Irving Chung discusses his story of having an anxiety attack while working for a major corporation, then pursuing freedom through entrepreneurship.
You will learn how to open your own franchise business in this episode, become your own boss, and whether pursuing freedom through entrepreneurship is right for you.
“You have a unique idea that’s never been done. Your choice. Open your own business. Right. Create something fresh and new. Go for it. Right.”
Irving Chung is a franchise consultant and the owner of an indoor cycling studio. He has over 25 years of professional experience in marketing and advertising, including working on the team that developed the “Got Milk?” campaign.
Table of Contents
This is Irving Chung’s story…
“I was working in corporate marketing when I had an anxiety attack that led to a hospital stay. The doctor told me I needed to make some lifestyle changes and reduce my stress.
“I realized that I was unhappy in my career and that I needed to make a change. I decided to start my own business and met with a franchise consultant who showed me all the different options available.
“I chose to open an indoor cycling studio (CycleBar) because I was passionate about fitness and loved cycling. I wanted to be able to help people improve their lives and make a difference in the obesity epidemic. I’ve been running my studio for over six years and it’s been incredibly fulfilling.
“I’m so glad I made the decision to start my own business and follow my passion.”
In this episode, you will learn the following:
1. The story of how Irving Chung became involved in the popular “Got Milk?” advertising campaign, and how his career in marketing has transitioned over time.
2. The details of Irving’s decision to leave his corporate job and open his own business, as well as the franchise consultant who helped him navigate the process.
3. The success stories of two of Irving’s clients who made significant changes to their lifestyles after starting to cycle at his studio.
What Are Your Limiting Beliefs?
Do you feel like something is holding you back from achieving your goals? Knowledge is half the battle. Download “10 Questions to Help You Identify Your Limiting Beliefs” for FREE, and start smashing your limiting beliefs.
Resources
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Connect with Irving Chung
If you’re interested in learning more about whether franchising is right for you and what it would take to cross the threshold, check out his website, FranGuidance.com.
You can book a time to have an initial consultation call with Irving. There’s no fee for this service.
Other episodes you’ll enjoy:
How Ken Carfagno Left His Dream Job to Start a Cleaning Business – BtR 299
You Are Destined for Greatness – Sarah Nuse BtR 242
Start a Second Life Career or Business with Larry Roberts – BtR 332
Connect with me:
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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/beyondtherut
Twitter: https://twitter.com/beyondtherut
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerrydugan/
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Transcript
[Irving Chung]
You have a unique idea that’s never been done. Your choice. Open your own business. Right. Create something fresh and new. Go for it. Right. That’s how a lot of franchises start. To the majority of people I talk to that want to get into your own business is like, yeah, I’d love to own my own business. I don’t know what I want to do. That’s the perfect candidate for Franchising.
[Jerry Dugan]
All right. Hey, Irving, thanks for joining me on this fine, wonderful day that we’ve got. How are you doing over there?
[Irving Chung]
Doing great. Good morning, Jerry. Amazing, great day.
[Jerry Dugan]
Now we’re in the same metro area, so I’m like, how are you doing over there? And it’s like you’re just way over here in Dallas. You’re, like, on the north side of town. I’m on the south side of town, exactly.
[Irving Chung]
Awesome weather patterns here. Pretty similar.
[Jerry Dugan]
It’s been raining over there.
[Irving Chung]
My favorite time of year. Well, you know what they say about Dallas, though, in Texas is like, you don’t like the weather, just wait ten minutes.
[Jerry Dugan]
Exactly. Oh, man. Now, you and I met through LinkedIn a couple of months back, and then we chatted about, I’d say, a little less than a month ago. And it’s just really neat to hear your story and your marketing career, and then it’s transitioned over time. And the thing about your marketing career, about your marketing career, that really made me perk up. You were involved in a very popular advertising campaign many, many decades ago. Well, I mean, for us, I guess it’d be many decades ago, but for the younger audience, we don’t like as much if you’re going to say what? But there was a phrase, though, like, if you had Oreo cookies or, like, a nice, rich chocolate brownie, you just needed something to go with it. And two words got milk.
[Irving Chung]
Got milk.
[Jerry Dugan]
And you’re the guy behind that.
