What if the biggest financial risk in your life isn’t the stock market—but your paycheck?

Most professionals spend years building successful careers, yet their entire financial future depends on a single employer. In today’s world of layoffs, AI disruption, and economic uncertainty, that’s becoming an increasingly fragile strategy.

In this episode, JR Lowry sits down with Jon Ostenson, founder of FranBridge Consulting and author of Non-Food Franchising, to explore an alternative that more professionals are beginning to consider: business ownership through franchising.

Forget fast food. Jon explains why many of today’s fastest-growing franchise opportunities are in service businesses—from home services and senior care to B2B consulting—and why they’re attracting professionals looking for additional income, long-term wealth, and greater control over their future.

Together they discuss:

• Why relying on one paycheck may be riskier than owning a business
• The biggest myths about franchising—and what it’s really like
• How professionals can own businesses while keeping their day jobs
• The difference between entrepreneurship and buying into a proven system
• What makes some businesses more recession-resistant than others
• How business ownership fits into a broader wealth-building strategy

Whether you’re dreaming of leaving corporate life, looking for a second source of income, or simply thinking more strategically about your financial future, this conversation will challenge how you think about work, risk, and ownership.

Check out the full series of “Career Sessions, Career Lessons” podcasts here or visit pathwise.io/podcast/. A full written transcript of this episode is also available at https://pathwise.io/podcasts/jon-ostenson/.

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The Hidden Risk Of A Great Career (And A Different Path To Financial Freedom), With Jon Ostenson

What if the biggest financial risk in your life is your job itself? Now, you may feel like you’ve done everything right. You’ve built the resume and climbed the ladder and become valuable. Maybe even indispensable. In doing all of that, your entire financial life has become linked to a single source of income, which is your job. Many times, in such circumstances, this narrow form of success can start to feel like a prison. It’s risky with everything going on in the world. We’re living in a very uncertain environment with layoffs, AI-driven disruption and geopolitical change.

A growing number of people that I talk to are starting to ask themselves, “How do I avoid having to be on the treadmill forever?” Our guest Jon Ostenson is a firm believer in a different path. One that sits somewhere between corporate life and high-risk startup culture. Jon is the Founder of FranBridge Consulting. It’s a top franchise consulting firm that helps their clients to acquire and scale cash flowing service businesses often while they’re still working full-time.

Before you tune out because you heard the word franchise. This conversation is not about opening a fast-food restaurant. It’s about ownership, predictable cash flow, time, freedom and lifestyle design. It’s why more and more working professionals are rethinking what success looks like and considering franchise models.

In our conversation, we’re going to talk about the hidden fragility of career based-wealth, why service businesses are attracting smart industrials, the biggest myths that people have about entrepreneurship in franchising and how to think differently about risk, freedom, and the path ahead. I’m J.R. Lowry, this is Career Session.

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Jon, thanks for joining me.

I’m excited to be here.

I’m looking forward to talking to you about the work you’re doing. I know you spent a long time in corporate leadership and then you moved into entrepreneurship and investing. Essentially, you’ve gone from, as you’ve described, an earning income to building ownership. What changed and drove your distinction between those two?

Shifting From Earned Income To Asset Ownership

I could have done the corporate world forever but you only live once. I had desired it to build my own thing. To seek that freedom that everyone talks about. Most people have that in them and almost step out and some don’t. It’s through circumstances that I was in my mid-30s and started doing some networking. I’m trying to figure out if I were to leave a large public company, what would be a good private company where I can step into and sidestep entrepreneurship? That was my thinking and circumstances worked out.

I had the opportunity to come in and run a large franchise system called Shelf Genie. We’re supporting franchisees all across North America. A lot of diverse backgrounds coming together under a shared system of support. We’re allowing them to fulfill their dreams and become business owners, but with some training wheels. I fell in love with the franchise model through that experience and have vested a franchise myself since then.

A lot of people think about franchising and they think about restaurants, because that’s probably what we all know best. There are many different franchise models out there. Some of them I would describe as being less familiar to people but still potentially lucrative.

