215: AI is Taking Jobs: Here’s How Franchising Can Secure Your Future
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Tired of the corporate rat race? Welcome to The Richer Geek Podcast! Today, we are joined by Cliff Nonnenmacher, a former Wall Street banker turned franchise expert. Cliff shares how he built a multi-brand franchise empire and why franchising is the ultimate shortcut to wealth. Learn how to ditch the traditional 9-to-5, leverage proven business models, and invest in recession-proof, AI-proof, and Amazon-proof industries like skilled trades, pet services, and biohacking. Discover the critical mistakes to avoid, the value of a franchise consultant, and the trending sectors that are booming.
In this episode, we’re discussing…
From Wall Street to Franchising: Cliff's entrepreneurial leap from Wall Street investment banking to master franchising was fueled by a desire for autonomy and the discovery of franchising's scalable potential, highlighted by his "bad boss" moment and understanding the multi-tiered franchise model.
Why Franchising Wins: Proven models, brand power, and higher EBITDA multiples.
Trending & Recession-Proof Franchises: Investing in recession and AI-proof sectors like biohacking/wellness, skilled trades, pet services, and senior care, capitalizing on current trends and demographic shifts, is crucial for long-term franchise success.
Avoiding Pitfalls: Rigorous due diligence, strategic franchise consultant guidance, and avoidance of emotionally driven decisions, particularly in volatile markets like food, are essential to mitigate risks and protect wealth.
The Food Industry Trap : Why rising costs make food franchises risky in today’s market.
Time and Mindset: A disciplined, risk-aware mindset, understanding franchise timelines, and managing personal guarantees are critical for navigating the evolving business landscape, including the impact of AI.
The value of Franocity: Franocity provides invaluable educational resources and personalized guidance, empowering individuals to make informed franchise investment decisions.
Resources from Cliff
LinkedIn | Franocity | Pursuit Of Profit Podcast
Resources from Mike and Nichole
Gateway Private Equity Group | Nic's guide | Franchise With Bob
+ Read the transcript
Mike Stohler: Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of The Richer Geek Podcast. Today, we have Cliff Nonnenmacher. He began his career as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley. After leaving his Wall Street career, he acquired a Master Franchise for New York and Connecticut. We'll explain what master franchising means.
He's owned and operated various franchise businesses, Cartridge World, Personal Training Institute, PuroClean, and Maid Right,, as well as non-franchise companies. He's also developed well-known domestic international brands, like Four Seasons Sun Rooms and others. How are you doing, Cliff?
Cliff Nonnenmacher: I'm doing great. Thank you, Mike. Thanks for having me on the show.
Mike Stohler: Absolutely. What I'd like to do is get into the background and what made you switch from investment banking to franchise?
Cliff Nonnenmacher: That's right. I've been an entrepreneur my whole life.
I was born into it. I knew with blinding clarity, I want to be an entrepreneur as young as you could go back in your thoughts of what you want to do with yourself. I've always been doing things entrepreneurially, buying and selling and trying to make a profit.
Cliff Nonnenmacher: I was making money at a young age and I started day trading. I had a satellite system. My handle was blue chip, not blue chip 1095. I was in the early days of day trading. Built a decent portfolio. And I said, " I actually really liked this."
I took my portfolio to Wall Street. I was offered a job with all member firms, whether it be Merrill Lynch and Raymond James and so on. I took a job with Smith Barney, which is today Morgan Stanley. I manage around $250 million of just high net worth individual assets, some institutional money. I was with a team called Comprehensive Wealth Management.
I had a bad boss moment, and that bad boss moment. Yeah, it was a simple one too. We had one networked printer in the office with 50 brokers, and I had to travel through the whole office to go to one networked printer to get my stuff. And it was never there, it was always taken and sorted. I asked my boss, "So listen, we're a million dollar producers in the back. Can we get our own printer in that section of the office?" Say, "Hey man, you want a printer? You buy it yourself." So I bought a printer and realized that the cartridge was $250. I bought a soldering iron and I attached a small copper pipe fitting to the end, and I melted a perfect circle in the toner hopper and I filled it up with $3 of toner and I saved $250.
I was like, "Is this a thing?" I'm dating myself. I went to Barnes & Noble. This is 2001 to 2003 in that range. Found a company in Australia that had reverse engineered printer consumables.
