Happier Aging at Scale with Arif Abdulla

Introduction

00:00Bill Gallagher: Have you ever had a week when you're completely slammed, but somehow nothing actually moved? Is this one of those weeks? That's not really a time problem. It's a busyness habit problem. My new book, Busy Is Broken, Do Less, Scale More, is all about growing by doing less, not more. Read or listen to a sample chapter over at busyisbroken.com. That's busyisbroken.com. It's also on Amazon and other booksellers.

00:31Bill Gallagher: Yeah. Hey, everybody again. Music tells me we're about to have a conversation, something that I love doing, talking about growth stories and more. Today's conversation is really all about expansion and growth, developing, fine tuning a great expansion story. We're gonna talk about going from one location to more than 400 from one country across four countries. How do we do that kind of thing? That's our conversation today with Arif Abdulla. Nurse Next Door is the company. We've had conversations before about Nurse Next Door. Different cut, different angle, more great, great stories here to share with you.

01:18Bill Gallagher: Hey, everybody. I'm Bill Gallagher, Scaling Coach and host of the super fine Scaling Up Business Podcast. Our show comes here every week, and we talk about all the things that go into scaling. And we talk with CEOs, with authors, with leaders, with everybody to do with growing your company and how to survive and enjoy the journey. In my own world, the thing that I'm most excited about right now is my new book coming out, Busy Is Broken. Go to busyisbroken.com. Find it also Amazon, wherever you get your books. You'll find an audiobook, Kindle, hardcover, paperback, like, whatever you want. It'll be there. Busyisbroken.com or go to Amazon or go to Barnes and Noble, wherever you want, and you'll find it there. It's all about, like, how after you start to build a team, you can actually be the bottleneck. The cost of your expired habits, maybe the habits that got you there that won't get you there, that won't take you beyond it, what needs to get retired so your company can really grow, and you can have an amazing life anyway, and how those two actually work together. So many great stories, that kind of thing in the book and some fundamental principles for sins, things that get in the way of doing it. Forward by Michael Gerber, recommendation by Michael Marshall Goldsmith. So I'm very excited, but busyisbroken.com.

02:43Bill Gallagher: Alright. Alright. On screen with me now in studio, he's VP of Franchise Development at Nurse Next Door. And, you know, they started the company years ago in one location. Ken Sim, who's a personal friend and in a Farms group with my wife for years now, is the mayor of Vancouver. More recently grew this thing from one operation, one city, one country now across four countries, 400 cities. And Arif started with them twenty years ago and has built up that kind of business. Joining us today to talk about everything that went into that and what it was like for him. Arif, welcome to the show.

Mrs. Wong's caregiver and why Arif stayed twenty years

03:34Arif Abdulla: Bill, thanks for having me. Great to be here.

03:35Bill Gallagher: Well, so that's an interesting thing. What is it that for you in that very first meeting, you know, when you were a young pup twenty years ago. Right? That's a long time to stick with one guy.