Exploring Beyond Traditional Food Franchises

We’ve got nothing against the food guys. We certainly need all of them, but my humble belief is they’re easy ways to make money and they require fewer employees, less operating hours, higher margins, oftentimes, and less capex investments. It’s fun for us to take clients through the process of identifying the top opportunities that are looking to expand in their area. Probably 90% of the time clients get into businesses and industries that were never even on their radar.

There’s so many different niches within home services, properties services, and different B2B services. Businesses that cater to the senior population or to kids or to pets or to health and wellness. If I were to break those down even further, it’s things you probably don’t have on your bingo card when you hear the word franchise.

How many of your clients that you work with go into these franchise opportunities, running them actively themselves? How many of them go into them or what percentage go into them looking to hire a general manager, and run it more as an owner and not necessarily as the operator?

Evaluating Semi-Absentee Business Models

I would say roughly half and half. There’s an owner operator model then there’s what franchise is oftentimes referred to as semi-passive or semi absentee or executive model. You’ll hear those terms. The idea is that you put a manager in place. I prefer the term semi involved. That’s better. You’re still going to be involved. The amount of involvement that you put in is dictated by who you put in that seat. If you’ve got a great operator that’s incentivized, that’s going to run it like it’s their own, you’ve got a strong franchisor supporting them. They can carry a lot of daily support. Why don’t they take some of that burden off you? It is a very common approach in franchising.

It’s interesting. There was an article in the Wall Street Journal about this idea of passive income, which seems to be very much in vogue. I feel like it’s probably, like many trends, getting past its prime in the sense that people think that they can make anything passive income, including having a full-time job. That they can do that in just a few hours a week and still get paid for it. Franchising is work. I’m sure you want to make the point that it’s semi involved. You can’t set it and forget it. You’ve still got to be engaged in this.

I read that same article. We hear these common themes all the time about creating passive income, trying to free up flexible time for the family, and live life on your terms. It’s what everyone’s marching towards. I do remind people that if business ownership is easy, even franchise ownership, everybody would be doing it. It does take work, but there’s a reason why you can make outsize returns. There’s a reason why the government incentivizes through the tax code business ownership. Whether you’d be creating jobs or simulating the economy in different ways.

There are a lot of benefits to it, but it does take work. A lot of our clients will start out with one franchise and then expand to other locations. They’ll buy other franchisees in the system. They’ll come back and buy additional franchise brands. In those cases, you’re not running each of those right from a daily standpoint, but you got in, got your hands dirty and then rolled and pushed the reins to one else.

It feels like we’re in this environment now, where a lot of people who are in their 30s and 40s, feel successful on paper but they still are heavily dependent on their job. You’ve got affordability issues, whether it’s food or housing or daycare or whatever that are creeping in. Do you think that realization is hitting people more than in the past?

I would say so. We’re certainly seeing more interest than we’ve ever seen in business ownership. For a variety of reasons, certainly AI is playing into that. All these headlines that we read about, I see it playing in real time all around the country. A lot of people are being asked to do more for less or saying, “I’m capped as to what I can make and yet I’m putting in a ton of effort building someone else’s empire.” People talk about business ownership as being risky.

Comparing Franchising With Business Acquisition

I would argue that working for an employer at their whim is risky. One way that people will de-risk the idea is to acquire an existing business. ETA is a big thing to date, or Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition. I wrote an article on this where I talked about franchising versus ETA. If you find an existing business, that can be a great proposition.

Most of our clients are taking them 3 or 4 years and they’re like, “We keep looking,” and then they’ll come to us and say, “Maybe franchising makes sense. It allows us to get in the game.” We could still acquire existing business down the road. Once you’re in a franchise system, you’re also going to get first line of sight into any other franchisees in that system they’re selling. A lot of our clients will get into a system and over time expand through what I call it Internal M&A, if you will.

Is the buy-in typically for a franchise model lower than an ETA model that you were just describing?