[Irving Chung]
That’s right. Yeah. No, that was an incredible campaign. And it’s funny because I’m from New York City. I started my advertising career on Madison Avenue, and I loved it. Right. Produced Super Bowl commercials, met celebrities. I’ve met Paul Abdul, Elton John, katerine of it the Olympian skater. And, yeah, I guess the pinnacle of my career was being part of the team that developed Got milk.
[Jerry Dugan]
Yeah. I mean, there are people who weren’t born at the time. Who knows?
[Irving Chung]
It’s kind of sad when you talk about decades, but it was decades ago.
[Jerry Dugan]
It hurt me, too.
[Irving Chung]
Decades ago. You’re right. Got milk.
[Jerry Dugan]
That was painful to realize. As I was saying it, I’m like, oh, man, time definitely flew by. So you have this, like, very successful marketing career, but you’re not exactly doing that anymore, though.
[Irving Chung]
No. So, you know, I have a saying, corporate is great until it’s not.
[Jerry Dugan]
Yes.
[Irving Chung]
You apply that same thing. Military is great until it’s not. And you get to a point in your life where you’re like, okay, I either can’t take it anymore or it’s not fulfilling anymore, but you hit transitions, and it’s very common in life, right. So, for me, it was having a major anxiety attack and thinking it was a heart attack, and it was kind of like a medical wake up call, and the doctor’s like, no, your heart’s fine. You just had an anxiety attack. And the thing is, as you get more senior in corporate, the pressure goes up, the income starts to slow down, and the workload gets heavier. And I’m like, there’s an inverse relationship here that’s not working. And the reality is, corporate doesn’t care, right. And I’ll probably take as bold of a step to say the military doesn’t care. You drop dead in either position. They’ll just bring the next guy in, right? Like, oh, yeah, he was a good guy. But next you start to realize that I need to start taking care of myself, because if I don’t take care of myself, nobody will. That’s the reality.
[Jerry Dugan]
Yeah. And so you have that anxiety tackle. What was the immediate decision point for you? Was it right then and there, you said that said, I got to get out of this place?
[Irving Chung]
Yeah. So I was in hospital overnight. They did all the EKGs and all that stuff, and I was, like, all nervous because I’m like, oh, man, I’m too young to have a heart attack. And the doctor’s like, no, you don’t have to worry about it. But you know what? This is a wakeup call. You need to start making lifestyle changes. And he didn’t say, quit your job and take control of your life, but he did say, take control of your life. Reduce your stress. Stop drinking coffee. I mean, those are just, like, minor things, right? But the reality is, what’s the root cause of your stress? Don’t alleviate the symptoms. Solve the problem. And so I went back home, and I really sat down and had to really think about it and say, all right, what’s going on here? And it was building up. So it wasn’t like one day it just happened. That was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. I was feeling stressed, and I was feeling anxious, and I was feeling unfulfilled for a while, and it took that to really wake me up to say, you know what? Now is the time to make a difference and make a change. And I always knew about franchising, but didn’t know much about it, right? So, like, 100% of my clients I talk to. When you think franchise, the first thing you think of is fast food and McDonald’s.
[Jerry Dugan]
Yes.
[Irving Chung]
Maybe Subways. Right. If you’re contemporary Subways, both of those.
[Jerry Dugan]
Actually jump to my head just now.
[Irving Chung]
Right. And both of those are like, man, I want to do that. Right. Nor do I have the money to do that, but I met with a franchise consultant from the same company I’m with franchise, and they opened up a whole new world for me. And it’s one of those things that I knew I wanted to get out of corporate. I said, you know what? I’m going to open my own business. And that was what I was determined to do. And then the next question was, but what business am I going to own? Right? What am I going to do? Because that’s a huge endeavor, but it’s like, literally just walking off a cliff. Right? I mean, it’s like, whoa, okay, great decision. Now what? Right? I’m like, okay. I mean, I felt proud of myself. I made that choice, but it was like I didn’t know where to start.
[Jerry Dugan]
Yeah. So you went from anxiety attack, overnight stay in the hospital. That realization that lifestyle needs to change and everything that is being described is pointing back to this corporate life that you’re living.
[Irving Chung]
Yeah.
[Jerry Dugan]
So did you immediately turn to franchise and start looking for options from there?
