe 100% in what I am telling people.

But, with that being said it is something I am for sure interested in pursuing and scaling at some point in the future, though at this point it is pretty far from even needing to be scaled. I am in the stage right now where people aren't asking me to help them, I am having to hunt people down and convince them that they need my help. But, it is certainly something I plan to continue to pursue for now and for the future.


Depending on what you are consulting on, i know in my area, the prospective clientele can weed or sniff out those overnight “experts”... Real quick.

I have built my clientele on relations. Face to face wine and dine, whatever it may be. Selling them on the proven track record is one thing almost part and parcel with going and tracking/hunting them down. There is a lot of folk out here they cant find us but we must find them.

Hope it works out for you in your respective industry.
 
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ALC

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You could build this franchise consulting business while building your online personnal brand on Youtube / Podcast ? In order to make this consulting business credible.

What if you keep this franchise, build your online presence and starting to make income from it, then replace the income from the franchise from the consulting business and put a manager into your franchise, to get you a little bit more of time.

Saying this because this is what we've done (my family and i) in our Coffee Shop business, we still work 2-3 days a week in it, but otherwise there's 2 employees working there.

Providing value on both plateform to put your expertise online and selling your expertise, like a lot of people are doing right now.
(I personnally will do it when i'll be good with Real Estate transactions, not before because i'm not legitimate to teach people how to do something without knowing anything.)
 
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AubreyJ

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You could build this franchise consulting business while building your online personnal brand on Youtube / Podcast ? In order to make this consulting business credible.

What if you keep this franchise, build your online presence and starting to make income from it, then replace the income from the franchise from the consulting business and put a manager into your franchise, to get you a little bit more of time.

Saying this because this is what we've done (my family and i) in our Coffee Shop business, we still work 2-3 days a week in it, but otherwise there's 2-3 employees working there.

Providing value on both plateform to put your expertise online and selling your expertise, like a lot of people are doing right now.
(I personnally will do it when i'll be good with Real Estate transactions, not before because i'm not legitimate to teach people how to do something without knowing anything.)

I like that idea a lot- building my credibility is definitely something I am looking at doing and working towards and it will for sure help the consulting business grow. I've currently been looking at talking wth bloggers, podcasters, various publications about doing features, and so far that has been going pretty well. I have a magazine doing an article on my ecourse/consulting biz this week, and it should be published in the next month or so, and so I am hoping that that will help draw in business and of course provide credibility.

As for keeping the franchise- I just don't know if that is something I am interested in at this point. I would really like to go down the internet path of things whether it be through consulting, online courses, or even if it is something totally different. I really like the consulting side of things, and I don't feel as though selling the business will hurt that business at all

Being able to sell myself as a "24 year old franchise expert that sold my business for a profit" is as good, if not better, than selling myself as a "24 year old who owns a franchise"

Again, selling isn't set in stone in fact I haven't even formally spoken to anyone about it- it's just an option I am exploring and am for sure taking into consideration.
 

ALC

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Being able to sell myself as a "24 year old franchise expert that sold my business for a profit"
I would play with that too ;)

The transition take time, but if you know which direction you want to take, go get it !
 
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Daniel James

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This may be the wrong section, if so I apologize.

Since, opening my franchise I've explored a few different businesses- I have a few cars that I rent on TURO and I have a consulting businesses I started last year, where I help people open franchised businesses.

My TURO businesses is doing well, but again this is something that isn't location independent, and logistically it is tough whenever I go out of town or can't be around to inspect the cars before and after rentals.

A little bit late on this thread but when I searched yours was one of two that mentioned Turo. I was curious what insight you might be able to offer? Given I am having some luck with the whole sharing economy experience through Airbnb I was thinking of expanding this to the cars I own since I do not drive them very much. Looking on the app I was amazed to see it didn't seem like anyone is renting out workhorse pickup trucks in my area, just a few brand new very expensive models that seem more geared for a test drive by someone interested in buying one...

What kinds of cars have you had the most luck with/seem the most profitable? Pros and cons of the service? Typical rental rates and % of days rented? Anything you'd be willing to share would be much appreciated!
 

AubreyJ

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A little bit late on this thread but when I searched yours was one of two that mentioned Turo. I was curious what insight you might be able to offer? Given I am having some luck with the whole sharing economy experience through Airbnb I was thinking of expanding this to the cars I own since I do not drive them very much. Looking on the app I was amazed to see it didn't seem like anyone is renting out workhorse pickup trucks in my area, just a few brand new very expensive models that seem more geared for a test drive by someone interested in buying one...