In most cases, it would be because if it’s an existing business, you’re paying a premium for that. You’re making the assumption that everything is going to continue as it has been, as it is on paper, but we all know whenever you have a change in ownership. There’s going to be a slight change in culture. You may lose key employees or key clients. I make the argument for my standpoint that franchising allows you to get in the game.

Non-Food Franchising: Leveraging SBA loans and 401k rollovers allows investors to acquire cash-flowing assets with minimal upfront capital.

It allows you to have a proven business model, but you’re able to put your thumbprint on that organization, that team and culture from day one. What’s interesting is when you look to sell that business down the road. There’s been research done that showed the franchise is traded at a higher multiple on average than non-franchise in light kind industries. There is value in that resale buyer’s perspective on the franchising front.

Do you see most of the people who are getting in that you work with? Are they buying an existing franchise or are they starting a fresh one that’s expanding into their area?

Probably 90% to 95% of the time it would be a new area. It’s not that there’s a lack of interest in resells. It’s just that, again, a good opportunity in the franchise resale game. Go to other franchisees in the system, they never hit the open market. That is a dynamic we see oftentimes.

Do people do this on top of their full-time job or do they fully switch out from what you’re seeing?

About half and half. About half would make the jump. Maybe they have a spouse that’s working. They’re saying, “We’re going to be the ones to get in.” Sometimes, they’re spouse is at home. About half are going with that owner operator usually with the idea of replacing themselves eventually in the business. The other half say, “We want to keep our day job at least for the short term and we’ll put a manager in place to run that business. Again, it comes down to having a good jockey. You have a great horse stuffed out by a good jockey.

If you go with that ladder model, Jon. What’s your view on what success requires? What do you need to do as a semi involved owner to make sure that it’s going to go well?

It’s finding the right franchise system. This is essentially a partnership or a marriage. Finding the one that will support that manager in a significant way so you’re not the go-to for all their daily questions, but then finding the right candidate. It’s setting them up for success, whether that be through the incentive program. In some cases, clients of ours will give equity. They’ll loop them up to the cap table to incentivize.

In other cases, they’ll give quarterly bonuses or what have you that act as equity like a profit-sharing type program. It’s been my experience. If you have the right individual in that seed and they’re incentivized, then it can be a great model because you can be incredibly hand-off. If you don’t own the right individual, then you’ll lean in until you replace them and find the right person.

What are some of the particular franchise opportunities? What are the categories that are most exciting for you?

There are so many unique models. I’ll just mention a couple of franchises that were made. There are only one or two players in that space from a national standpoint like teen driving school. It’s required in 36 states, and there’s only one franchise in that space. There is a lot of interest in property services. We’re seeing a lot of smart money flowing there. Some of the businesses I own, I’ve got one that provides asphalt paving and line striping, so parking lots. I got another one that provides temporary containment walls around renovation projects.

I’ve done a couple pool cleaning deals in the past couple months. Cabinetry and flooring. Each one is unique too as far as how they approach the competition. A lot of times, they’re more advanced from a technology standpoint. They’re going after these highly fragmented, unsophisticated competitive industries, so you’re able to stand out. We’re seeing a lot of interest in the senior space. We found a number of clients getting into in-home senior care. As well as businesses that may serve as a guide and they become like the broker for different senior facilities.

We have some clients that have gone into great ones that provide wheelchair ramps, stair lifts and mobility solutions in the home, allowing people to age in place. At the end of the day, they’re B2B services ones, like cost mitigation consulting or freight brokerage or insurance adjusting. We’ve had a lot of physicians and doctors get into ones like restoration. Things that they weren’t trained for but they have some intellectual curiosity and they see the need there in their market.

It’s just interesting watching all of these things play out. It continues to go from having very localized markets, mom-and-pop kind of model to more nationalized. People doing roll-ups or trying to nationalize different business models that before were very much local businesses.

At the end of the day, they’re still local owners. They are local businesses, but they have that broader effect. I think another one. Most founders out of Boise, Idaho have a truck that carries about 200 gallons of diesel and will go around and fill up vehicles in fleets and construction sites and stuff. Those niches that you don’t think about but they said, “This is applicable all across the country. Let’s franchise it as a way to scale.” They’re going to be able to grow more significantly and get better pricing on fuel. They’re going to have locations all around the country with people that are highly incentivized because they’re business owners. Not just employees.