[Irving Chung]
I did. So I knew I wanted to start my own business. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. And I had met somebody who was a franchise consultant, and I always had their contact information. But it’s all about timing, right? I mean, that’s what life is. Life is all about timing. Like, when I met my wife for the first time, or now my wife, I mean, I was dating somebody, she was dating somebody, and we didn’t pay each other any minutes of time or consideration. A few months later, we bumped into each other again, and both of us happen to be single. Boom. Sparks flashed. Right. So it’s all about timing. And so I had this person’s contact information. I reached out and said, hey, you know what? I’m ready to make a move. I said let’s talk. And that’s when pretty much it’s funny, I kind of think of it as like being a kid in a candy store. It’s like, oh, my God, look at all this candy. I was like, which one do I want to go for first? And that was it. It’s really incredible. So that was the changing point in my life. That was over six years ago.
[Jerry Dugan]
So when you met with this guy, he didn’t just say, hey, here’s an open catalog. Good luck. What kind of questions did he walk you through?
[Irving Chung]
Yeah, now I’m a franchise consultant, and now I do what he did with me. And what we started with was just a conversation, and it’s a consultation. It’s a two hour long consultation. And it was all about the fundamentals first, which is, hey, let’s right size my understanding of franchising, because I had a really narrow understanding. I mean, a negative perception. Oh, they take royalties. That’s all my profit. You know what I mean? And it’s McDonald’s. I don’t want to do fast food. And he’s like, all right, let’s erase all that, and let’s start from the beginning, because that’s the franchising of 1960s, 1990s. Let’s talk about 2022 here. At the time, it was six years ago, but let’s talk about current and contemporary franchising and really walk me through everything about what it’s like to franchise, what it costs, what kind of support can I get? All the questions I had in my head, how much money do I need? What are my options, most importantly? And that’s when we went through just a plethora of opportunity there was, and it was like everything from healthcare to education to fitness to food, of course, you name it. Consulting, sales consulting, business consulting, you name it, there’s pretty much a franchise for it. And so I really was excited because I’m like, wow, what do I want to do when I grow up? Literally, it was a chance to clear the slate. Right. And there’s a couple of things that I was able to think about. Not only what skills that I develop over my 25 years of professional experience, but what are my personal interests, right? And so if you can own a business that taps into a real passion, isn’t that the Holy grail? To have a business that you can be profitable and lucrative and make a fortune, but to love what you’re doing, I mean, that’s almost, like, too good to be true, right? Right.
[Jerry Dugan]
Yeah.
[Irving Chung]
And that was kind of what I was dealing with. It was awesome. Yes.
[Jerry Dugan]
And you wound up opening, if I remember correctly, a cycle bar.
[Irving Chung]
Yeah. So I ended up with an indoor cycling studio. So here’s the thing, right? I’ve always loved fitness. I’ve always loved cycling, right? Cycling was my second date with my wife, you know what I mean?
[Jerry Dugan]
Oh, wow.
[Irving Chung]
Yeah, I used to race, so I took a passion and I kind of thought about it. I was like, wow, wouldn’t it be kind of cool to love what I did? I truly love what I did. The other thing I like about it is I can change people’s lives. So it wasn’t just like, wow, let me do something fun, let me do something with purpose, and let me do something because the obesity epidemic that this country is dealing with. I mean, I traveled to Europe this summer, three weeks, and I mean, like, literally, I realized that Americans are the fattest people in this earth.
[Jerry Dugan]
What? No.
[Irving Chung]
Yeah. Right? Isn’t that shock? I’m like, holy cow. I mean, this is bad. Now, I’ve never been obese. I’ve had, of course, like, everyone fluctuating weight challenges, but it’s £10, you know what I mean? Like, £10 I can blow off in three weeks if I focused on it. Right. And so not a big deal, but I mean, anyway, my biggest kind of pride was I had a guy walk in my studio and he was £300. And he goes, I just came back from the doctor. The doctor said if I don’t lose weight, I’m going to die. Literally. He goes, I got young kids and I didn’t want to leave them. I’m just too young to die. And he goes, But I don’t know where to start. I said, Dude, you walked in the front door. That’s where you start. He goes, I don’t think I can finish a class. I said, you can finish a class? And within one year, he lost £100.
[Jerry Dugan]
Wow.
[Irving Chung]
Yeah. And he went from running in the back of the room to running in the front of the room. He was, like, literally the personification of why I got into this business.
[Jerry Dugan]
Wow.
[Irving Chung]
That makes a lot of money. Yeah.
