Franchise Ownership: The Freedom, Flexibility, and Autonomy Owning a Franchise Can Offer with Brynson Smith on Episode #0191

Intro [0:00]
EA Interviews Episode 191. Inspiration, transformation, success stories, and the Imperfect Action Round seven days a week. Join Mario Fachini for today’s Expert Authority Effect Interview.

Mario Fachini [0:13]
Franchising for profits. I don’t know about you, but I have thought about owning a franchise. I don’t. I started my own business, but I thought about it. And I know there are so many benefits to it. And that is why I’m excited to have sales expert and consultant Brynson Smith on today’s episode. He works with franchises, one, specifically that I’m excited to talk about. And he’s going to be sharing with us the inside secret strategies and best practices for growing your business and profiting from franchising. I’m going to bring him up right after we thank our sponsor.

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Mario Fachini [1:06]
Here is ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Brynson Smith. Brynson, how are you feeling today?

Brynson Smith [1:10]
I’m feeling great. It’s good to be here with you, Mario.

Mario Fachini [1:13]
Oh, The pleasure is mine. I see you got a UBreakiFix shirt on there. And I just want to ask you what does this franchise do?

Brynson Smith [1:23]
So we are the largest electronic repair franchise in North America. So we like to say that we fix anything with a power button.

Mario Fachini [1:33]
Well, that is fantastic. And I want to say, again, thank you, because this screen is yours.

Brynson Smith [1:43]
That’s awesome. I appreciate your business, man.

Mario Fachini [1:47]
No. The pleasure really is mine. And I thank you. because when I saw what, not only what you did, but who you are with, I was like I couldn’t say enough good things. And I really do want to know the behind the scenes. And I’ve got the customer perspective, when you fixed my phone, I had this thing five weeks right after it came out and it was the top of the line phone. And I gently set it down on the chair on the front porch, the cushion ejected it onto the concrete step. And it chipped just the corner and I was like, “What can I do?” And I want to know about that. Because my perspective is, I can buy a new phone. I can take it to a local place. But I just felt more comfortable with a franchise because, you know, a local place may or may not be the best. But the franchises, whether it’s a good franchise or not, no matter which one someone’s thinking of, at the very least you don’t get to multiple hundreds of stores or even dozens by doing something wrong. That much I know. That much I’m pretty confident about. So tell me the behind the scenes perspective. And why did you choose this?

Brynson Smith [3:02]
So I think from an economic standpoint, I mean, repair makes sense now more than ever before. I mean, these devices, as you know, are practically your best friend. I mean, I don’t know about you, but when I go to bed, my phone’s right next to me. When I take a shower, it’s right next to the sink. It’s in my pocket 24 hours a day. So, you know, it’s practically my best friends. So when these things break, you got to get a –

Mario Fachini [3:37]
Flip out.

Brynson Smith [3:38]
Yeah. They flip out. And one of the interesting things about cell phones today is people are using cell phones for the majority of their work. Now, over 50 percent of the internet usage that somebody has during the day is done on a smartphone. So, yeah, it’s a great business. And I think to your point, we have 580 stores across the U.S. and Canada today. And out of the 580 stores, we fix anything with a power button. Everything from smartphones to laptops, desktops, Xboxes, PlayStations, you name it.

Mario Fachini [4:20]
What about speakers?

Brynson Smith [4:22]
Yeah. Really anything. If it has a power button, we will take a look at it and do a free diagnostic on that device. I think, you know, to the point you made, repair standards, training standards, we have partnerships with companies like Samsung, Google, many other OEM partners, so we give the best repair and the best experience that we can to the customer.

Mario Fachini [4:53]
Well, I’m glad you do and I had a great experience. And I just looked over at one of my studio monitors that I got, a Yamaha HS8 and they’re bigger than the screen. And I was curious because they don’t have a screen, but when you said anything with a power button, I have a fair amount, let’s say, of digital equipment in the studio here. And, yes, this has been on my mind ever since day one when I engineered the whole process for the show. But contrary to belief, I actually keep my phone in a different room. I don’t keep it near me all the time. I know statistically over 97 percent of people keep it within three feet of them or something like that all the time. But I get my fair share of this. So I like to just disappear when I’m not doing this. But it is so important –

Brynson Smith [5:39]
And I should do that but I don’t.