Talk a little bit about the process in terms of how they come to you and how you work with them and get them up to speed on the opportunities that might be available to them.

I would think about a real estate model if you were going to buy a home and work with the real estate agent. That’s essentially the role that I play. My clients never pay me in nickel. Instead, I get a referral fee from the brand on the back and when a placement happens. None of that’s passed on. It’s a nice clean model just like in real estate. We work with over 600 different franchises. They’re looking to expand part of the largest network in the country.

The process would work is, let’s not sit on the sidelines and do personality tests and hypothesize around businesses. Let’s get in the game. Let’s look at real opportunities in your market. We’d have an introductory call. Shortly after that, I would come back to you and say, “Based on the feedback I got from the franchise owners here, the ones that are open are looking to expand. We look at maybe a dozen or so companies out of the gate. Give you some good exposure to what’s out there. You’d pick a couple to have a conversation with, we can always iterate from down the road, but that gets you in the game.”

That’s where the magic starts happening, and you start comparing and contrasting. I hold your hand through that discovery process. It takes about two months on average, but you’re getting a chance to talk to all types of people there at the franchisor’s company or talking to other franchisees in their system and about their experience and asking questions. The goal is to get you as much information as possible. I’m there to be a sounding board but also provide funding resources or if you want a franchise attorney review the agreement. We’ve got all these types of partners to support as well.

I know your base in the Atlanta area. Do you work with people all over the country?

All over the US and Canada. I’ve done placements in just about every state that has at least 500,000 population.

How do you, being based where you are, get a sense of the market and help your clients evaluate whether that market is a good fit for that franchise?

There are a little bit of art and a little bit of science to it. We started a 30,000-foot level where we’re looking at businesses that have done well and comparable markets and introducing those. Sometimes, clients will say, “I know this one saturated in my area or there’s a huge need.” I’m not privy to that. There’s a little bit on their end, but once they start talking with the franchise or the franchisor has the information at the ZIP code level from a demographic standpoint, they could say, “Here’s how we would define that territory. We include these zip codes. Not those.”

From there, I encourage clients. Once you get pretty serious with one, do some secret shopping. Go visit them. Go visit the locations or have them come in and give you quotes and find out who you’re up against. We start at a high level and then boil it down. Many of these businesses are pretty geography agnostic to some degree. There’s going to be some that just don’t make sense on a certain market, but they think of like pool cleaning as an example. The one that we like started in Canada. Now, it has a presence across the US. Sometimes they’ll surprise you.

I’m sure people come to you with all sorts of misconceptions about franchising. What are some of the most common ones that you hear from people that you have to dispel?

Non-Food Franchising: Franchising provides proven systems and corporate support, making business ownership far more accessible than starting from scratch.

The one we hit on already around the franchise will run itself. If it ran itself, then you wouldn’t be needed. Franchising gets grouped together like so many other industries. We talk about franchising. At the end of the day, it’s a couple hundred different business models across a couple thousand companies. It is hard to generalize too much but I would say that the role of the owner, as we talked about, it’s not going to run itself.

Every now and then, you’ll have a franchise that does not provide great support and it will catch some headlines. You see this sometimes in the food space. I hear that but again, every industry has got good players and ones that aren’t as good. Franchising is no different. Certainly, that’s where we come in to help. Oftentimes also people overlook some of the benefits associated with franchising. You’re stepping in not just getting support from the franchisor but you’re in business for yourself but not by yourself to be cliché. You’ve got a mastermind or other franchisees and you’re learning from each other. Making sure you don’t make the same mistakes that someone else made and exchanging best practices.

I know you’ve used the phrases recession, resist and cash flows. Some of these businesses you see as being relatively immune or maybe even beneficial in a recession environment. What makes certain businesses more durable or attractive during periods of economic uncertainty?