03:49Arif Abdulla: I still feel young. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. You know? Yeah. I mean, I think back to, you know, when I started, yeah, I was 23 years old. Quite honestly, I was coming out of university, and I was looking for a job, and I stumbled across Nurse Next Door and the founders. And what drew me to the opportunity were all of the things I tell folks not to think about today. Right? The future potential, the demographics, the financial opportunity. At 23, that's what I was kind of excited about. And the nice to have was the impact the business was having on people. But, yeah, when I started, I remember one of the first things we always do is we send folks on client visits to go and see the business in action. Right? We take care of people in their homes, providing them with the health care needs that they have. And I remember walking into the home of a client. Her name was Mrs. Wong. And I walked into the home, and I saw her caregiver, Steven, doing her hair and makeup. And I remember asking Steven what he did with Mrs. Wong every day. He was with her every day, and he said, well, I come here. I help her get up and get dressed, and then I make her feel beautiful. And verbatim were his exact words to me. And as I got to know Mrs. Wong over the next couple of hours, I learned she was the type of person that always had to look her best. Right? Didn't matter whether she was going out, staying in, you know, that's who she was. And I realized that the business was providing something much deeper than just the support with activities of daily living. Right? It was how he made her feel that was the real service we were providing. And so, you know, I described this business as very easy to fall in love with now. What I thought was just a cool business turned into a lot more. And one other story I'll tell just related to that, I remember a few months later, I was sitting at my desk and, yeah, I was very early in the career. I didn't really know a lot about the business just yet. And Steven walked in, and I looked up at Steven. He had tears coming down his face. And I asked him what happened, and he said that Mrs. Wong had passed away that morning. This is about six months after my first visit there. And I realized just that genuine connection created between a client and caregiver and how meaningful it is and even more meaningful for the caregiver. Right? Steven's there grieving. Mrs. Wong's gone. And so to me, I realized this was a real marriage of profit and purpose. Right? It was a business where, yes, it was an exciting business. Still, I love that part of it. I love the expansion and opportunity, but it's doing something that impacts people's lives. So that was my story and part of why I think I've been here for so long.

06:12Bill Gallagher: That is a great place to to go, and it nodded me to two prior stories as well. I'm gonna just touch on them briefly because I want the audience to think about these two aspects. So one of them is, like, where you found a connection to something. You know, I joined my wife and grew her the business she founded for more than ten years because when we were thinking about, like, what to focus on in our businesses, we had multiple at the time. I met a woman, and we met a woman together. And I heard for the first time what jewelry was for her, like, what it meant to her and what it was. And so I had no background in jewelry, but I got passionate about and excited about and worked on growing a jewelry business because I suddenly heard something. Like, it was deeply meaningful to her. Empowering. It made her feel special. You know? Boom. I'm like, okay. I'm in. Right? And I had to learn a lot of things along the way. I learned a lot, like, you know, about color trends and accessories. And I became had an exceptionally keen view of when the shoes did or didn't work with the outfit for a straight guy. Like, I have a pretty good view of that. And so, like, what was the emotional moment where you started to care about something, where you realized it mattered, where you felt connected? And that's the thing I heard, and it reminded me of that story. And I've worked with a lot of founders who, like, wanna pitch either

07:54Bill Gallagher: For investors or for prospective employees or partners or to the media or things like that, they don't start with that. Like, why do you even care? Like, what is special about this business? I mean, you can make money lots of different ways. And is it just making money, or is there something about this particular thing that you're doing that you care about? And we want to get that out there. Like, when was the thing that you really saw that? And then I also think about, like, deeper. You reminded me a couple of years ago, post-COVID, we went to see my in-laws, my wife's mother and her stepdad. He's in his nineties. And he's like, I need to get a haircut. I just, you know, because they had been indoors with COVID for a couple of years, like, in their age and that kind of thing, in their stage of life. So I took him to get a haircut. And as I took him to get a haircut, he just was like, oh, I feel like a—I feel human again. I feel so great. He started telling me these things. And then, right, because I'm bringing humanity to him. So thinking about, like, whatever situation, where do we see and connect with human beings? More and more things can get automated, can get AI-ified, but where are you bringing that? And then in that moment, he also said he said, I'm tired. I'm done. And he explained—it took me half a beat—but he was saying that he was ready to go, to die. And it wasn't at all sad. It was, look, I can't tell my wife this. I need to talk to somebody to tell them. And so he starts to tell me about—he's ready to let go, to move on, to whatever comes after this life. And I'm like, okay, I can hear that. You know? I'm your son-in-law. And so I just listened to him. And I said, tell me about your life and tell me about, are there any regrets? Is there anything in the way of you, like, letting go? And so we got the haircut, then we went to lunch, then we lingered a little bit. We shared a Reuben sandwich and a Diet Coke, and he talked to me about all the things and his kids and his friends and his neighbors and all the highs and lows and that kind of thing. And I kept inspecting, like, is there anything you need to do? Do we need to call any of the kids? And, you know, do you need to apologize or say anything? And, like, you know? So, like, and he's like, no, we've done what we needed to do. It's okay. Like, if—I'm like, okay, but if you pass today, like, what's, you know? And, you know, we're just talking hypothetically. And then then we went home, and we were doing some paperwork, right, to help them manage their affairs. And after telling some jokes and things like that on the couch, he just slumped over and died.