Mario Fachini [5:43]
I recommend boating in the lake, swimming. But the crazy thing is the phone is actually waterproof and so are a couple of my watches that I’ve went in with it and not even thought twice about I got some underwater video. But the cool thing is, you’re out there and you’re able to help people. So from a business standpoint, maybe I want to start a franchise, maybe I don’t. But what are some success secrets and profitability secrets? Because, again, you don’t get to 500 plus stores, nearly 600 now, and not do a few things right. What would you say is the most important thing that you should consider when you’re a company, you want to grow, and you want to be profitable?

Brynson Smith [6:24]
Yeah. I mean, I think our business or our model, I mean, it’s the textbook, find a need, and fill it, model. And when you go back to this business was actually started in 2008. It was a mailing company where people would send devices to us back in 2008. We decided to open up our first door in 2009, brick and mortar retail store, in Orlando, Florida. And that first year, we did about $700,000 in revenue and doubled the revenue that our online business did. And, basically, from that point from 2009 to 2013, we grew 47 corporate stores, before we ever franchised. And I think that one of the beautiful things about franchising, one of the reasons we decided to franchise is, it’s a way to garnish market share very, very quickly. It’s a way to take a product to market quickly and infuse a lot of capital into the business with people that live in their market, in their community. And that’s what we did. So I think that, first and foremost, for us in our model and how we grew the business, I think we got the dirt of the business under our fingernails. We grew this thing. Our executive team until this day, spends time in stores, is involved in the business, our CEO can pretty much probably repair any smartphone you put in front of them. And I think that’s important to really understand the product that you have and lead your techs and your team by example. I think that’s really been the key to our success thus far.

Mario Fachini [8:09]
I’m really glad you brought that up. Because I know so many entrepreneurs, including myself, who even with this production, in the beginning especially, I was at the point where I’m supposed to be hosting in booking killer guests like yourself. You know what I mean? There’s certain things only I can do and I find myself climbing behind a computer, because I know how to build computers. And I actually designed and built the one I’m using to livestream this. The whole studio, I’m a geek, so all the electronic stuff. I’ve done the whole process and I have people on my team that helped me with the production side of it. But I’ve found in so many entrepreneurs that’s like, “How do you best balance your time, going, ‘Hey, I should be doing more hosting and speaking, not necessarily playing with the wires.'” But at the same time, it gave me a ton of confidence and it gave me a clarity with that when people are asking. It’s not just like, “Oh, grab any mic, A, B, or C.” There’s distinct reasons why you want to go with this one versus that one versus the other one.

Brynson Smith [9:18]
Yeah. And I think you bring up a really good point. I mean, for us in our stores, we’re, essentially, a support organization that gives business owners the foundation to be successful in their own communities. And one of the things that we’ve encouraged these owners to do is get involved in the business. Learn initially, go through our training, do repairs, handle customers. And over time, once you have that involvement and that knowledge, I think the hardest thing to do is to step out from that role and empower your people to kind of take your place. And I think a lot of businesses, especially service based businesses, fall into that trap where they just can’t empower that person to do that. And I think the only way to scale your business is to really do that. And one of the things that I think we’ve done fairly well, is we’ve relayed expectations properly to our people and given them the clear cut expectations on what they need to do. And if they do it and do it well, what they’ll get. And if they don’t, what will happen. And I think that’s just given us the ability to grow their business properly while holding people accountable within their stores.

Mario Fachini [10:42]
So I got to ask you about certification and training now. Because I love what you’re saying about holding them accountable and having a system. One of the things I love doing when I’m helping people design courses, publish their books, and even if it’s a video production, we have to systematize it. There’s no way you’re just turning on a camera and just randomly, “Let’s see what happens.” I mean, you can do that. And I’d say do that instead of do nothing. But at some point, you’re going to go, “We need to get a shot list. We need to know what we’re doing.” Even file sizes is a big thing of concern now. I record every single one of these episodes in 4K and streaming in HD. That’s a lot bigger than VHS file size. That’s a huge concern that no one even thinks about. So what did you do to figure out, “Hey, here’s the certification.” If I say I want to buy one of your stores. Great. How long is it going to take me to get up to snuff with not only me being competent, but also my team, depending on the size before you say, “Okay. We’re going to release into the wild, you get your own, and you’re fully certified, you’re good to go.”