Identifying Recession-Resistant Market Opportunities

I’d say less discretionary spend reliant type businesses. Think about what people are always going to spend on. They’ll spend on the things they care about like their kids, their aging parents, their pets, their homes to some degree, and their health. There are some more fashion forward franchises out there like in the health and wellness space. Whether it be peptide, injections, or some of the recovery modalities.

In some cases, people may cut back on those things during a recession, but they’re always going to spend on the cure for their elderly parents. They’re always going to need day care for their kids. We think about what they will continue spending on. One thing I’ve noticed is, when it comes to business ownership, I joke that non-sexy is the new sexy. People like those understandable cash flowing businesses. The surf pros of the world. They’re not going to go out of style.

I don’t know if Codie Sanchez. I see her pop up in my LinkedIn feed all the time. That is like her mantra, “There’s a lot of money to me made in these businesses that are seemingly pretty boring.”

She’s got a great following. She does a great job with her content. Again, a lot of our clients have been following her but they have found that business and that’s to say, “We like the idea of franchising. Get us in the game.”

You work with a lot of different franchises. I think you mentioned 600. How should someone look at a franchise and evaluate whether they’re good and healthy? Versus, good at marketing or have an economic model that benefits the franchisor and not the franchisees.

It’s certainly tough if you Google around online because even if you come across the top 100 franchise list. Most of the companies have paid to be on that list. It’s a PR move. That’s where we come in. We have those relationships and see behind the curtains. Some of the things that we think about, certainly the track record would be the biggest one. The fact is, if a franchise has 50 locations or 100 locations, they’re going to be sold out in a lot of the areas that you would want to be in.

Oftentimes, we are working with ones that are more emerging that are newer. The things we look for are strong financial model, competitive advantages, and unique about the business. Their existing franchisees have to be happy with their experience then we put a lot of weight in the leadership team. We want to see not only a good blend of industry experience, but also franchise experience represented on that team. People that have supported successful franchisees and other systems in their background. As I said before, a little bit of science and a little bit of art to it because like in the industry, not everyone’s created equal.

Let’s come back to some of the trends that are driving this, particularly the idea for optionality and time freedom. What do you hear from people who have stepped into this that you’ve worked with that may be surprised that either positively or negatively about what that transition is like for them?

Generally, we’ve heard, “It’s more work than we thought.” I was catching up with a client that it bought years ago and he relocated to where the franchise was available down in Fairhope, Alabama. He’s done incredibly well. He’s dropping well over $400,000 a year to the bottom line. I’m very happy. He’s now ready for his next franchise. I’d say walking with him through that journey, early on, it was a new franchise. They were selling quickly. They had a lot of things going for them but, in some ways, there’s a little bit of guinea pig with the early franchise.

I always want clients to go in eyes wide open, to that being the case. In some cases, it’s a little bit of a blend. You want to get in early to get the territory, but you’re also stepping into something that’s a little bit newer and they’re still figuring things out. One thing we haven’t hit on that I think would be helpful is the financials around it. People oftentimes say, “How much is this going to cost right? McDonald’s are incredibly expensive and Chick-fil-A has this unique model that’s very different from an investment standpoint.”

In the non-food space to level set. If you look at your franchise fee, your startup cost and several months are working capital since you’re all investment range. If it’s a customer facing retail, physical location type establishment, you’re probably all in $300,000 to $600,000 in most cases. Now, add some clients by 10 trampoline parks at $3 million each, but most people aren’t doing that. Let’s just call $500,000 or $600,000 on the high end.

Financing Franchises Through Strategic Capital

On the service-based business, which is about what 2/3 of our clients are getting into. Think in-home senior care or somebody’s home services or consulting services. Your all-in investment tends to be more like $100,000 to $250,000, kind of in that range. A lot of our clients may be sitting on cash where they could fund it, but they like that idea of leveraging. An SBA loan tend to be very common. Banks prefer lending to franchises. Probably more than half of our clients will use SBA loans, where they put in $50,000, then leverage the rest.