11:09Arif Abdulla: Wow.

Connecting with humanity in a business that can be automated

11:15Bill Gallagher: And it was the most beautiful, most beautiful kind of peaceful passing, and so complete, and so—like, he was happy. He's joking about his life, and then he was gone. And, like, I hope someday that I could go in such a way, you know, so well. And I feel so privileged to have been there for someone in that, you know—we had no idea that was going to be his last day, but I was treating it as if it was a precious moment to, like, listen to and be with someone. And I think that's, like, a core message that you brought. You, like—so I think that connecting with that humanity, with our clients, with our customers, you tapped into it. You reminded me of mine. Hopefully, between your story and this one, our listeners, our viewers remember the importance of, like, bringing the human connection to that, because that is gold. Right? That's what can't be done by your AI today.

12:25Arif Abdulla: Absolutely. And thank you for sharing that. It's such a beautiful story. And as difficult as those moments are, I'm glad you had that experience. Right? Because a lot of people don't get that moment. And hearing other people going—like, we see it every day. We have a concept. We call it happier aging. Like, we think happier aging right to the very end. And in your case, that haircut—that's he felt like himself. Right? And it can be as simple as that. And I think that mindset is so important as we think about these moments in life.

12:59Bill Gallagher: Yeah. And it becomes a catalyst for, like, that. Like, getting a haircut and how he looked and how he presented himself to the world and the story of all of that and, like, what defined him and that kind of thing. And then, you know, and, like, passing the baton now, the memory of that and then, of course, like, I took a couple pictures of him as he was sitting in the chair and, like, all of that then becomes a thing that I carry. Like, the importance of knowing all those little moments of life and what you cherish and what matters and how we're connected—and that's just great.

13:32Arif Abdulla: Beautiful. Yeah. It really is.

13:35Bill Gallagher: So your work—

13:38Arif Abdulla: This segue?

13:40Bill Gallagher: Your work is finding these franchises. I'm going to connect it back or give you an opening to connect it back. Finding a franchise or connecting with—growing the franchise partners. Right? What is the human component of that?

Finding franchise partners who bring happier aging to their markets

13:56Arif Abdulla: Right. I mean, so I would say my role is finding people that can bring that concept of happier aging, that moment that you shared, to their communities, right, to their city, to their people, to their market. And it's not just about growing. It's about taking this concept of happier aging that we so deeply believe in—and we believe everyone should have that opportunity—to more and more people around the world. And so one of the things that I look for is that connection to our purpose, because that franchisee in every community is the most important conduit of our purpose in that market. Right? They're going to be the one leading the team, bringing that culture there, those core values there, and we've got to ensure that we're bringing in people that are in it for the right reasons. I'm not saying it can't be because you also want to make money. That's great. But it has to be equal parts, you know, profit and purpose. They have to be in it equally to impact people's lives and create those moments that you got to experience, that I've got to experience. Right? We want them bringing that to their market and their community.

15:06Bill Gallagher: Yeah. I love that. So you're looking at, like, why this business? Why this category of nursing? Why this kind of business to be in? Like, do you actually see and notice these people? Because it's not necessarily easy. So dealing with people who are older, who have health issues, who are uncomfortable could be really challenging as well.

15:25Arif Abdulla: Yeah. Yeah. It is. I think if the franchise partner is connected to the purpose, the business is hard. Right? I mean, it's a twenty-four-seven business. There's going to be peaks and valleys in it. You know, when you think about our client's, sort of, call it, life cycle, inevitably, they pass away. Right? They either move to another care setting—obviously, as things progress, sometimes that happens—or, you know, they pass away. And that can be really challenging and emotional for a business owner.