[Jerry Dugan]
I think that’s the key thing. The success story of him physically dropped £100, saved his life physically. But then from writing in the back of the class to the front is a big issue.
[Irving Chung]
So you know what’s crazy about cycling, even though it’s physical, obviously. Right. I burn about 500, 600 calories a ride, so it’s a huge calorie burn. I mean, it’s cardio. So you work in your heart health, which is the most important, because you can be skinny and die a heart attack. Right. You can be fat and die of a heart attack. Right. So weight is more of a it is a fiscal concern, but your heart really is what can fail, right. Even if you’re not overweight. So cardio fitness is critical, but it’s all about the mental. So here’s the thing about, again, the multi benefits of why I chose to get into CycleBar is he went from being not very confident to being super confident. Right. And confidence is somewhat the key to mental health to some degree. Right. I mean, confidence to do things that you think you can’t do, it just affects you all across the board, socially, professionally. Right. And I had a woman who was going through cancer. It’s another success story. And she said to keep her motivated and to get through chemo and to get through this emotional challenge, that she might lose her life and to stay positive and stay I mean, she said coming to Cycle bar was what got her up in the morning.
[Jerry Dugan]
Wow.
[Irving Chung]
And the community that she had there, the support she had, everyone was high five in her rallying around her. And it wasn’t just because we were sad she was struggling with this illness. It was because that’s how we treat everyone in the community. Right. I mean, my motto in my studio is hugs and high fives. I mean, literally, the minute you walk in that door, you’ve accomplished something. Right. Because, seriously, that’s the first barrier to working out. You laying in bed, you’re like, Do I want to get up? Right? So you motivate from getting up to, oh, I got to get in the car and I got to walk through those doors.
[Jerry Dugan]
Yeah.
[Irving Chung]
So your workout begins the minute you walk through that door. And accomplishments. Right. So anyway, I just love that accountability is huge. As easy as it sounds, it really has fulfilled what I expected it to do, which is to be both something that was going to generate the economics and economic results, but that sense of fulfillment that I really didn’t necessarily have every day in a job that I carried there was some fulfillment, for sure. I enjoyed my career, but at some point, the negatives outweighed the positive.
[Jerry Dugan]
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[Irving Chung]
I tell you, yes, that is part of it.
[Jerry Dugan]
And I mean, then there’s this much more noble aspect of it. America is a very obese country to hear you connecting these wise. I love cycling, I love making money, but also I want a business where I’m making an impact and those are huge. Now, I’m thinking that your company and your services also help people identify their why before they even start looking.
[Irving Chung]
Absolutely. That’s part of my consultation. Right? Because money is fine as a motivator. But yeah, what is your why? What’s your purpose? Because that really is what drives your ability, your motivation to move forward. But I look at three key criteria when I talk to people about it. I cover economics. The economics is, number one, can you afford the business and can it make you the money you want to make? Because at the end of the day, we’re not doing this just for fun. We’re talking about a career change livelihood for you and your family. So number one is economics. Let’s not joke around about that. Number two, is conviction. The service that you get into and the business you get into, you have to believe in, right? It’s because no matter what it is, even if I’m selling early childhood education or mini donuts or again, contrary to what I was talking about, the health trend or fitness, like, I’m selling something, It services. I have an It company. I have an HR company. I have a tax company. I mean, you got to believe in what you’re doing. And number three is passion, right? And that goes back to and all three of those could be your why. You know what I mean? So your why can be broadly defined. Your why could be, hey, I want to provide financial security to my family. I want to provide college education to my kids. I want to provide all those key things that as a parent, you want to provide. Right? That could be your why. Conviction. Hey, conviction is about believing in the services you are delivering as a business. I have a mental health clinic, and we are suffering from a mental health crisis in this country. If I can bring help to my area in form of a mental health clinic, that is holistic mind, body, spirit and help change people’s lives from that standpoint, that could be your way. And then passion. Again, my story about my passion for cycling and fitness, right? I mean, that’s a personal passion. So we look at all three of those, and ideally, you want to deliver on a business that hits all three of those, and that’s what it did for me. It’s not all just about fun and games, but if you can have fun and games, shoot, why not? That’s how we work on understanding what your why is as we talk about it.