I bought the rights to it for the entire state of New York and Connecticut. And I scaled 36 units. That was my introduction to franchising and you made a comment about, we'll explain what master is. There's a hierarchy of franchising, right? You could be a single unit owner. I own one unit.
You could be a multi unit owner, say three to five. You could become an area developer, which means you're now developing an entire area. Let's call it a county. Maybe it's a city like in Arizona, which means you not only have the right to develop the brand in your territory, you also have the right to sub-franchise and sell the opportunity to other people and take a piece of the royalty.
And that's what I did, I developed my own stores and then I sold locations to other people and I kept half the royalty payment and half of the initial franchise fee.
Mike Stohler: It just blows my mind sometimes how founders get involved in things, you wanted to save the tour. You couldn't spend the money on ink and look at what it turned into.
Cliff Nonnenmacher: Sometimes that's not about, it's like Mike, you have the money. I understand that. I don't see the value of a $250 printer cartridge. I'm sorry. I don't see the value in it. Just so you know, I have extrapolated because I'm just a data guy and the show is The Richer Geek, right?
Just to geek out for a minute, I have extrapolated. What are you really paying when you buy a black or a color inkjet cartridge? And the answer is between $2,000-$5,000 a gallon. Next time you get your inkjet cartridge, I want you to look at the number of milliliters in it.
If you have an 8, 10, 15-milliliter cartridge and you extrapolate that by a gallon, it is absurd. It's more than Chanel No. 5. It's more than oil. It's more than everything. So when you think about the profitability of giving you the printer for free and then just hosting you for the remainder of your life cycle in the printer consumables.
That's actually how I got in the business. It wasn't just the bad boss moment. It's a bunch of other stories that led me to this with high-net-worth clients investing in HP and Lexmark, and Canon. " Cliff, it's razor-razorblade theory. They give you the printer and they get you the consumables." And that is exactly the model.
Mike Stohler: Yeah. That's why they give you the razor part for free.
Cliff Nonnenmacher: Same thing with printing.
Mike Stohler: It was probably a natural move to go into like cartridge world.
Cliff Nonnenmacher: Yeah. For me, it was natural, right? To just say, "Okay, this was an issue for me." I like businesses that solve problems. People pay for two things: good feelings, solutions to problems. I've always been in those two areas. I used to own parasail boats, jet skis, and catamarans. I had operations on Marco Island, Florida, the New Jersey shore, Long Beach Island. I was always in the fun business. I delivered food back in the '90s, which was basically an Uber concept.
I lived on an island three miles by six miles. It was like. "I'm on the 24th floor of a condominium overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. I don't want to go to McDonald's or Subway." I delivered food for 16 franchises and brought it straight to your door. So all these different little businesses were always about those two areas.
People pay for, as I said, for two things: solutions to problems and good feelings. So the cartridge world was clearly that. And then that evolved into other businesses. I got involved in gyms. I got involved in high end residential cleaning. I got involved in water, fire, mold, and biohazard. So other people pay for solutions to problems.
Your house is flooded. My team would come in and extract the water. It's a multimillion-dollar operation. We operated in Annapolis, Maryland. I didn't really truly start creating wealth. I was making a living and I was doing well as an independent business owner, but I didn't really start becoming wealthy until I got involved in franchising, proven blueprint, proof of concept.
All you have to do is execute flawlessly. And that's exactly where I started latching on to franchising saying, "Franchising gives me an opportunity to collapse time," and just focus on the execution, not all the day-to-day nuances of running a business because they've already done the marketing. They've already done the branding.
We already have a federally registered trademark. We already have all of that. We already have the R&D. We already have a menu where we already have the services offered. We already have the pricing methodology, the margin, everything is already just executed. That's what I did and that's why I phoned over 12 brands and I love buying the building and I love the selling part of building the business. I just love cash, cashing in and doing it again.
Mike Stohler: Let's talk about that a little bit. People that are listening say, "I always wanted to do this. I want to do that, but I'm not paying 12%. I'm not paying those commissions." And I go, "Depends on the franchise," because if it's a well known brand you're saying, are people going to all of a sudden start looking for this type of sign or, Mike's Cupcakes? They're going to look for these national brands. Explain the concept of why franchises are successful and where it's a lot harder if you just go about it as an independent.