15:57Arif Abdulla: But I think those that are connected to the purpose are kind of inspired by that and know that, okay, we've lost the client, but this is why we do it, and they're thinking about the bigger picture and the impact they're having on the community. And so I think if we stay focused in that area, we create great businesses in the market. And that's what we're looking for. Right? Like, one of the first things I look at when I speak to a prospective franchisee is that connection. It doesn't have to be that they've had health care experience or even personal experience. Like, I think about my story. I stumbled across it at twenty-three. At twenty-three, I wasn't yet in a place where I was caring for elderly parents. Right? I am now, but that's very different. And if I was looking for that personal connection, I probably wouldn't have been chosen to be here. Right? But it's more that I did get excited about it. And some of our best franchisees have gotten excited about it, but it's not just because of the financial opportunity.

16:55Bill Gallagher: I, that's a great insight learning as well. There are these things that we pick up along the way. It could be at eight, ten years old. It could be at sixteen. It could be at twenty-three. I think about many touch points at different things like the paper route or when I was trying to sell event tickets or when I started a newspaper, when I had a radio show. All of those things, like, there's a thread of them that pulled through to almost every other job that I had. And so when I, like, when I heard the thing with the jewelry business, I was like, oh, I see a way to relate to this. Right? Like, I could bring, and then I saw other kinds of things like the way they did things, I knew to do differently. I knew how to do certain things from an operational and technology standpoint at scale that they didn't do in the company at the time. I'm like, oh, I know how to bring that into this place. And I think that you're thinking about, like, what could you do, which is why you could go into a nursing business without having a degree in nursing necessarily.

18:03Arif Abdulla: Right. Right. Yeah. I mean, I look at some of our most successful franchisees don't have health care experience. I think about, you know, we have an incredibly strong executive team. Our CEO came from Gap and brought in systems and processes, and I think, you know, that's what it takes to scale, right, is creating those systems and processes, understanding the business. So I'm a lot more knowledgeable on health care and nursing than I probably ever would have been. But the point is, is that we're taking that and making sure we're building the systems that franchisees can use to scale their businesses in that market.

18:35Bill Gallagher: How did the franchise business start? How did you, like, I think franchising is one of several different growth paths and not suited for everyone. How did you start that? Why did you decide that was a good idea? And talk about the origination of that, and then maybe, like, what you learned about what makes for good franchising after that.

Why franchise over corporate expansion for community-based care

19:01Arif Abdulla: Yeah. I mean, when I go back to when we launched, you know, it was about a year after I'd started that we launched the franchise concept. And I remember the team at the time kind of building out the business case to franchise or expand corporately and presenting both options to the board and kind of going back and forth around it. One of the things that we started to realize is that, you know, our business is so community-focused. Right? You're building relationships in the community. You've gotta know it. It's the PTA. It's the church groups. It's the, you know, hospital social worker that's gonna refer care. It's so community-based. And so we realized we wanted community leaders that were gonna help build this business, and I think that was the right decision. You know, you fast forward twenty years, and here we are. And I think it was being really thoughtful about, okay, why are we, you know, why is this business conducive to franchising? And then I think, you know, we obviously started slow and made sure we got the model right, built those initial systems, and found the right franchise partners. We started in our home market here in Canada in BC, but really understanding who we're looking for, what support do they need to be successful, and systematizing that so that we could cast a wider net and work with folks that had health care experience, that didn't have health care experience, that, you know, maybe had sales experience, maybe didn't. So we wanted to make sure we could cast a broad enough net. But in order to do that, the systems need to support a wide variety of prospective franchise partners. Right? I think to the second question you asked around, like, what makes for good franchising or good for, I, we look at what are the skill sets that we're looking for, and I'd say there's really three things that we've learned are really important in our business. And the first is that sales aptitude, and I think this can apply for a lot of businesses. When you're starting at zero, those franchisees have to get out there and be visible, drive the marketing, talk to people, not be daunted by that part of the business. And so that sales aptitude becomes super important. The second piece is leadership. We want people that have that ability to lead teams, to scale. Because what we learned over time is that, you know, a franchise partner can have success, but if that success is based purely off of their work and their brand and their local market, the business will plateau. And the equity value of the business is built off of that franchisee being able to remove themselves from the business. In order to do that, they've gotta build a team. They've gotta motivate them. They've gotta lead them. And then the last piece, I think, I mean, very simply, work ethic. Right? I think a lot of people are going from the corporate world into, you know, a franchise concept or even into just entrepreneurship. And that shift from, not saying everyone's thinking nine to five, but that mentality of, like, your business is gonna require a lot of work. And we're very clear at setting expectations with partners that you're gonna be working, you know, forty, fifty, sixty hours a week, maybe more in the first fifteen to eighteen months. Like, you've gotta be willing to put that work into it. And once we figured that out, I think we really started to see a lot of success with our franchisees.