Brynson Smith [11:49]
That’s a great question. From signing franchise agreements to store opening is typically around six months. And believe it or not, the big delay there is usually identifying real estate. And because we have a brick and mortar presence, we also have a mobile repair presence as well. We have almost 600 stores open and we have hundreds of vans deployed throughout the country as well. But that real estate process takes a little bit of time. And to your question, ramping up and getting an owner up to speed happens pretty quickly. I mean, we, basically, have a six week training process that happens. Part of it is in Orlando at our home office. And then we have somebody go out to the owner. And from a proficiency standpoint, if there was a new tech or new hire at our stores, typically within three weeks, that new hire can get up to speed fixing these smartphones. They’re obviously not going to be doing board level micro soldering and a lot of this, like, super technical advanced stuff. But in time, they can. Franchising, I think, one of the beautiful things is you’re buying – you have the Martha Stewart cake recipe. It’s been proven. Everything’s been laid out, so it’s plug and play. Franchising is a beautiful thing, whether somebody does UbreakiFix or decides to go on the IFA website and explore the other 4,000 different opportunities. There’s a lot of support. And I think that’s a big part of starting your business is getting the lift that you need, and having all those resources behind you.

Mario Fachini [13:35]
So you’re saying six weeks is all it takes?

Brynson Smith [13:39]
Yeah. So six weeks is really all it takes. Three weeks is in Orlando, and I say that pre-COVID. Right now, I don’t think anybody’s getting on a plane and headed to Orlando right now. But three weeks happens in Orlando at our home office. And believe it or not, we fly a launch team corporate trainer out to the franchisee and they’re in their store for three weeks with that owner helping them get everything set up. And on top of all the back end resources and resources for the franchisee once their store is open, that’s really all they need in order to launch the business and be successful right out of the gate.

Mario Fachini [14:20]
Let me ask how many hours, because three weeks is a pretty short deadline. But three weeks could be 120 hours or it could be 30. And I know you said people aren’t going to be working on my mobo and RAM chips right out of the gate. But how many hours are we looking at in those three weeks?

Brynson Smith [14:37]
So you’re looking at over 120 hours. I mean, for somebody to go through and be on boarded. Our business can hire –

Mario Fachini [14:45]
Properly.

Brynson Smith [14:46]
Yeah. Yeah. And hiring a tech, in general, you can teach anybody how to make a hamburger or make a sub pretty quickly, usually, the same day. But our business is a little more technical. So that proficiency, again, is usually anywhere from about three weeks. And we have a training system that’s pretty intensive. It really is immersion, where we’re throwing that new hire, that tech, into a process that’s worked thousands and thousands of time before. So it’s a pretty good system that we put together.

Mario Fachini [15:21]
Well, I’m happy to hear that. And I kind of figured it was over 100 hours. But I didn’t think it was just 30. I really was curious though, because you could have a successful business just doing screen repair. And now you don’t have all the variables of is it a motherboard, or is it a speaker, or is it a TV. And then you could take us a step further. I tell my clients all the time to niche down. You could say not only is it cell phone repair, it’s only the iPhone or only androids. iPhone will probably be easier, because it’s more controlled instead of 20 different brands. But I have no doubt you could have a successful business for just that and keep it real simple and cut out the 80 other different things you do. How come you chose not to do that, though?

Brynson Smith [16:13]
We don’t want to limit our customer base. And I think that, for us, it’s the broad approach. We want any and every customer that what we’re after is household acquisition. And I say that, when you think about the community that you live in and you think about the thousands of households, my household today has over 20 devices. I’ve got a toddler. My toddler actually has four that are Bluetooth connected already. He doesn’t know it yet, but he does. When you look at all of the devices that we have in the home, that is what UbreakiFix is after, in general, is all of those devices. We want that customer to come in with their Samsung Galaxy or their Google Pixel or their iPhone. They break it, have an incredible experience, and then come back with the Xbox or with the Hoverboard or the drone or the Roomba vacuum, which I have one of those as well. And we want to be that company to take a look at it. So that’s really what we’re after.