[Jerry Dugan]
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, too. I mean, a lot of people do this. Well, not a lot of people, but the folks that really enjoy their careers or have gone far in their careers to a degree, have some level of these pieces together. They believe in their capability, at least to do a job. They might be motivated to pay off a car loan or go on a vacation.
[Irving Chung]
The sad reality is most of us end up in jobs.
[Jerry Dugan]
Yes.
[Irving Chung]
That just pay the bills. And you get caught up in that web of, well, I can’t quit, and this is all I know, and I can’t disrupt my paycheck because I got to pay my rent or my mortgage. And you get this rut because you’re too afraid to make a change or don’t know what your options are. So you feel trapped, and you just keep walking down that path, and all of a sudden, three decades later, you’re like, holy cow, what am I doing with my life? So it’s easier to take the path of least resistance, right? Anything like any life goal, if you want to lose £10, can you do it just sitting there watching football and having a couple of bags of chips. Absolutely not. You know what I mean? And if I want to make a career change and really find something that’s fulfilling, it’s challenging. If I want to make more money and really add a greater income or an additional income to my family, it’s going to take a little bit of effort. That’s the hard part. Yeah.
[Jerry Dugan]
And these can even start off as side gigs, right? You don’t have to, like, you know what’s cool?
[Irving Chung]
That goes back to it, right? I mean, like Fiona McDonald’s a it takes millions, right? So it’s not cheap. It’s like managing 30, 40 high school kids and high expense in terms of operating costs and all that stuff. I mean, you got to have your eye on the ball. But we actually have a category, an entire category of business that’s defined as semia absentee. Semia absentee means that it’s manager run and it means that you just manage the manager. Right? So that’s what my indoor cycling studio is. So the honest truth is part of why I picked CycleBar was I’ve always wanted to take my marketing experience and open my own consulting firm. I want to have my own marketing business and that was the first business. But when you start with consulting, I mean, you start one client at a time. And so I went from earning six figures and I can’t go to zero. I mean, that’s really a hardship for my family. So I actually chose cycling because it was a passion. It was defined as a semiapsentee owned business, which means a manager runs the business. Nowadays, I’m going on year six, right? And we’re open seven days a week from 530 in the morning to 800 at night. I do not open a door or close the door to that business, right? I can get hit by a bus tomorrow and we’re still going to teach 30 classes seven days a week because it has nothing to do with me. I have a manager who runs the front desk staff. I have a lead instructor who manages the instructors. What I do, I do payroll, I make marketing decisions. And I managed a manager. I do a 1 hour call every Monday. Once a month, we go out to lunch, talk a little bit more in person, build some rapport, and that’s it. So where I work 5 hours a week running my studio, which gives me 35 hours to do something else. If I just wanted to, you know, eat bond bonds, I can do that. Right? But I had another purpose, right? So my cycling business is actually a third income because my wife has a career. I now have a whole nother career in consulting, which was my plan when I left corporate America, was to create multiple revenue streams and to be my own boss, right? So I have three companies now. I have my cycling business, I have my marketing consulting and I have my franchise consulting. And all of that I do in my own terms, my own time. And it’s been amazing. Yeah. So semia absentee is really one of the greatest discoveries that people can make, which is I don’t need to give up the security of my job, or I can actually add an additional income stream, or I can kind of make a transition move, right? Let me kind of dabble in this franchise thing and then let me transition into it once it grows to a certain point. So there’s a lot of strategies and that’s part of my consultation as well. I do a lot of life career strategizing with people and generally I say, hey, let’s look at the five and ten year plan and where do you want to go? What do you want to accomplish? And that’s part of it.
[Jerry Dugan]
It’s funny, I’ve got two things going on in my head at the same time. One of them is that old commercial and we get younger folks. But the guy that says, I’m not only the president, I’m also a client.
[Irving Chung]
Okay, I’m not there yet. My forehead seems to be getting bigger every year.
[Jerry Dugan]
You’re not just the consultant, you’re also a client of the same thing you’re helping people do.