Cliff Nonnenmacher: Great question. One, it's been proven that you will get a higher multiple as a franchise. BizBuySell has aggregated data for decades now and have proven that if you were to even sell your business, your life's work, you will get a premium, a higher multiple on EBITDA just because you're a franchise and you're part of something bigger than one. So that in itself, because I believe you build a plan with the end in mind, which is the exit strategy. And that's what I just said. I love the buy build in the cell. I like the cashing in part because a lot of people don't want to build a business, but they have no problem paying a premium for your cashflow and then acquiring a resale.
I advise people every day on buying franchises specifically. That's my core competency is helping people. Tech geeks, which I deal with daily and transitioning out of corporate American into a franchise. I ask clients this question all the time, "Why is the royalty 6%?" And they say, "I don't know."
The answer is simple, because the franchisor does 6% of the work. Why is their royalty 12%? I don't know. The franchisor is only going to do 12% of the work, right? So price is only an issue in the absence of value. If you're going to charge me 10%, you better be providing 10% value. Am I getting deeper discounts on my cost of goods?
Yes. We've negotiated a national deal with Cisco, US Foods, HP, right? Maybe even if it's a fleet management brand. Great. Check that box. Where is the scale of the economy? Where is my purchasing power? Where am I getting that back? Oh, pay-per-click, SEO, SEM, all that's done. We do it for you. Do you answer my phone?
Yep. We answer your phone. We give estimates over the phone. We schedule appointments. Now you're adding value. I will never allow a royalty to get in a way of doing a good deal. Because as I said, I think price is only an issue in the absence of value.
Mike Stohler: And I find that in the hotel world where you can have too much of a boutique franchise brand and it's not the value.
That's not the thing or you can go with a Marriott or Hilton that has 100 million plus rewards members. I'm paying that little royalty fee and I have a potential of 100 million customers.
Cliff Nonnenmacher: Extrapolate that. Bingo.
Mike Stohler: And it's to my benefit. Like you're saying, it's like they may not have rewards cards.
Some of them do these franchises that you're dealing with, but ladies and gentlemen, if you think about it that much, how many people will Google that name, whether whatever service or whatever thing it is, you immediately go, "Hey, I wonder if there's blah, blah, blah near me," because they see the commercials, they see the marketing.
It's like the reason why we call every soda, "a Coke", something like that. It's beaten in our heads.
Cliff Nonnenmacher: That's right.
Mike Stohler: Talk to us a little bit about your website before we get in some other questions and your website is?
Cliff Nonnenmacher: It's the name of the company, franocity.com. F R A N O C I T Y.com.
Mike Stohler: franocity.com and people click on it.
Cliff Nonnenmacher: Yep.
Mike Stohler: What's there? What's in the educational materials? How did they go around the website to learn more?
Cliff Nonnenmacher: It's all value add. Everything we do is to add value to not only in this example, your audience, but our own audience. There's no question. It's all valuable.
If someone wants to engage, great, but it's a value prop. If they visit this site, it's going to be all about what are you trying to do? Are you trying to keep your career and get a deal on the side? Are you trying to fully immerse yourself in a new business and exit corporate America? Are you laid off?
You're displaced. You need to land on your feet. Are you within that protected class, which is a lot of our clients? You are 50 and over, right? I'm a Gen X. I don't want to interview right now. They don't want me. They want my younger self. They want the bed. Corporate America wants the best years of our lives.
And it's in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. Soon as we hit 50, they're like, "You're done. You have a little F-you money. You're no longer toeing the line for corporate America, right? You're no longer complying. You're starting to push back. You're a younger manager who is, by the way, one third qualified to manage you.
This sh*It goes on every day, right? Our clients like your listeners are tired of the corporate grind. Think about it, this is the one thing that always chaps my ass. You're a 50-year-old man and you want to go on vacation and you have to ask like a 20-year-old in the department for time off that in itself. I could never do it. I'm sorry. I could never ask someone after 20-30 years of being a corporate America. I got to ask for time off. I'm out. Little things like that.
Mike Stohler: You're right. I couldn't do it. And now, you have this return to work mandate, that a lot of people return to the office, I should say. And people are like going, " God, is there a franchise, anything?" I have so many friends that are in the tech world that are like, "My God, I got to travel now two hours to an office, two hours back from an office."
I have to go to an office and I'm a salesperson where I don't even need to be in an office. I should be out doing things, but they're going to say, " I wonder if there's a franchise, I wonder if there's anything." So talk to me about the different types of franchises.
