Pete: [00:00:00] Go ahead. Good morning, Nat. Good morning, Pete. Woo. I'm pumped up. Happy new year. Happy new year. Are you ready for 2024?
Nat: I am ready. I like even number of years, so I'm going to be happy all year.
Pete: Oh, I like it. I like it a lot. Boy, it it's going to be, I think it's going to be a great year. I'm pretty excited.
So, you know, the economy, all that kind of good stuff. It's, it's we're, we're set for, I think, a good year. Nice. Excellent. Well, you know, I I was thinking about this the other day. I had an idea. I know that's hard to believe, Nat, but I had an idea. Squirrel. Yeah, I was doing a, I was doing a webinar and on this webinar, people were asking me some Yeah, Pretty basic questions about franchising.
So I thought we'd do for the next couple of podcasts as we just get back to basics. I mean, we've done some advanced stuff, but I thought we'd just get back to some of the basics around franchising understanding that these are kind of [00:01:00] top questions people ask me when I'm on webinars. Does that sound good?
Nat: Yeah, I bet we can make a top 10 list out of this.
Pete: Why not? We got to have top 10s, right? So that, that's that's kind of our thing, right? So, so I thought today what we would do is we'd talk about the importance of small businesses on the, on the U. S. economy. And, you know, I was, I was doing some research and, and do you realize that businesses smaller than 500 employees represent 99.
99 percent of the U. S. economy? Right? And they provided. I think it is like 62 percent of the job growth between 1995 and 2020. So small businesses represent a big part of our economy. In fact, about 44 percent of our economy. So they don't get it. I don't think they get enough credit
Nat: for that. Yeah, that is pretty amazing.
Do you know if that's like a revenue or is that by number? Well,
Pete: let's say well, it's it's employees, right? So it's [00:02:00] you know from standpoint. It's it's it's pretty significant, right? That was that was all from the small business administration. Well, it's
Nat: basically Paychecks guys are using to you know, provide for their family, right?
So right, you
Pete: know, right there there these businesses and and I kind of thought I thought about a little bit because I had read something earlier It talked about that as the economy starts, you know, kind of heating up a little bit here. Small businesses has kind of helped that if we didn't have small businesses, we'd be in a much different situation because we saw a lot of layoffs from these big companies.
And again, there are a small piece of it. Small businesses are are are important. So why don't we do this? Get it. We'll do how about the top 10 ways franchise businesses, impact and contribute to the U. S. economy. That'd be good. Yeah All right. So let's get going. What do you think the first one? I I mean already I I set you up so
Nat: well I think it's got to be job creation Yeah
Pete: [00:03:00] Yeah, right.
And it's, you kind of, you always talk hyper local, right? Hyper local hiring. I need somebody for my team from that standpoint. So jobs, that's a big, that's a big deal in the
Nat: economy. Yeah. I know that's one of the key indicators, right? To how the economy is doing is how many jobs, you know, it grew by each, each quarter.
Pete: Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, a lot of times people say, Pete, I want to make an impact with the business. And when they say impact, a lot of times that's creating jobs. Yes, because you are truly impacting the community. All right. What would be the second one? Well, I
Nat: mean, I think if you're hiring for jobs, you're probably also like small business growth Like it's a way for people to start their own business and actually like I kind of be self employed like they're providing self employment for themselves
Pete: Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, and it's, it's important is, is more and more people need to do that as I was just, we were talking [00:04:00] about that article back a few months ago in the Wall Street Journal and said, you know, the declining or the, or the disappearing white collar job. And so more and more people are going to have to become entrepreneurs and franchising is certainly a platform for that or small business ownership as a platform to do that.
All right, what would be a third one?
Nat: Consumer spending, you know, when you think about, like, I was I shouldn't admit this, but like that crumble, for example, that crumble cookie , the those are really good. Yeah, I know it's easy. You know, we have birthday party, you know, you're buying like a couple dozen of those and, you know, a hundred dollars later.
So yeah. I think they're contributing a lot to consumer spend. It sounds like my household
Pete: like, well what did you just spend money on this for?
Nat: But absolutely you, you wanna be the house that the kids come to, but sometimes that can, you know, be expensive.
Pete: Yeah, I'm guilty of that. Absolutely. You always have the food and in a cool place for them to hang out.
But we spent a lot of money doing that. You know, we, you can buy those disco light [00:05:00] bulbs. So it's like a disco light, but it's a light bulb. So like we converted. Yeah. Yeah, we converted our basement at disco balls and lights and you know, just all that kind of stuff. And I can't, I can't believe how much money we spend.
So I agree with that one. All right.
Nat: Was that for the kids or was that for your home office? Well, you know,
Pete: let's leave what I do on the weekends alone here, right? Let's do it. So, very good. All right. What would be another one? What would be another contribution of small businesses? Well,
Nat: right in the back of, you know, anytime you have sales, you have tax revenue, so they contribute a lot, obviously, to, you know, local, state, and federal tax revenue.
Yeah. So I think that would be. Pretty, pretty good. So that actually, you know, a roundabout way pays for roads and, and you know, park district and all that good stuff, I suppose.
Pete: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and the government needs our money, but absolutely it pays for those schools, those roads, all that kind of good stuff allowing us to continue.