Another strategy a lot of people employ is to use what’s called a Rob’s program. That’s a retirement rollover. You can take a 401(k) or IRA. It’s got to be from a previous employer. I can’t be your current one, then you can purchase the business that way with the retirement and then pay yourself a salary. There’s a lot of ways to make it happen, but it is eye opening. People sometimes say, “This is more realistic than I thought it would be.”

What does the payback period typically look like if I’m putting that $300,000 or $400,000 or $500,000, or $600,000 in to pay the franchising fee and working capital and those kinds of things? How long does it take me to earn that back?

The biggest variable there oftentimes is whether you’re running the business yourself or you’re paying someone else too because that will be enough to cover. Let’s just say that you’re running the business yourself. It typically will be a little bit longer if it’s a retail business because you’ve just got the lease payment that you have to cover as well. In a service-based business, they are cash flowing from day one.

Maybe the initial marking drove and you have low enough overhead. I’d say most of the time, you’re probably around six months mark where you have a positive monthly penile. That’s how about it. I always want our clients go conservative, so let’s call it nine months and round off. If it’s a retail location of maybe 6 to 12-month window, more than likely. If you’re paying someone to run the business, then maybe a full year before you’re cash flowing.

In terms of, “I’ve turned profitable 6 or 9 months, then I’m starting to generate a profit on an operating basis, but I’ve got this up-front piece. How long does it take to earn that back, pay back those SBA Loans or whatever you’ve chosen to do to finance the business?

If you’re in that $400,000 to 600,000 retail range, it’s going to take potentially 2 or 3 years in a lot of cases. It may be even 3 to 4 years if you’re paying a manager. You are also building an asset that you’re going to sell. It’s not just that you’re throwing money in. In what you’re putting in, you should be able to get back in theory and regain tax benefits along the way. If it’s more of a service space business, that payback period could be 12 to 18 months in a lot of cases.

If you’re all investments of $150,000 and you’re at a run rate now and going into that second year, we were dropping a little over that to the bottom line. Again, I’d say where we see a breakpoint of the times is around that twelve-month mark where it’s not that you made X amount in the first year but you’re now at a run rate of X amount going forward. We’ve got a number of clients that have done a million dollars in revenue in the first year. Most of the time, it’s probably between months 12 and 24 of a business capable of hitting a million that you would get to that run rate during that time period.

I would assume that you work through your clients with the financial modeling and the different scenarios in terms of how things could play out as well.

From a fairly high level. I don’t get super granular with them. That’s a little bit more on the franchisor side to make earnings claims around, but they’ll have a performa template and expectations. They’ll take you through what’s called the unit economics call, where they’ll dig into the details. Another data point that you get is talking to other franchisees and they can open up their books as much as they’re willing to. Everyone’s a little different, but they can give some good feedback on how quickly they turned a profit and it’s worth it.

Non-Food Franchising: Think franchising means fast food? B2B and home services offer higher margins and greater operational flexibility.

You mentioned a minute ago that this is an asset. I know you view this in some ways is part of a portfolio diversification strategy for somebody thinking about saving for retirement, building wealth just like you’re investing in stocks and bonds and maybe you have a house. Maybe you have rental houses. This is another asset class to consider. Talk a little bit about why you feel like this is an important part of that equation.

I’m a big alternative investor. I’d say when I look at my investments, probably 25% is in the public markets, but 75% would be in things everything from private credit, private equity to real estate, syndications and funds. For me, it’s all of the above approach. I like to roll real estate plays in the portfolio. Be able to take the depreciation and offset some passive gains. I like business ownership because you can offset a lot of active gains, active income, especially early on.

There’s so many things you can do with business ownership. It’s a piece of portfolio outside of it just not being correlated to the public markets in a significant way. You can pay your kids through the business and then they have earned income and you set up Roth IRAs for them. It gives them a leg up. I’m sure you can take a larger define benefit plan if you want to bulk up your retirement. Certainly, write off home office expenses or vehicle expenses or cell phones, or internet. Again, when you start thinking about the possibilities, it’s a third dimension to cash flow building an asset, but all the tax benefits. That’s how I think about it. Again, it takes a little more effort than a passive investment, but there’s also benefits to that.