What's good? What's bad? What do they look for? What's trending in the franchise world? Because someone wants to open up. And what's the difference between, I'm throwing a lot of questions at you. I want to get into something I'm passionate about or getting into a franchise that makes money.
Cliff Nonnenmacher: Yeah. There's a lot there to unpack.
Mike Stohler: I know.
Cliff Nonnenmacher: So, let's start there. That's because that's low hanging fruit. Look, every one of us has a degree of capitalism and at what I call platitudes. "I want to be in control of my destiny. I want to love what I do." That's all cute. But at the end of the day, I want to retire uncompromised. I want to secure my spouse's future. I want to intervene meaningfully in the life of my child or grandchildren. I want to care for an elderly parent. That's why I invest. That's why I make money. What's your why? Everyone has a different reason for what they're doing. The most difficult client to deal with is the one that says, "I have spent 20 years doing something I really never loved and I want to love what I do." I would rather have to find them a new spouse than to deal with emotions when it comes to investing. I'd rather try and find them a new spouse than to find this love affair with their next career. I really do better with the capitalist that says, "Hey man, I've been making a quarter million a year."
I'm acclimated to a certain lifestyle. I want to get out of this rat race. I need to meet and exceed my earnings history. What do you have out there that I could scale quickly and get back to where it was? That guy, gal is that investor is way easier to work with because now it's empirical, it's numbers, it's proof of concept, it's what we call item 19 earnings claims, it's P&L reviews, totally different discussion.
I think that addresses that one question about wanting to love what I do, what's out there. Now, what's trending is interesting, because there was a time where I would get phone calls daily. I want to buy a gym. I don't even get those calls anymore. And what I'm seeing is a shift away from, let's say the traditional gym and into more like biohacking and thanks to guys like you and the podcasting world, Dave Asprey and Andrew Huberman, it's all about biohacking now.
There's tens of thousands of gyms in America and we're the fattest we've ever been.
It's actually downright frightening. So you've seen a lot of people shifting over to, I wake up in the morning, I trigger my circadian rhythm, right? I'm drinking this. I got rid of alcohol.
"Oh, I'm getting my blood work done. I'm getting my T levels checked. There's no modern medicine check and T levels."
I'm seeing anything involving the use of tools.
I think that people who can use tools, use their hands, are gonna be owning this world going forward because we're entering a world of AI. And the unintended consequence of AI is the absolute annihilation of technology employees and white collar people.
AI is the first technology, the first revolution that will set its sights squarely on the most educated people in our society. CPAs, attorneys that don't do trial law, there's a lot of people that are in trouble.
If you're operating in the Philippines and India and you're doing call center work, you're dead out of business. You just don't know it yet. These are the lowest hanging fruit jobs that are absolutely dead.
So I am focusing on proof of concept, tried and true local transactions, beat on the street, must be done locally, AI proof and Amazon proof businesses. Guess where it starts? Tools. HVAC, plumbing, electrical, flooring, drywall, anything involving the structure. Look at your house. We have feminized them. They can't use tools. They have low T, they have low sperm. This is the first time in history.
Mike Stohler: Yeah.
Cliff Nonnenmacher: Fact. First time in history, you had two sides of the aisle, presidential candidates, talking about IVF.
Name one time in your 50+ year history where a presidential candidate, both sides of the aisle, talks about IVF. That's how big of a problem feminization of men in America is. They call it masculine, toxic masculinity. Right now, men need to be men, and we need to be tough, and we need to build things, and we need to be able to use our hands, we need to be able to fix bridges, and build buildings, and do what we need to do, right?
So I love that category, I'm bullish.
Next category, we have humanized pets and animals in this country. We're not repopulating, so we buy more dogs. If you're grooming them, training them, boarding them, you'll make money in the humanization of pets and animals.
The third category is the aging of America. The average age of America continues to climb. These are not opinion statements. It's a fact. Some people are offended by facts.
These are facts. You can't argue these things.
My fourth category is anything involving beauty vanity, the desire to look younger or feel sexy or just feel confident. That brings you back to testosterone therapy, even eyelash lounges, blow dry bars, Botox injections, an IV drip bar .
Those are the categories I tend to focus on with clients and depending on the client, their background skill sets, income needs.