Mario Fachini [17:17]
What about Nest thermostats?

Brynson Smith [17:21]
The answer is yes. Now, I will say this, there are devices that when we diagnose it – the customer brings it in – if the part is more expensive in some cases than replacement, what we do is we’ll tell the customer, “Hey, look. We can fix this for you. But we looked it up online, and you can actually get this item for 80 bucks or 100 bucks or whatever it is.” So we’re always advising trying to do what’s best for the customer. And what we’ve learned over the years by handling our customers that way, people will now just come in and get that genius advice, if you will. Where they’re walking in and going, “Hey, I have this issue. What do you recommend here? What should I do?” And that’s really where you want to be as a business is you want that customer loyalty. I mean, today, where we are right now, we have over 7 million customers as a brand. Thirty-three percent of our customers are repeat, which is really unheard of in our industry. So, yeah, it’s a lot of fun.

Mario Fachini [18:30]
Well, that does make sense. I mean, I’ve been to places where they’re like, “Oh, we can fix it and it’s going to be -” you know, they just give you a quote and they’re like, “So do you want to do it today or tomorrow?” Because I’m pretty astute with financial stuff and just knowledgeable, you know, you really don’t need to be a rocket scientist to look stuff up. I’m like, “Okay. It’s going to be a-buck-and-a-half to fix it. And it’s $75 to buy it new. Why?” But what irks me is – because I do not take on any clients that do crap like that, that they have an application process, and I don’t need to, don’t want to, never did even when I did need them. It’s just wrong. And, again, if it’s cheaper to buy it new, I’m glad you’re putting them in the right direction. And it’s no wonder. You know, even when I went in there for the first time, it was like, “What are my options?” And thankfully, I guess you could say, the silver lining since the phone was like $1,000 and it was only five weeks old. There was no way it was cheaper to buy a new one than to fix it but it all worked out and it’s still working great. And I will tell you I did test the water seal.

Brynson Smith [19:46]
Man, I’ve lost personally, I think, two or three phones to water damage over the years. I’m one of our –

Mario Fachini [19:53]
Are you on iPhone?

Brynson Smith [19:55]
I’m an iPhone guy now. I was a Google Pixel guy before. But my whole family is on iOS, it’s easier with all the FaceTime calls and all of that. But –

Mario Fachini [20:06]
I’ll be nice. I think they’re waterproof now. But the first one I got was eight – yeah, eight years ago and it’s been waterproof. I remember jumping in the pool and going in the hot tub and all kinds of stuff. And it was like, I don’t care. And that was, like, four or five years ago.

Brynson Smith [20:24]
That’s awesome.

Mario Fachini [20:25]
But you can’t break concrete. I don’t have a work around for concrete without putting it in one of those boxes that weighs four times more than, you know, me. So there’s a given take to it. So I’m glad you’re growing and I’m glad you’re successful. I want to ask you, who is your biggest success story that you’ve been able to help? I’m leaning towards it sounds like it might be a family. Let’s ask from a customer standpoint and from a franchisee standpoint?

Brynson Smith [21:02]
I think from a customer standpoint, there’s a lot of stories of franchisees really going over and beyond and doing things for customers that are either in need or a veteran that served our country and giving them a free repair. I think one of the cool things that happened was a collaboration between us and Google when the hurricane came through and impacted Houston. So we have partnerships with a lot of companies, and Google is one of them. We’re a direct partner of Google, which is really cool. So if you go on Google’s website, we’re actually on their website is the repair arm. So during the hurricane that came through Houston for that month, we collaborated with Google and gave free repairs to all of the customers in that market, which was really cool. So I love those stories when we’re able to work with a company like Google and just give back to people that need help. But yeah, I would say that’s probably one of the coolest things that we’re able to do for all of the customers impacted by the hurricane in Houston.

Mario Fachini [22:11]
That is a great story and I’m glad you shared it. Because, yeah, I’ve heard a Google. They’re a nice little startup. And just giving back. It was one of my main reasons to starting the company is you can do what you want. When you get it to a point where you have the freedom of time and money, there are people that are hurting, and you can help them. It’s not, “Hey, I want to go do this. Can I have an hour off to do community service?” And the boss is like, “No, because he’s – “I’ll use your words “- not as nice as most people. So thank you for doing that. and I’m glad you were able to.