Thank you about that risk reward balance. You need to do that with any asset class. It makes investing in a certificate of deposit. It’s very different from investing in the equity markets, different from investing in real estate and different from investing in this. How do you help educate your clients about the risk differences that come from being in one of those more conservative asset classes? Also from being an employee to being an owner.

There’s operator risk. At the end of the day, business ownership is not for everyone. I do believe there are people on the sidelines that should be in business ownership, but there are some of them that shouldn’t. I do believe franchising is a better path for most people because you get that support system. You’re stepping into something that’s already an established product market fit. Again, you get that support not only from the franchisor but other franchisees and a lot of training and support along the way. We talked about it, but there’s certainly to anything.

If it wasn’t worth doing, there wouldn’t be a risk to it. I would like to share an example. I play nine different clients with a franchise a couple years going on a property services arena. We had some clients do a million dollars in their very first year with that one. A lot of clients did very well. One client went out of business up in New Jersey and her was a marketing guy. I thought he was pretty smart. I reached out to the franchisor who I knew well. I said, “Help me understand what happened here. Everyone else is thriving.” He said, “Jon, we’ve done everything we can to support him but he came in. Candidly, he thought he was the smartest guy in the room no matter what room he was in and thought he had a better path to follow and didn’t follow the system.”

Following Proven Systems for Maximum Success

They said, “We coached him. We did everything we could.” Thinking back to when I was a franchisor Shelf Genie and I had 100 franchisees I was supporting across North America. Our best performers were the ones that followed the system the closest. That sounds so cliché, but it was true. Those were the ones that performed. There’s a reason why you get into a franchise system. Is anything entirely de-risked? No, but if you’re willing to have that humility to go in and follow the playbook, you increase your chances significantly.

This process can be humbling for a lot of people because in a lot of ways, becoming the owner, you’re going to find things that you thought you were good at as an employee. It’s not relevant anymore. I would imagine coming back to the point you made a minute ago about the people who are following the system. It’s having that level of focus, being able to say, “This is what I need. I need it by this time frame. Here’s what I think good looks like,” which a lot of people dance around because they’re uncomfortable with being that blunt. That directness, I would imagine. That willingness to get into the details has to be pretty important to being successful as a franchise owner.

I couldn’t agree more and people often times ask me, “What makes a good franchisee?” I talked about what we just discussed. That humility to follow the system, but you also have to be hard working and you’ve got to be halfway decent with people. That’s Business Ownership 101. If you check those three boxes, your odds are pretty good.

What are some of the other mistakes that you see people make that you would counsel our readers to try to avoid if they’re interested in this?

In very business, there’s going to be at some point, whether it be 3 months in or 6 months in and maybe be you’re like to your spouse or the kids, “Is this the right decision? Did we make the right move?” There’s going to be a hard time. Working for someone is hard. Business ownership is hard. There’s going to be a point where you probably second-guess yourself. You say, “Do I keep putting money into the marketing or maybe my expectations that I’d be further along profit wise.” You have to push through that.

It’s just so normal. There will be a point, do you find marketing further? Do you invest in that next employee? When you need half an employee, do you invest in a full employee with eyes towards growth ahead? It’s doing that extra little bit of work early on that sets you up for down the road. I’d love to say we have a perfect record. I’m very proud of our record, especially within the industry. There’s a reason why we’ve build the reputation we have, but at the end of the day, it’s following the system, working hard and pushing through those times.

It’s important certainly for people who are considering this to come in with a realistic view of it. To me, it’s a very intriguing opportunity in terms of how you commit to spend your professional life but also potentially how you look at your investment mix in both of those lights. It’s interesting, but you also obviously don’t want people coming in with a false view of what it’s going to be about from a financial perspective or from an operational perspective.