Sales aptitude, leadership, and work ethic as selection criteria

22:03Bill Gallagher: You know, it's interesting. My book that we, I opened with talking about, we'll close with. Busy Is Broken. Right? Is the idea that it, like, it does take a certain amount of push, personal push, effort, time to go into start and grow a business. Right? And a certain amount of hours. And then you have to step back and you have to moderate it and you have to elevate your team and that kind of thing. And then, you know, maybe you could run for mayor at some point, which is a full-time job in itself, because you, but only you could do a side thing because you've built a whole team and you've empowered people and you've passed things on in a particular way. But even in the beginning thing, like, if you go from a corporate world, you could put in as many hours as well, but it's about the broadness

22:59Bill Gallagher: I think most of our audience is already past that, but corporate people put in a lot of time. Entrepreneurs put in a lot of time. Business owners, founders put in a lot of time. The difference, though, I think, is how much you think about that role after hours. When I had some corporate jobs in the past, I didn't always think about it as much as I do when I own the business. So it tends to invade every other part of my life in a bigger way. And I have a broader perspective. Like, I own the whole thing. I don't just have a piece of a thing.

Busy is broken and the value of stepping away

23:44Arif Abdulla: Yeah. Well, I love that. If I could just say, I love that concept of busy is broken because you can fill your calendar up with a whole bunch of things that are not gonna drive the business. I think that's such a great concept to drive. Even the more experienced entrepreneur. Even for myself, I think it's always a question. Like, is this the right thing to be working on? Do I have the white space? Am I thinking about the business broadly enough? Because you're right. Busy can be broken. Right? And we teach our franchisees that because they can fill up their whole day working on spreadsheets, doing things that are not driving revenue, and that's the most important thing in the first year or two of the business.

24:21Bill Gallagher: I think a lot of people don't realize the motive. Like, we get busy and we stay busy because we're afraid, because we don't trust, because our identity is solely around the business, because we are just out of habit, because we live in a world that venerates busyness. We have all of these different motivators that push us to be unthinkingly busy. And I think naturally, we are busy engaged people. We have ambition, that kind of thing. But I wanna bring more thoughtfulness to all of it. And then know the value of stepping away. I had a thing I was trying to build with AI a few weeks ago, and it wasn't working. And I spent a whole bunch of hours on it in one day, and it was getting worse, what I was doing, the results that I was getting out of this thing instead of getting better. And I'm like, okay. Enough. I gotta go. And I left, and I went surfing. And I'm out there on the water, and I suddenly had the insight. Like, oh, that's what I was doing wrong. And then I went back. And when my head was totally down and I was obsessed in it, I couldn't see it. And then when I pulled back and now I'm out there riding, and I'm feeling good and that kind of thing, and I'm carving left and right. And I'm like, oh, that's what it was. It was the way I structured the whole thing, the underlying thing, and I was too much in one little piece of it. And I missed something. And, like, that is so useful, which is probably also what's useful about being in a franchise group. Like, you could share with others about what you're grappling with.