Brynson Smith [22:50]
No, for sure. And I think on the franchisee side, not on the customer side, franchisee side, I think our best success story is probably the 35 techs that now own their own franchise today. And I think we have a very unique offering where, yes, there is a barrier to entry. I wouldn’t call it low. But I would say it’s a barrier to entry that most people can hurdle over if they work really hard, or they partner, or they get SBA funding, or whatever. But we’ve got about, you know, again, 35 technicians that started, they worked with us, started as a tech, they were able to save up enough money to where now they own their own business. And some of those techs today have grown over the last, you know, decade from one location to five plus, which is just a really cool thing.

Mario Fachini [23:46]
That is really cool. And business isn’t free. But I bet it’s not, you know, like most restaurant franchises that are 800,000, 1.2, 1.8 million to get started.

Brynson Smith [24:02]
Yeah. I agree. I mean, when you look at restaurants – and you know, growing up, my dad was an entrepreneur and had a bunch of restaurants. And I love to eat food. I’m 6’6″. I didn’t get this tall by just looking at it. So I love food. I love restaurants. But when you’ve worked in food service, it does take a toll on you dealing with ServSafe, dealing with the health department, restaurant equipment that is really, really pricey. And, also, I would say we’ve got a pretty pandemic proof business. And I know we’re still kind of dealing with COVID, but that first surge that came through, we were at a central business. Our stores were pretty much all open nationwide. And when you look at where we are today in July versus where we were last year, July, we’re up 20 percent year over year in gross sales. So it’s a huge blessing for us. But I think that there are a lot of great service based businesses out there that are definitely worth looking at, for sure.

Mario Fachini [25:13]
Well, excellent. And it sounds like UBreakiFix is definitely a good one.

Brynson Smith [25:19]
Yeah, it is. It is. And there’s a lot of good ones out there again. But I think it’s super rewarding. And I love the story, seeing the customers come in, and hearing the different devices they bring in. We had a woman bring a device into Orlando that her Pit bull had sink his teeth into, and we’re able to bring that back to life. And you just hear these stories and it makes it fun. It’s a different customer and different device every day.

Mario Fachini [25:51]
I would be curious to know how you did that. That seems like almost 80 percent replace because they know the microchips and the radio antenna inside, you can re-solder and do stuff even with the magnetic coils for different things. But how would you just replace it like a bite mark? Wow. Interesting.

Brynson Smith [26:09]
So it was mainly just the screen and the digitizer. It was also where the dog bit the device, so I think we were lucky. But just hearing the different stories, it keeps it fun.

Mario Fachini [26:23]
Excellent. I’m having a blast this whole time, but it’s time for the Wheel of Whatever.

Brynson Smith [26:32]
That’s awesome.

Mario Fachini [26:34]
And this thing always ends exactly where it needs to on the question it needs to ask. It’s not a Ouija board, but I don’t know, that doesn’t make sense, whatever. Oh, look at that. It stopped right where I needed it to again. I want to ask you, where do you see the company going in ten years? How many stores would you like to have? And what would be the ultimate goal?

Brynson Smith [26:58]
Oh, man. That’s a good question. So I see us over a thousand stores throughout the U.S. and Canada, growing our partnerships, more mobile units deployed. And, also, I think international expansion would be fun. We are in Canada and we are in the Caribbean as well. But doing a Pan-European expansion, expanding into South America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Asia, would be a lot of fun. I’m not sure if that’s where we’re headed. But we do have a global product and we have a supply chain, we have the support, we really have the foundation in place to do that. And I think that would be really fun. And I hope that’s where we’re headed. But time will tell.

Mario Fachini [27:51]
I would love to see that. And I believe it’s totally possible. I thought you’d say five or 10,000 at least because I know McDonald’s ended up with 35,000 plus last I checked. And I would rather have your service than – whatever. I’ll behave. But I mean, like the square footprint, people are only going to drive so far to do it. So have you taken a calculation and go, “Hey, we need X amount of stores in the U.S. to cover -” I don’t think you need to be down to a 0.8 or one mile radius like some other people are. But if you were to have a store every five or 10 miles apart, I think that’s a safe driving distance to do it.