[Irving Chung]
Here’s something that’s unique, right? So franchise is one of the premier franchise consulting companies in the country, in the world. And the reason why is because we’re not a franchise ourselves. We don’t just pay our way to get in and say, oh, let me go sell franchises. We need to each have either a background in being in a franchisee or being a franchise, or this company is very selective. They want people to have first hand experience in order to consult. And that’s one major difference. There are several other franchise consulting firms out there. I mean, again, it’s not a common career, but there are multiple people that do it. A lot of them are just franchises, right? So to me, if he feels a little disingenuous but what I can consult on, and what I often do is talk about what it’s like to actually go through this transition to make a choice of what my future is going to look like. It’s a big choice and a big decision, so I can talk about that, what it’s like to actually run multiple businesses. All that comes from first hand experience. In fact, I had a consultation with another couple in Utah and she was a stay at home mom, and kids are older now, right? So she’s like, hey, I want to now start my career again. He was a really successful executive and she was like, but I’m nervous about working with my husband. I said, I’ve been there, done that. And so I actually got my wife on a zoom call with them and unscripted off the cuff, I said, hey, we’ll set up a call, and we’ll just chat. We’ll just talk about it, and we talked about what it was like for my wife and I to discover a whole other area of our relationship. So when you date, you really get to know each other about individuals, companionship, friendship, all that kind of stuff, and it’s about personal interests, right? Like I said, my second date with her was cycling because she said she liked cycling. I’m like, seriously? Me too. And boom, we had an awesome ride together, right? So that’s what it was all about, discovering each other on a personal level. Once we got married and decided to be parents, we both had to learn how to be parents individually and together, right? That’s a whole nother dimension of life, growth and learning. Well, I mean, we’ve been here for 25 years, right? And prior to us owning a studio, I really didn’t know about her skills professionally because I don’t work. Next to her, the most we ever talked to was I pillow talk, right? I had a great day. I had a crappy day. I mean, that was it. I don’t care about nor do I want to hear about what she does every day, the nitty gritty. And one day, I’m struggling with a spreadsheet because I had to do payroll, and I’m like, man, it’s just so frustrating. And she’s like, what are you whining about? And I’m like, I got to do payroll. She says, I can bang out in 20 minutes. I’m like, seriously? She says, I love spreadsheets. I love excel. I do that all day. I’m like, seriously? I didn’t know yet. And she literally goes, she grabbed it, and she banged it out. I’m like, oh, my God. I love you. I’m like, you’re amazing. I mean, A, I didn’t have to do it. That’s why I loved her for taking it off my plate. But two, I have a whole new appreciation for the skill set. Why would I care to know if she was an Excel unless she did the budget at home and all that stuff in Excel, which we need to do, that was pretty cool, right? And so it took us about a year to learn our lanes, what she was good at, what I was good at, what she enjoyed doing, what I enjoyed doing. And that’s the other great thing about owning your own business, right? You don’t have a boss saying, yeah, Jerry, you’re going to do this, and you got to get this done, and you got to do this, and you got to fire this guy, and you got to do this, and you gotta, you know, do this test and travel here. I mean, it’s not your choice, right? I mean, you’re kind of a slave to your boss in a company when you own your own business to some degree. Again, not extreme degrees, because you got to get, at the end of the day, the. Buck stops with you, right? You’re the owner, right? But you get to choose what you want to do in a business. If you don’t like sales, you hire a sales guy. If you don’t like customer service, you hire a customer service guy. Well, you dump it on your wife. Either way, it’s like you have some control over what role in the business you want to take. And I love that freedom. Again, it goes back to when you own a business. Who you hire, what you choose to do, those are all in your control.
[Jerry Dugan]
It’s like you put together a good Racy chart or model and know this is the thing so and so is responsible for. I’m just in charge of inspecting it or checking in on it.
[Irving Chung]
The other thing, too, is the franchise or will give you all the guidance right from the very beginning, even before you sign that franchise agreement, you’re going to say, yeah, to start this business, you need three employees, depending on what your role is, they coach you. They say, are you going to be involved semi absentee or owner operator? How involved do you want to be? They say, okay, great. Based on you being a semi absentee owner, you need to hire a general manager. You need to hire three technicians and boom, that’s it. A lot of these franchises, you’re only talking two to four employees for a lot of these to start. You’re not talking huge amounts of payroll, you’re not talking huge staffs to manage. But again, depending on what you want your role to be, you hire around you.
[Jerry Dugan]
I’m glad you brought that back, because that was something I also wanted to bring up was when you talked about CycleBar and how your absentee you have a manager running all that. For that manager to do that, that manager needs to have operating procedures, policies, business structure. What do I hire based on? What do I fire based off of? And I understand franchises. That’s part of what you’re buying into. You’re buying their business model so you don’t have to create one on your own. You’re buying their brand, access to their brand, so you don’t have to create one from scratch.
