Phil Wilkins Celebrity Guru

Phil Wilkins is a speaker, consultant and author. Phil owns three businesses: a training and consulting organization; four McDonald's® restaurants in Lexington, Kentucky; and a real estate investment company. After graduating from Miami University of Ohio, he began working for Procter & Gamble as a Manager in the Finance and Accounting Division. In 1988, Phil left Procter & Gamble and began working for Baxter Healthcare where he was an award-winning sales professional, trainer and manager. In 1996 Phil left Baxter and began his McDonald's career in July of 1997. Since then, he has created one of the most successful McDonald’s franchises in the nation. Commerce Lexington recognized Phil's restaurant business as the Minority Business of the Year in 2004. Phil was also named The Small Business Person of the Year (Runner Up) 2004 for the state of Kentucky by the Small Business Administration. Currently, Phil sits on the Board of Directors for the National Black McDonald's® Operators Association, Commerce Lexington, North Lexington YMCA, Kentuckiana Minority Business Council and is a member of the National Speakers Association. He and his wife Sandi have three children and in his free time he enjoys playing with his sons, reading, exercising, and practicing Krav Maga, which is a military fighting technique. To learn more about Phil please visit his website!

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Before you submit your application, slow down and take a deep breath and do the following:

Run your credit report – look for blemishes and marks that may easily eliminate you from consideration.

Reduce your installment debt – reduce your installment debt as much as possible and start living below your means, use this money to have personal cash reserves. Your initial franchise may or may not be strong enough to support you and your family financially, so the more debt you can kill and the less income you can live on the better positioned you will be. I recommend this because my income dropped 70% when I became a franchisee, if it weren’t for these strategic financial moves, my wife and I would have suffered.

Organize your financial data and build a strong financial team

Make sure you have three years of your tax returns and bank statements, also accumulate and organize your mortgage information and debt. If you haven’t already, organize these statements in an area that is easy to access…because you will need them, trust me. Hire a strong financial team, including a banker, financial advisor, and estate-planning lawyer. Make sure you also have adequate insurance before you purchase your franchise and have a plan for building and/or protecting your wealth. Utilize the correct corporate structure to protect your personal assets as well as the correct estate planning documents to protect your family. The reason I am providing this information to you now, is I forgot to purchase additional life insurance and was under insured for the first six months of ownership.

Network, Research, and Network some more

Find out who in your local area and neighboring states are currently operating this franchise. Set an appointment with them and ask as many questions as you possibly can think of asking. A few questions I might ask are: What support does the company provide in regards to operations, is it adequate? Why did they purchase this franchise? What critical mistake did they make that should be avoided (anyone who says they don’t have any is not telling you the truth)? How is your performance as a franchisee evaluated?

Visit every location you see.

I used to be in sales and had a four-state territory so I would use my business trips to visit restaurants in neighboring states and evaluate their sales, marketing, and service. This provided me with a filing cabinet full of ideas and strategies that I used once I opened my own restaurant. My “homemade research” gave me the opportunity to see what separated the good operations from the bad, and what made certain places exceptional. Try it yourself. You will become so proficient that you will even be able to detect when the business is having a good or bad day. Get out there and learn…plus it is an inexpensive way to research your future opportunity.

Get in shape – Emotionally, spiritually, and physically.

Are you and your loved ones strong enough to meet the demands of owning your own business? Regardless of which franchise you buy, you will in all likelihood work longer hours than you ever have in your life, often times sacrificing the things that matter most (family, health, emotional and spiritual growth), this is why I suggest creating systems for getting into shape in all of these areas.

Some things you may want to consider: Take walks with your spouse or significant other to maintain your fitness and provide you both an opportunity to talk about your victories and challenges. Create weekend getaways-perhaps once a quarter or an annual board meeting. Establish times for spiritual and emotional rejuvenation – there will be days when you will be challenged and will need time for reflection.

Read and digest the Uniform Offering Circular (UFOC).

The UFOC is a dry, boring, and painful document to read, but it is also one that all franchisors must provide to prospective franchisees by law. The UFOC has 23 categories covering everything from Litigation against the Franchisor to Earnings Claims and everything in between. My suggestion is to read this document numerous times, no matter how painful it is, and also share it with your attorney and accountant. Your attorney needs to read the document to ensure you understand the obligations you and the franchisor commit to. Your accountant should review it to analyze the earnings claims. The more familiar your attorney and accountant are to your particular franchise the better. Keep this in mind, although the franchisor must publish earnings claims each location may be significantly different.

Location, Location, Location.

If you are operating a retail franchise, does the franchisor help you with location selection? Location will be extremely critical to your success and the more you understand the success factors of your franchise location the better opportunity you will have. Look for traffic generators such as schools, shopping malls, and businesses to drive traffic to or past your business. Also look for potential barriers such as the lack of turn lanes, railroad tracks, stop lights, and too much traffic that would prevent clients from visiting your business.

Cash Flow

Try to take advantage of every opportunity you can to improve your cash flow. Will your business be in an enterprise zone? There may be tax credits you can take as a result of hiring people from the local neighborhood or when you purchase equipment. Large projects such as hotels may receive tax abatements from cities that want to resurrect dilapidated areas, consider the economic benefit, the number of jobs created, and call your local chamber or economic development office in the state to gain additional information.

Seek training opportunities with a number of franchisees before you sign on the dotted line.

Buying a franchise is like purchasing a car, kick the tires and lift the hood to gain a better understanding before investing your money. Work with an owner in his or her location to gain a feel for the operations, understand how the business cash flows and enhance your perspective of a “typical” day. I would also spend time in their back office to see how it is organized and what system they use to pay their bills, retain employee records, and keep track of their cash.

Have fun and fall in love with who you are and what you are becoming.

Purchasing my franchise was scary but an incredibly rewarding experience. Although it was difficult, I wouldn’t change a thing. It has been tremendously rewarding to watch the organization I lead grow and prosper and I am as bullish today about franchising as I was in 1997 when I purchased my first location.