What kinds of cars have you had the most luck with/seem the most profitable? Pros and cons of the service? Typical rental rates and % of days rented? Anything you'd be willing to share would be much appreciated!


The reason why people may be not renting those out is they may not be allowed. There are certain cars on TUROs Terms of Service that are not allowed on the platform, and I know fleet vans are not, I am not sure off the top of my head about work trucks, but I would for sure take a look at that.

As far as my experience with TURO, I like it alot. I have 4 cars on the platform, and will be adding a 5th and 6th later this month if not early next month. My experience has been really great so far, I think the TURO platform does have things that need to be addressed and fixed (but what platform doesn't). My con would purely be that TURO is King and they are the ultimate decision maker- I've heard of people getting kicked off the platform before which is a scary thought for anyone trying to grow a business on there.

So, since I started TURO I would say I average about 20-25 days per month of each car being rented out. In my experience the higher end cars don't necessarily do better as far as % goes, but they do gross more simply because they are more expensive to rent.

I do well on TURO because, I have my profile set as instant booking 24/7. So someone could literally book my car at 2am in the morning with no notice (not that it happens, but it could). 99% of my bookings are last minute, and I've done a number of bookings that lasted 4 weeks+.

I like cheap cars for this platform. 2 of my cars are older cars that I bought for less than $3500 and the other 2 are nicer cars that cost over $20k- The nicer cars obviously do more in gross because they are nearly twice as expensive to rent, but at the end of the day the cheaper beater cars do way better if you are looking at it from earnings being a percentage of the total cost of the car. I do like to diversify my fleet, so I am glad I have the nice cars, but I think for someone just starting out buying a cheap $3500 car is the right choice.

My one big tip would be to read the TOS before you join. TURO puts stipulations on rentals, like you can't have one older than a 2006, no more than 130k miles, clean title, no open recallls..etc.

Overall I think it is a really awesome platform, and if you are already doing AirBnB than it is a no brainer in my opinion!
 

Daniel James

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The reason why people may be not renting those out is they may not be allowed. There are certain cars on TUROs Terms of Service that are not allowed on the platform, and I know fleet vans are not, I am not sure off the top of my head about work trucks, but I would for sure take a look at that.

So, since I started TURO I would say I average about 20-25 days per month of each car being rented out. In my experience the higher end cars don't necessarily do better as far as % goes, but they do gross more simply because they are more expensive to rent.

I do well on TURO because, I have my profile set as instant booking 24/7. So someone could literally book my car at 2am in the morning with no notice (not that it happens, but it could). 99% of my bookings are last minute, and I've done a number of bookings that lasted 4 weeks+.

I like cheap cars for this platform. 2 of my cars are older cars that I bought for less than $3500 and the other 2 are nicer cars that cost over $20k- The nicer cars obviously do more in gross because they are nearly twice as expensive to rent, but at the end of the day the cheaper beater cars do way better if you are looking at it from earnings being a percentage of the total cost of the car. I do like to diversify my fleet, so I am glad I have the nice cars, but I think for someone just starting out buying a cheap $3500 car is the right choice.

My one big tip would be to read the TOS before you join. TURO puts stipulations on rentals, like you can't have one older than a 2006, no more than 130k miles, clean title, no open recallls..etc.

Overall I think it is a really awesome platform, and if you are already doing AirBnB than it is a no brainer in my opinion!

Ah, all very useful information. I had not dug into the TOS for them yet, the 12 years old 130,000 mile requirement certainly restricts potential vehicles a bit. Looking at it now it doesn't seem like there are any rules about normal pickup trucks.

Good tips on the instant booking! That's actually not very different from my experience with Airbnb, lots of last minute reservations. Cheap cars is definitely the route I was thinking.

Thank you taking the time to respond. Wish you all the best sorting out what's best for you and the franchise!
 
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AubreyJ

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Ah, all very useful information. I had not dug into the TOS for them yet, the 12 years old 130,000 mile requirement certainly restricts potential vehicles a bit. Looking at it now it doesn't seem like there are any rules about normal pickup trucks.

Good tips on the instant booking! That's actually not very different from my experience with Airbnb, lots of last minute reservations. Cheap cars is definitely the route I was thinking.

Thank you taking the time to respond. Wish you all the best sorting out what's best for you and the franchise!

No problem! There is also a facebook group called Turo Owners Tips and Tricks, that is VERY VERY useful, highly recommend you check it out!
 

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