I do not like food right now. I think this hyperinflationary environment that we're in has destroyed food's profitability. And select states in America have jacked up minimum wage. You can't make a profit anyway in food. California passed a bill in April. $20 minimum wage for fast food workers . You can't make a living out there doing food.
Mike Stohler: No, not when eggs are up 100%, not when bacon's up 200%, it's the hotels that I had that offered the free breakfast and I'm like, "Oh my God, I can't afford to give free breakfast anymore." Then pay someone $20 an hour to stay there and replenish the eggs.
Cliff Nonnenmacher: Yeah.
Mike Stohler: It's crazy. But I love those because I'm seeing these med spa type of things popping up, they're always busy, I get my vitamin D shots, my testosterone shots. I get the peptides. So, along with your company, Franocity,why is it important that someone have a franchise consultant to purchase. Why not just go to BizBuySell?
And just buy something. Why do I need a consultant?
Cliff Nonnenmacher: Ralph Waldo Emerson had the best quote, "If you think becoming a millionaire in America is difficult, you haven't tried."
Most people who complain about not being wealthy really haven't done anything to create wealth because they lack discipline. They lack structure.
I spoke to a guy the other day, we talked about what we're going to do. And then I get on the phone. He's like, " I want to talk about this Korean barbecue." And I'm like, "This is what happens. Why did you deviate?" We're looking at non-brick and mortar brands under $150,000 and you immediately go to a $500,000 Korean barbecue concept.
This is why people end up getting in trouble. So when they come to us, we're disciplined. We're good fiduciaries. We're good stewards of your money. We're going to keep you out of trouble. You're only going to be looking at brands that align with your investment objectives.
You need to replace the income that you've lost. You want to retire, as I said, on time, or I want to create a legacy for my children and grandchildren. How are you going to do that? I want to build a business and I'd be able to give it to my kids.
All right. Let's do things that have a long runway, again, AI proof, Amazon proof, local tried and true proof of concept brands that have proven to weather a recession. These are the things we talk about with clients and I'll give you something that we do that's absolutely refreshing.
Think about what I just did on the call. Someone on this show right now could have been, I want to buy a gym, I'm gonna call that guy. I don't like the gym business. I want to buy a restaurant. I listened to your show, Mike, I want to call this guy, buy a restaurant. I'm gonna talk you out of it.
We live in a time where everyone gives a shit about themselves and not others. And they're like, you wanna buy a restaurant? You're a big boy, go ahead. And then when you lose a half a million dollars, it's like, you're a big boy, you made that call.
No, don't do it. Here are the reasons why I don't like food right now. Until we tame Inflation and we get a handle on where's minimum wage going and AI is going to replace these people, Mike, that's the reality.
That's when you reenter the QSR, the quick service restaurant space, when all the people are eliminated.
Mike Stohler: I'm like, "Oh, you know what? The box doesn't say all that sort of stuff and I can't wait." So all of my new developments are going to be, you need help typing it on your phone and we'll answer it for you.
Cliff Nonnenmacher: That's right.
Mike Stohler: It's not going to be anyone around. People can't b*tch about that because they've created that by going out and demanding these things and not knowing how businesses work. They should have learned with the auto unions. There's a reason why all the factories moved to Mexico.
Cliff Nonnenmacher: That's right. I love seeing photographs of Detroit, 1950s, 60s, 70s. Then you see it today and it looks like a wart. Yeah, that's what happens.
Mike Stohler: They're blaming the corporate, the companies. No, you don't pay someone $60 an hour to do a widget. I grew up in a union town. The only people that were driving the Corvettes were the factory workers because the management couldn't afford it.
Cliff Nonenmacher: Unreal. It's true. There's a balance.
Mike Stohler: There's a balance. Before I let you go, how much time does it take to start the franchise? Someone says, " Can I do it while I'm still working my 9-5?"
What is the time obligation on a lot of these types of things?
Cliff Nonenmacher: When the client's working with us, it takes us around three months to close the loop on due diligence and actually say, "I know enough about the brands that I've been evaluating."
I'm in or I'm out, right? It takes around three months of just due diligence. And that's why I tell clients to get involved early because if we look at three to five brands over a three, four month period of time, and you don't like any of them, we have to start over. We just lost half of a year, times money, right?
That's a commodity you can't recycle. Let's get into it and start evaluating brands and learn from the experience. As for opening, once they decide I want to buy this brand, if it's a non-brick and mortar brand that doesn't require any commercial real estate, they're up and running really right after basic training with the franchise. So you could be up and running measured in months, several months.