[Irving Chung]
So let me go through the basics. Why franchising? I get a couple of questions like, hey, if I want to start down, start my own business, right? I’m like, sure, absolutely. No, seriously. I mean, if you have a unique idea that’s never been done, your choice. Open your own business, right? Create something fresh and new. Go for it. Right? That’s how a lot of franchises start. To the majority of people I talk to that want to get into their own business is like, yeah, I’d love to own my own business. I don’t know what I want to do. That’s the perfect candidate for franchising. And the reason why franchising are great is because number one is they’re proven business models, right? Most people are concerned about risk. Hey, I don’t want to invest all this money and fail. And they’re sharing the secret sauce for you to do the same. Theoretically, all you need to do is follow the process that they’re going to teach you. So that’s number two. They’re going to provide all the training, all the instruction, all the background in terms of not only how to be a business owner. Number three, they give you a proven process and an entire infrastructure for conducting business. Number four, they have a full executive team to support you. Most of the franchisees in my portfolio are run by a president, supported by a VP of marketing, a VP of operations, a VP of sales, which means those are the four areas, three areas you need to run a business effectively, which means that you don’t have to be an expert in any of those. You don’t have to be a marketing expert, incredible marketing. You don’t have to be a sales expert to have an incredible sales performance by your team. And you don’t need to know anything about operational infrastructure, supply chain or anything because they’re going to help you with that. Now, the key is, the big question is I get is why do franchises fail? Well, number one is to run out of money. So I will consult with you on a financial standpoint. I will never put somebody in a business they can’t afford. That’s the kiss of death, right? Number one. Number two is you don’t follow the system if you know it all right? If you know everything, don’t do a franchise because you’re the worst. Franchising seriously? Because that’s true. Yes, seriously. When you join the military, you don’t sign up to the recruiter and say, yeah, I know how to shoot a gun. I know to command troops. I know how to strategize military. I’ve been doing that since I was a kid. You’re like, you’re freaking crazy, and we don’t want someone like you. Right?
[Jerry Dugan]
I love that. I love that. So if somebody is listening right now and they’re thinking, you know what, I do want to get out of my job. I do want to own my company, I want multiple streams of income, and I don’t want to start from scratch, where do I get a hold of Irving? So how do they reach out to you if they’re not watching this on YouTube? How do they connect with you?
[Irving Chung]
Yeah, so my website, I created an informational website that’s called Franguidance.com. So it’s franguidance.com fran guidance. Right? Because I’m going to provide franchise guidance to you. There’s lots of informational, information. There the type of franchises you can consider my services, how my services work. But you know what? My cell phone and my email are in my background. My phone number 214-908-9791. I love talking to people. Just give me a call, shoot me a text, right? Just say, hey, I’ve always wanted to know more about Franchising. What’s up with Franchising? No problem. Happy to talk to you about it. My email [email protected]. So, again, not to confuse anybody, franchise is the consulting firm that I’m kind of trained and licensed to work in, but my personal website is Franguidance.com. So, yeah, that’s how you can reach out to me. My services are absolutely free. I’m paid by the franchise in my portfolio. So very much like an executive recruiter or like a real estate agent, if you want to consider those analogies. So there’s never a cost for anybody to learn about and explore opportunities, which is the way it should be.
[Jerry Dugan]
Now, before we go, any final words of wisdom you want to share with folks who are listening right now?
[Irving Chung]
Yes, life is short. Life is too short to live unhappy, to live unfulfilled and to be broke. Literally. I’m disappointed myself for having waited so long to discover being my own boss. Right? But I bought into the promise that a lot of people are the path. Go to college, get a corporate job, and then, boom, retire. And I thought that was my path until I realized that I was too broke to retire. And I don’t think I ever would. And I was unhealthy and unhappy. Right? So life’s too short. Explore opportunities. Don’t settle.
[Jerry Dugan]
Nice. Irving, it’s great to have you on here. And it’s not goodbye for you and I, because we lived in the same area. By the time this episode airs, chances are you’re going to talk to my wife, and I’m consulting on some ideas.
[Irving Chung]
Through that sounds good.
[Jerry Dugan]
Yeah, awesome. Good stuff.
[Irving Chung]
Gary. It was a good time, and thank you so much.