Brynson Smith [28:36]
I think it’s a great question. Our focus has been really growing the North American footprint. And, for us, and this isn’t a knock on McDonald’s or any other food retailer, it’s just a different model. You drive by a McDonald’s, you see the sign, you’re hungry, you drive in, you pull in, you go through the drive thru. For us, you don’t typically look up a UBreakiFix until you break a device. And when you break your device, you tend to look on an unbroken device where you can get your broken one fixed. And we want to be relevant to that search. So, for us from a marketing standpoint, we do the majority of our marketing online. And we also have a partnership with Samsung, where we’re really close with Samsung and got a great relationship with them. Google and also a company, you might have heard of, called Asurion. And they’re basically a big electronic warranty company that’s in 31 countries. They’re massive. And so, for us, those customers are being driven to when a customer calls Asurion and they have their warranty. They’re calling Asurion and Asurion is actually pushing that customer to ubreak. Samsung, the same thing, if they have a warranty with Samsung, they call Samsung, and Samsung pushes them, the call center will direct them to uBreak to get their device repaired. So on that note, for us, you know, we don’t need as many stores. Some of the other retailers out there we’re also super, super mindful of infringement. Meaning, we don’t want to put too many stores in a market where, ultimately, they’re just taking business from one another. And I think we’re just super, super conservative on that front. So, yeah, I don’t know what the future will hold. But I definitely think the next ten years, over a 1,000 stores, could it be 2,000, could we look into repairing other devices inside the home? Potentially. And I think that would be exciting to just adding on additional revenue drivers.

Mario Fachini [30:47]
Well, I’m loving what I’m hearing here, because that is a concern. You don’t want your own stores choking out your own store. And I know they’re independently franchise owned. And that’s just from a corporate standpoint and a business standpoint. I mean, you don’t want them so close that I’m deciding should I go to A, B, or C? And it really makes nevermind. But I’m glad you are out there. And, yeah, Verizon is partnered with Asurion. Because when I called them, they’re like, “Oh, take it to one of our authorized facilities.” I wasn’t questioning who it was. And I didn’t really think Verizon had this arm or Samsung had this arm where they have warehouses where it’s, like, so and so owned. I know it would be a partner. Because I had actually heard of the franchise prior. I just never went to it, because nothing broke. And when I did, I was like, “This is awesome.” I want to ask you one thing and then I got to cue the sponsor, and we’ll be back for the Imperfect Action Round. But I’m thinking of my experience. And what I’m hearing is a lot of smart business planning, partnering, and figuring out who you can collaborate with in your market. You said it’s so nonchalant, all those leads just keep coming in. For anyone listening, who can you collaborate with and set up the same type of partnerships? And this is where this idea came from, do you know statistically how many people wait in the stores or come back later? Or could you get that info?

Brynson Smith [32:22]
Yeah. I could probably get that info. And I kind of know the answer, but I don’t know the exact answer. One of our big focus has been convenience from the start. Much like a dry cleaner, you never see dry cleaners inside megamalls. And I’m not knocking megamall businesses or retailers. But for us, we looked at growing over the years and we looked at indoor malls, should we go inside of them. In some cases, you could set a kiosk up. It’s super cheap rent. And for us, we want to be that business that’s just right there for the customer. They see the signage from the road. They see the business from the road. They can get out of their car, go and drop off their device, and be on their way. Most of our customers – I do know this – will drop off their device and then they’ll go to the Starbucks next door or go to Jimmy John’s, go to Target, run some errands, and then come back. Most do. However, a smaller percentage I do know kind of hang out in the store and they’ll wait for the repair. But it also depends on the queue. If we don’t have a device in front of you and you’re the first customer in the morning, it could be a 20 to 30 minute repair and you might wait. Versus if it’s an-hour-and-a-half to two hours, you’re probably going to be more inclined to jump in your car and take a drive.