If it's brick and mortar. Now, we have that class, a site selection that could take time by the time you buy the franchise, it could take a year before you're open. And that also depends on the state. Blue states are not business friendly states, and they're riddled with regulation and delays.
I started my franchise world in New York, and I used to make sure that we negotiated deals with landlords that rent commencement is when I have a certificate of occupancy, because this is New York. CO could be two years. I'm not paying $10,000 a month in rent. The franchisee would be out of business.
You want it to be a landlord in New York or California, deal with it because I'm negotiating. That's the other thing we bring to table. I have a ton of experience in commercial lease negotiation and managing personal guarantee risk, and just managing the risk of being an entrepreneur.
We add a ton of value to the franchisee, as it relates to managing risk and finding the right brand and being able to speculate, to accumulate wealth without literally destroying your life. And that's why people don't want to take chances. They don't know how to manage the risks. What makes a good franchisee? I think it was your other question.
Mike Stohler: Yeah.
Cliff Nonenmacher: Can you follow a proven system or are you going to be the guy gal that comes in and just wants to change everything and say, you don't understand it's different in my market. That one statement, you don't understand. It's different in my market.
That's the first red flag that they're not a fit for franchising. You really need to be able, franchising is an opportunity for people who are not entrepreneurial, in terms of I'm going to create my own business idea. Look, I have a desire to be self employed. I'm not Elon Musk. I'm not an entrepreneur.
I'm not Steve Jobs. I'm a person who aspires to be self employed, control my destiny, control my calendar, my schedule, my vacations, and build my own culture. I don't like my corporate culture. I want to build my own work culture for my own people. Look, here's the blueprint. Here's the roadmap. Execute.
That's it. Can you do that? Yes. We make a statement in my world, which is this. McDonald's has a license to print money. It's a business model. You buy, you just execute and make money, period. There are people, if you were told that there are 37 sesame seeds on the bun, there are people who will scrape them off.
Those are the people who are not a fit for franchising. They're constantly meddling and modifying the model after the model has already been proven and a license to print money, like a Chick-fil-A don't mess with it. Don't tell me you've got a better deal on potatoes and grease. Those people are not a fit.
So you have to put yourself in check. Over the three, four month period of time, we find out, look, you're not going to be happy in franchising. You're just too entrepreneurial. You challenge everything. You shouldn't do this.
Mike Stohler: Yeah. You can do it, but be the absentee owner.
Hire a manager. Don't go to the place. Just pick up your check, get your owner's draw, leave it alone. If you want to do it that way, but, Cliff, how can people get a hold of you outside of Franocity?
Cliff Nonenmacher: Yeah, So, franocity.com. F R A N O C I T Y. com. We also have a podcast for people who just want to learn and listen in from afar.
Maybe they don't want to engage right now. It's called Pursuit Of Profit. It's co-hosted by my business partner, Justin and I. Great show. We only interview founders of franchise concepts. It's a great in-depth conversation of how they got started unit economics, investment, acquiring customers, execution.
It's pretty good in terms of that. It's more educational. It's not really entertaining. It's educational on franchising. And my email cliffn@franocity.com.
Mike Stohler: There you go. Cliff, it's been a pleasure and a lot of enlightening information. Ladies and gentlemen, if you are interested at all and want to get educated a little bit about franchises, franocity.com and check out Cliff's podcast. Cliff, it's been a pleasure for coming on The Richer Geek.
Cliff Nonnenmacher: My pleasure. Thanks for the invite.
The information, statements, comments, views, and opinions (collectively, “Information”) provided in this podcast are not intended to be and should not be construed as financial, economic, legal, accounting, tax or other advice. For our full disclosure, click here.
ABOUT CLIFF NONNENMACHER
Cliff Nonnenmacher, a former Morgan Stanley investment banker, transitioned into franchising in 2003 and has since owned, operated, and developed numerous domestic and international brands, including Cartridge World, PuroClean, Island Fin Poke, and Krak Boba. With 25+ years of experience in franchising, finance, and business, he has helped countless franchise owners succeed by mentoring them through ownership, scaling, and strategic decision-making. Featured in major publications like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, Cliff now guides corporate executives in building wealth and navigating career transitions through franchise ownership via Franocity.