26:10Arif Abdulla: It's amazing what space can do for clarity. Right? That space you took and all of a sudden, you have clarity.

26:16Bill Gallagher: It's just a simple kind of thing. And then, like, how do you pull back for a minute? And too often, getting people to say stop. Go do something else. Go skiing. Go take a walk. Go out to dinner. Like, pull back.

26:33Arif Abdulla: At some point, you're, it's three in the morning, and you're obsessing on it, and it's not gonna get any better. That's right. Yeah. Waking up in a cold sweat doesn't help. Right? So take the time to get that clarity.

26:46Bill Gallagher: I still do it. I did last week on something, and I was spinning with a problem. And then after a while, I realized I wasn't gonna go. I woke my wife up. I said, I'm sorry. I gotta talk to you. I need like, my own head internal conversation is not good. I need to bring in a new brain to this. And it was good. Like, then she was awakened. So but that is the trade-off of a good partnership.

27:15Bill Gallagher: So when you think about the franchisor, I'd love for you to maybe share an example or paint a picture. What is the franchisee getting, and what is the franchisor providing? And maybe in your case or fundamentally, like, not just build your own thing? Why franchise? Why franchise out to do expansion, and why use a franchise?

27:46Arif Abdulla: Yeah. Yeah. So I think why franchise out is based on kind of the concept you have. How do you wanna develop the business and the brand? I think, obviously, it allows for probably more rapid expansion of the brand. But more importantly, is it conducive to it? So as I mentioned earlier, that focus on the community-based kind of business that we have. We wanna find leaders in the community. In terms of why franchise, it's a great question. I actually don't think franchising is for everyone, and we're very clear about that. If a franchisee or a prospective franchisee is looking for, hey. I just wanna use the brand, but then I wanna do my own thing. Right? I wanna run my own business, run my own systems, and not really answer to anyone. That's not for us. Right? And quite honestly, that's not a great franchisee. They should not be acquiring a franchise. They should be running their own business. We're looking for people that are entrepreneurial but are wanting to follow a system and a recipe for success and kind of build within that framework. Right? And I'd say the value, obviously, training and support. We've been in the business for twenty-five years as an organization. That understanding of the business and the market and the methodology for growth, I think, is so important. And what the franchisee needs in the first, say, three years is very — we have franchisees that are almost 20 years old. They need very different things at that stage. So when I think back to a franchisee in their first year, we're super prescriptive. Here's your schedule day to day. Here's what you need to do. And not everyone's gonna love that level of prescription. But we know that it leads to success. It puts you in the best position anyways to have success. And so we're super prescriptive. Everything from sales and marketing to recruiting and hiring to finance, everything. And then as the business grows and scales, what they need looks different. Right? In year five, in year eight, in year 10, now it's about leadership and scaling and how do we develop teams and how do we help peer learning happening. Right? So how are we connecting that partner that's in, you know, maybe in Los Angeles, connect with that partner who's in New Mexico that are having similar challenges, they're at similar levels? And I think that's as much a part of the value of the franchise concept as those early years of high direction and high support. Right? And so I think that's, you know, at a higher level what franchising, I think, offers and the value that's there. I'd say for us, you know, we also really focused on a key differentiator, which was centralizing some operations. So, you know, when you think about our particular business, it's very twenty-four seven. You're getting calls around the clock. Most home care owners burn out. When our team first launched the concept, they launched around centralizing that. We're the only franchisor —

What franchisees get from training to twenty-four-seven support

30:21Arif Abdulla: In our industry, that takes the scheduling component on for the franchisee. And so when folks are looking for a franchise concept, what really sets them apart in their industry? And we can talk more about that, but probably not in a great level of detail here. We were really focused on what is our tangible differentiator.

30:40Bill Gallagher: So when you are creating a franchise program, right, and you're interacting, what do they get from you?