I tell people that all the time because we do get a lot of folks that will reach out and say, “I can pick up pretty early.” This may not be the right fit for you, at least not in the season of life. There’s never a perfect time to step into business ownership. There’s never a perfect time to have a kid or make a big career transition. Is it going to be better tomorrow or is today still the best day to make it happen based on where you want to be one day?

Any last thoughts that you would want to make sure that our readers take away from this conversation? If they’re thinking about this, or maybe they weren’t thinking about it and now they are. That would be helpful to them as closing thoughts.

When you look around, many other people have stepped out and take the plunge if you will. I love getting validation from clients to say, “I wish I’d done it sooner. I’m still so thankful I did it when I did.” I always encourage people to get off the couch. I’m a big believer that activity breeds activity. Getting in the game, there’s entirely no downside to other than spending a little bit of time, a little bit of band width to learn more.

I would love to share a free copy of our book. It’s about 90 pages. It’s been a great resource. We’ve sold thousands of copies. If you want to buy it on Amazon, all the proceeds go to HOPE International. A great nonprofit that we support. We’d love to share a free downloadable copy from our official website at FranBridgeConsulting.com. That could be a good first step. If you’d like to take the next step and jump on a call, I’d be happy to help.

Jon, thanks for this. To me, it’s an area that a lot more people, as they start to think about things like, “How do I get myself off the treadmill of corporate life?” We’ll be thinking about, and whether they choose to do it in the owner or operator construct or as a supplemental thing to what they’re doing in their full-time job or want to dive in fully. It’s important for people to be seeing this as an option for themselves. I know I’m preaching to the choir on that because that’s your life and your business. It’s an important topic and that’s why I wanted to talk. Thank you.

Thanks for having me.

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An interesting conversation with Jon about franchising. Let me try and sum up some of the key points. First is this idea that career success and financial security are not necessarily the same thing. A lot of people spend decades building impressive careers, higher incomes, strong resumes but their entire financial future is still tied to a single employer and a single paycheck. One of the biggest shifts that Jon talked about is moving from purely earned income toward ownership-based income. Assets and cash flow that exists independent of your day job.

Second, entrepreneurship doesn’t necessarily have to mean chaos, massive risk, or working 100-hour weeks. A lot of people still view it through the lens of Silicon Valley startups and people betting everything on an idea that starts with working in their garage. Jon lays out a very different model, acquiring or building service businesses with predictable demand, proven systems and scalable operations. That’s a different conversation than quit your job and hope it works out.

Finally, this conversation was about optionality. Not everybody wants to retire early and not everybody wants to become a full-time entrepreneur. More people do want flexibility. They want more control over their time, their income and their future. Especially in a world where everything seems to be changing so quickly and traditional career paths feel less stable and more risky than they ever have.

Their broader point is this. Ownership changes the way you think. It changes the way you think about risk, income, freedom, and long-term security. Whether or not franchising is right for you, Jon challenges all of us to think more intentionally about what we’re building over the course of our careers. Thank you again to Jon for joining me. I invite you to subscribe to Career Sessions on Apple Podcasts and Spotify or YouTube. If you found this discussion enlightening, sign up for my membership community, which is called PathWise and our newsletter PathWisdom. Thanks.

Important Links

• Jon Ostenson on LinkedIn
• FranBridge Consulting
• Codie Sanchez
• HOPE International
• PathWise on LinkedIn
• PathWise on Facebook
• PathWise on YouTube
• PathWise on Instagram
• PathWise on TikTok
• PathWise on Twitter

About Jon Ostenson

Jon Ostenson is a top franchise broker, author, and international speaker specializing in the area of non-food franchising. Having served as the president of an Inc. 500 franchise system and now as a multi-brand franchisee himself, Jon is uniquely positioned to educate others on franchising and franchise selection.

Jon serves as the CEO of FranBridge Consulting and has helped thousands of entrepreneurs and investors explore business ownership and investment opportunities.

Jon is the author of the book, “Non-Food Franchising” and is a frequent contributor and thought leader for publications on the topic of franchising and franchise investments. Prior to FranBridge, Jon was the President of ShelfGenie, a national franchise system with 200+ locations.