IAM2629 – Unveiling the Broker Success Formula!

In this episode, Gresh shares the evolution of his franchise‑building process, noting that it took roughly a year to clarify his target market and strategy.

Initially, he aimed at individuals who had been laid off, but he soon realized the more lucrative audience comprises employed professionals who are silently considering additional revenue streams.

He explains the financing paradox: without a steady job, securing SBA loans is tough, yet a layoff eliminates the income needed to fund a new business.

Consequently, he refines his outreach to those on the brink of layoffs or actively seeking semi‑passive franchise opportunities that can coexist with a full‑time job or another venture.

After a brief dip in momentum over the past three months, he recommits to a new pivot, emphasizing daily progress, continual prospecting, and creativity in securing funding.

• Blue Star Franchise: http://bluestarfranchise.com
• Browse the Franchise Inventory: https://bluestarfranchise.com/franchise
• Is franchising right for you? Check this out to see: http://bluestarfranchise.com/assessment
• Franchise CEO (A CBNation Site – coming soon) – http://franchiseceo.co

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Transcription:

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Intro 00:01
Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:28
Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast.
And this is a special episode of our I AM CEO podcast.

And this is actually going to be a snippet of a snippet. So to speak, I'm just doing an intro because I've been starting to document my journey into starting what is now called Blue Star Franchise.
We're also going to do a kind of subcite within CB nation called.
a franchise CEO. So you'll see some links in the show notes related to that.

But I just want to give you a little bit more insight, give you a little bit more color in some of the aspects of why I'm actually doing this. Because one of the things I was doing as I was going through training to start up this new business was realizing and hearing from the founder of FBA, the Franchise Brokers Association, that it'd be really cool to document your journey.

Going through and building this out. I think it's something that would be super helpful, obviously, for people that are looking for and thinking about starting franchises.

But frankly, if you're starting anything, any type of business, I think it's really cool to kind of just even see the journey and how it's been going from there. So I'm going to share a few of those snippets from the from the first couple of videos that have been created.

But definitely, of course, subscribe to our YouTube. Check out a lot more where I figure out exactly where we're going to post this. So I have that information that's available to you. But regardless, if you're a builder, continue to keep building, continue to do your thing.

The world definitely needs exactly what you're trying to build. It needs you to be your unique self. So make sure to run your own race because nobody can run your race like you.

This is Gresh signing out. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Did it really almost take me a year to maybe figure this out? who I'm targeting, how I'm targeting them, what to do. Maybe, you know, so I'm starting to get some nibbles.

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I haven't got a lot of like movement with people that are going to get laid off or thinking about getting laid off. And I realized like talking with, yesterday I had a call I'm checking colleges with one of the finance partners that I have.

One of the things that I talked with her and chatted with her about is how to get to being qualified. And one of the things that I found out about being qualified is that it becomes really, really hard if you don't have a job.

And so what that made me do is to really focus on who I want to target. So I was looking for people that were laid off. But in reality, it's not really the people that are laid off, but the people that are silently thinking about what they're going to do to add in another stream of revenue.

They have their job and maybe they want to add something on in addition to that so that they can potentially start a business without being there.

But it's like it's interesting because it's like a catch 22 because you may not be able to get an SBA loan if you don't have a job.

But if you get laid off you can't get the revenue for the business unless you have some type of other you know, Capital or things in place, but it's it's very very interesting to kind of see that let's see how all those things play out because the reality is is that It makes it very difficult to find financing.

I have another partner that does different types of financing, and I actually want to touch base with him just to hear a little bit more about what that looks like.

But it made me change the way I'm targeting and thinking about targeting. It's like you want those people that are about to get laid off, maybe not getting laid off, and are thinking about how can I add on the street revenue.

But then on the flip side, you also have to make sure that the franchise opportunity you're looking for actually has legs. It actually can, has legs.

It's something that is a viable option. And then on top of that, it has to be one that allows you to do the quote-unquote semi-passive. Basically meaning that you don't have to be full-time in the business. You can invest in the business while you're doing something else, whether it be a job or another business or something like that.

Very, very interesting because I think when you're in this space and doing those things, it makes you change the way that you're looking at a lot. It makes me like be even more refined, you know, and I say looking for the layoff people, or maybe I can just maybe I can't finance with the person I thought I could before.

So you have to get more creative. But at the end of the day, just getting a person that, you know, can't potentially get something up and going and going from there.

But it's definitely not an easy road to try to figure all this out. But I think he just asked a lot of questions, and it's crazy that it's been close to a year. I'm talking about, I think, 87 days, and then I'll be in a year.

So you just take it a day at a time, continue to kind of move forward and see where everything kind of takes you.

But it's the last part. I don't really have many prospects at all. But that can all change very quickly. I know that if you continue to prospect, continue to do things, sometimes those opportunities will come.

And we'll just see what happens from here. I hit the ground running pretty hard, and I think I lost a little bit of steam over the last probably, I won't say six months, but maybe about three months or so.

So it's just me locking in and saying, OK, this is what I'm pivoting into. This is how I'm going to do it.
And then just take it from there. Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help. And of course, looking forward to giving you more and more updates.

Outro 05:51
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at imceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community.

Want to level up your business even more? Read blogs, listen to podcasts, and watch videos at CBNation.co. Also, check out our I AM CEO Facebook group. This has been the I AM CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

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