Mario Fachini [33:42]
It was like you read my mind. Now, my Starbucks was actually Timmy Ho’s, but I think I did get some donuts. Yes. And I got the iced cap. And what I was getting to was the closest one near me was 25 to 30 minutes away. And he said it will be an hour or hour-and-15 minutes. I wasn’t going to drive half-an-hour, to come back half-an-hour, to go back half-an-hour. So, yes, I also wasn’t going to walk in the circle for an hour. I mean, I had a case and everything was cool. And I know expanding the footprint in the store like, Xfinity does with couches and all this stuff. And I think that’s a testament that you should have better turnover times and be quicker, but thanks for the couch. I was getting to, have you ever considered partnering with Starbucks, Timmy Hortons, all the places you’re near and going, “Hey, while you’re waiting, go check out any of these places and enjoy a lunch or a coffee on us,” or at least half price, just some sort of collaboration. Because that’s exactly what I did. And then I came back and it was another ten minutes or so. I was like, “No big deal. I’ll just go get another coffee.” I was wound up. I was excited to get the phone back. And I had two ice caps with chocolate and caramel, it’s a good day.

Brynson Smith [35:01]
That’s awesome. Yeah. I think you bring up a good point. So my brother, Justin, actually owns a uBreakiFix in Athens, Georgia. And I’ve got family involved in the business as well. And it’s often Epps Bridge Parkway in Athens and right next to it is Jittery Joe’s Coffee Shop. And they do that exact thing. And I think it’s smart, because you can have a customer come in and what we’ll do in this location is they’ll hand the customer a free drink. So that while they’re waiting, they can go grab a free drink. And it’s really up to the franchisee if that’s what they want to do. We encourage our franchise owners to make friends with your neighbors. And if there is a coffee shop in your retail plaza, do those sorts of things. And, also, take care of the coffee shop baristas. If a barista breaks a device, fix it for free, because they’re going to be a great source of revenue for you. They’ll let people know whenever they see a broken phone, “Hey, go next door to uBreakiFix. They’ll take care of you. They’re great.”

Mario Fachini [36:10]
Referral partners and collaboration. I mean, you get all the businesses on every side going, “Yeah.” I mean, perfect testimonials with foot traffic coming through. And when you were talking about the locations and all that, I was just like, “I got to ask this.” Because I didn’t get a bonus coupon or anything, but they’re still going to buy even if I did get a free drink, I, for sure, would have still got the doughnuts or sandwich. I think I got both because it was hot. It was a couple summers ago and it was hot and I don’t like hot. So definitely iced and I wanted to relax. I liked my food too. And I just thought about that. But, yeah, if you had all the stores doing it, I’d be curious to see between now and next year if you implement it, you know, how much it does spike it because I think it would be at least 5, 10, 15 percent.

Brynson Smith [37:02]
No, I think you’re right. I mean, we encourage owners to do those sorts of things. And we do carrier runs biweekly to AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile. We bring them donuts. We bring them pizza. We bring them coffee. We bring them cookies. And I think those touch points are really big. It’s all about relationships. And even though you’re not walking into that Verizon store giving them gift cards or paying them for those referrals, just by going in there and connecting with the salesperson, knowing them by name, getting to know them, following up with them, it really goes a long way. And we’ve gotten a lot of business over the years just by being personable and reaching out to local businesses that could refer us customers at the end of the day.

Mario Fachini [37:55]
Yeah. It is all about the relationships. And I’m glad you’re focused on it. And I can say one more time that it definitely shows.

Brynson Smith [38:03]
Awesome. I appreciate that, man.

Mario Fachini [38:05]
All right. We’re going to cue the sponsor, thank our sponsor. I’m going to hit the sponsor button. And we’ll come back with the Imperfect Action Round.

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Mario Fachini [39:46]
And we are back with the Imperfect Action Round. Brynson, are you ready to take imperfect action?

Brynson Smith [39:52]
I’m ready.

Mario Fachini [39:54]
Sixty second answers. First question, what is the fastest path to the profits?

Brynson Smith [40:01]
Oh, man. The fastest path to the profits, I would say, serving customers well. Finding out how you can support your customers in doing whatever it takes to serve them well. That’s my answer.

Mario Fachini [40:20]
Excellent. Number two, what is the biggest problem you see your prospects making and the fastest way for them to fix it?