All right, good. What's another one? [00:06:00] Well, when I think
Nat: about like when you, you know, I'm driving around, I'll see like those semis for McDonald's or even Jimmy John's and things like that. I think supply chain, like these guys are moving huge amounts of, you know, whether it's ingredient potatoes or, you know, whatever they're moving around, but they have huge impact on the supply chain.
Yeah.
Pete: Well, we learned that during the pandemic, right? Is supply chains got tight and all that kind of stuff. So that's, that's so important. The businesses are doing that. I was just reading something about the Tesla, the new Tesla semis. And they say that they are game changing. So as you talk about all these goods being moved, they, the driver said, you know, it's, it's absolutely amazing.
There's no noise, there's no fumes from a standpoint. It's very easy. So within that whole supply chain, I mean, small businesses are also going to impact that. All right. What would be another one?
Nat: Thinking again about McDonald's and, you know, one of the things they're [00:07:00] famous for is real estate development.
So, you know, opening up locations, developing. Also even you think about like, you know, when you see an old McDonald's that's been there for a while, I noticed like, it seems like, I don't know if it's every 10 or 15 or 20 years, but they're always, you know, they'll basically tear it down and build a new one.
Better and nicer. So that seems, that's, that's something that they're contributing to is making the real estate development. Yeah. I
Pete: think about kind of where we live in Ogden Avenue, how it's, it's turning over. Where, you know, companies are coming in and they're buying old, old businesses, tearing them down and then building a whole new facility, putting a lot of capital in there.
And even like the new Costco it went in, I mean, they took out a whole strip mall and put a whole new Costco in. So absolutely, I have to check that out. Yeah, absolutely. All right.
Nat: We'll be another one. Well, again, even when, as they're kind of redoing the real estate and things like that, I noticed they're bringing in a lot of innovation or technology like kiosks, things like [00:08:00] that.
They're always pushing the envelope, you know, I think probably a lot of those mobile mobile order apps and all that were from franchises.
Pete: Yeah, we just went to a local restaurant and their app to get on the waiting list and all that stuff was really cool. Like it kind of told us where we're at and stuff like that, and it's just, it's a small local place, but they had done a really kind of cool app, and so I agree with that.
All right, what would be another one?
Nat: Training and education franchising is always kind of famous for training and education. You know, you're, they have Processes in place for that. So, you know, when you're hiring a new person, it's going to be step by step that they don't leave anything to chance with that.
Yeah,
Pete: and especially with franchises, right? They have all the, they have the playbook and all that kind of stuff, but, Mm-Hmm. , you know, that's how like I, you and I were both raised in small businesses. Right. I mean, our fathers, there was a bit of training at least with my dad, [00:09:00] go do that.
Nat: Exactly. Exactly.
My first day on the job, my dad, he was a bricklayer and they had scaffolding built up, you know, for a chimney. So that would be, I don't know, 50 feet. So five sections of six foot. Scaffolding and he was like, get that, see that mortar that goes between the bricks. Get that up to the top. So,
Pete: okay. Yeah, it was called figuring
Nat: stuff out.
Right. Yeah. Yeah.
Pete: That's, that's called an education, son. Exactly. So, all right, excellent. What's another
Nat: one? Well, going back to like Jimmy John's and McDonald's and all that, like you know, here in Chicago, they have like those big Metro trains and I saw a Metro train had like a Jimmy John's wrap, like it had advertising on the locomotive.
And I think one thing, you know, also they do, I know like NASCAR advertising and things like that. So just brand recognition. They drive a lot of brand recognition billboards. People then fall in love with [00:10:00] the brand and want to spend more money there.
Pete: Yeah, right. It can be a big brand nationally, but it can be a small, you know, Jimmy John's where we have, you know, 15 employees.
So, absolutely. All right, good. And then what would be the last one? Number 10. Well, I
Nat: know, like, their franchises can be pretty involved in, like, helping out, like you were saying, with you know, whether it's fundraising or different charities and things like that you know, let, letting the Kids, kids sell cookies in front of their, in front of their building, things like that, whatever they're so I think community engagement would be pretty big.
Yeah, you're getting
Pete: to sponsor that softball team or baseball team and stuff like that. You know, we've kind of talked about that before. Sometimes when you're a corporate executive and you're flying around, you can't be involved in the community as much and so small businesses, they're a big part of that, right?
They sponsor so many different things and, and And so
Nat: I don't know why I'm, I must be hungry today, but like, Jimmy John's keeps on coming to mind, [00:11:00] but even like, at the 4th of July parade, they usually have like, a nice like, a truck and a trailer with a whole bunch of people on it. Passing out like quarter sandwiches.
Oh,
Pete: that's kind of great route. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right Are you hinting I should take you out to jimmy john's for lunch today?
Nat: Oh, you know the number two big beef would always be okay. All right.
Pete: All right. I'm the veto I'm the number five. That's that's my my sandwich Well nat again small businesses have such a big impact on the united states economy And sometimes people forget that and it's so important that we remember we support these small businesses because they're they're Helping drive the U.
S. economy. I totally agree. All right. Well, I'll meet you at Jimmy John's, so we'll see you at noon and I'll get you your sandwich. It'll be freaky
Nat: fast, if nothing else.
Pete: All right. Sounds good. Thanks.