Brynson Smith [40:35]
I’m sorry, man. I am so sorry. I don’t know. That’s a good one. Next.

Mario Fachini [40:54]
Okay. Number three, what is the best way to maximize customer lifetime value?

Brynson Smith [41:00]
Do whatever it takes. Do whatever it takes to serve your customer well is what I would say. We go over and beyond, we’ll jump over hurdles. In some cases, customers can be wrong, and we’ll still take care of the customer and serve them right.

Mario Fachini [41:16]
I like that. I thought the customer is always right.

Brynson Smith [41:20]
They are always right. Sometimes they’re not. But it’s how you handle that customer. And we have found that sometimes the customers that walk into our stores that are yelling the loudest, if you can take care of that customer, even if they’re in the wrong, you will have that customer for life. And right now, I think we have 130,000 five-star reviews across all our stores and that’s what it takes to get there is just serving the customer day in and day out.

Mario Fachini [41:54]
Yeah. I know the goal isn’t to get 100,000 people that are screaming all the time when they walk in. But in the instance that you do, they are very passionate individuals. That’s their personality type and whatever they think is correct. So if what they think is advantageous to you, and like you said, you serve them and now that’s their new reality, you’re never going to have to send them sales stuff again. They will go fight for you. I had one of my clients, he’s always been nice. He’s been a client for over ten years. He’s never been hard to work with or screaming or anything, but I’ll never forget when he called me and says, “Hey, there’s three people in here that claim they know you and everything and they’re trying to get my business. And I told them to go away.” It was people I knew that are always nice to me at networking and business stuff. And they’re trying to take my client and he’s calling me saying, “You might want to rethink a couple of them.” Wrestlers never getting on the show. All right. Books, what are some good books you can recommend?

Brynson Smith [43:07]
So I read a lot of the older books and I read them over and over and over. Think and Grow Rich. I just read that book. I love Malcolm Gladwell’s books. I’ve read all of his Outliers, David and Goliath, Blink, anything he writes I read. I read a lot of the older books. I always recommend for people in sales and development Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People, an incredible book. I mean, it’s an older one but the principles on a lot of these books will never change. Think and Grow Rich, the book was written in early 1900s. And, again, the book will be relevant 300 years from now.

Mario Fachini [43:55]
I absolutely agree 100 percent I actually prefer if the book is not 50 to 100 years old. I’m like, “Let’s see what kind of reviews it got.” One of my favorites is how I raised myself – yeah. I’m saying that right – How I Raised Myself From Failure To Success In Selling by Frank Bettger. A very good.

Brynson Smith [44:18]
Okay. I’ll have to read that one.

Mario Fachini [44:19]
And that one was, I don’t know the exact year, let’s say sometime between 1920 and 19 – pre- World War II. It was good though. I remember one part talking about – this one really stood out and you’ll really appreciate this with your business. He talks about always keeping pennies and quarters in your pocket so you can make a call to phone the home office to get stuff approved. I’m like, not need to do that but there’s a lot of great tips in it. Multiple pairs of shoes and just being ready. So thank you for the recommendations. And I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this and thank you again for sharing. Where would you like people to learn more?

Brynson Smith [45:03]
So if people want to learn more, we’d love to chat with you. If you go to uBreakiFix.com, at the top right corner of the website, you’ll see a franchising link. And you can learn a little more about franchising. Also, on the About Us page, you can see a video of our founder and CEO Justin Wetherill giving kind of an overview of our story, which I think is pretty cool. But yeah, go to the franchising link, fill out your information, we’d love to chat with you. Set up a 30 minute call just get to know you and see if this is a fit for you.

Mario Fachini [45:42]
Excellent. Well, thank you again. And I appreciate it.

Brynson Smith [45:46]
Thank you so much, Mario.

Mario Fachini [45:48]
All right. Expert Authority World, we have another great episode here today. I’ll see you tomorrow. Have a great day. And God bless.

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Mario Fachini [46:29]
Hey, thanks for listening to today’s episode. I hope you got a lot out of it. I know I sure did. If you haven’t done so already, I invite you to subscribe to the show. And also be sure to check out EAInterviews.com for complete show notes, the full interview video experience, links to the resources we mentioned, and more. Have a blessed day and I’ll see you tomorrow.