30:48Arif Abdulla: Right. So I think it starts with that initial training, onboarding support. Right? Every aspect of launching the business. Yeah. I think the brand, the plan, the recipe. Yeah. The plan, the recipe. I think the brand, the maturity of our brand is quite high. Right? So everything has a campaign. You know, the brand identity is there. The campaigns to go out there and market and sell the concept in market. Yeah. And then that ongoing coaching and support becomes so critical. Right? As they're going through the business, as I mentioned earlier, there's gonna be peaks and valleys. How do you get through them? What are the strategies? Our franchisees, I think, really value that we're always there behind them. It's not a concept that's sort of like, here's the operating model, off you go. It's very relational. And in the early days, we're speaking to them almost daily, right, to help them build that business. And, again, I think what they get later on is what does it look like at year five? How do you scale the business? You know, we have a whole program around scaling the franchise and bringing in management team so that the franchisee can eventually step out of the business. That, to me, is the value over the long term. And then the last piece I'll say is that support around the clock. For us in our particular business, you know, being able to provide that tangible support to their clients and caregivers twenty-four seven so that the franchisee doesn't have to do that makes this business much more scalable.

32:11Bill Gallagher: So if I'm a McDonald's franchise operator, they're gonna send me my french fries and my coffee beans and, you know, all kinds of things like that. What do you actually give them day to day in terms of services or things like that?

32:24Arif Abdulla: Yeah. So, I mean, I think the training and support is the biggest part of it, right, is the foundations training, the tools and collateral, the operations manual, the campaigns. To me, that's a big part. It's a service offering. Right? It's, you know, I think about even as an example, it's not just the franchisee training. We centralize all of the care designer, the management level training, the training for the individual caregiver in market. That's centralized. So it's all done through our central office so our franchisees can focus really on two things: recruiting and hiring, and sales and marketing. Everything else is really provided to them, right, in that package to follow. There's no french fries in our business, but there's a secret sauce to driving revenue in market and doing that at scale and doing that with speed. Right? So I think that's what our franchisees really value, and, obviously, we've had success, 400 units, four countries. You know, it's really, and I think what's underestimated in the market is service-based franchisors provide a significant opportunity, not just Nurse Next Door. I'm saying just generally building out a service business where you don't have, you know, the ceiling of, say, seats in a restaurant. Right? You don't have that upper end ceiling of the business. When our franchisees are in a market, they don't have that. Their business can grow as much as they're wanting to build out in their market. Right? They don't have that same kind of restriction in place. And so a service-based business, home care, other industries, I think, really provides that opportunity.

33:53Bill Gallagher: Couple of companies that I've coached have been franchise, either franchisors or franchise licensees, and so they've been on both sides of it. And it's interesting to me where entrepreneurism comes in and where it doesn't. So one, a group of hair salons, and the principal innovation beyond just applying the recipe well was a change, innovation in their promotions, especially around the launch. So they were able to get profitable faster and do more efficient promotions to get started than was recommended. They did one little innovation there. I've got a client now, last few years, that has grown a series of, and, actually, they're featured in the book too, so we can say who they are. It's Tony Hartle at Crunch Fitness. Undefeated Tribe is his operation within that. He has rights in a number of states, and they've built out a bunch of them. But so there's a playbook around opening a gym. There's a playbook around operating a gym, and those playbooks are getting refined and refined beyond what Crunch Fitness gives them. And then there's a particular innovation around the market partner, the people that run the operations, and the kind of their motivation, the way they're hired, their compensation that is a unique thing to them that has had them growing. And this is a company that, you know, went from start-up just a handful of years ago to will be over a hundred gyms and a billion dollar value very soon. You know? Wow. So like, that's amazing. Right. But and so there is a place for innovation in that kind of thing. And I wonder what you see that's come out of innovations from your franchise partners versus what you provide them and when that's appropriate or not appropriate.

Innovations from franchisees that scaled across the system

35:57Arif Abdulla: Yeah. It's a good question. I mean, I think what we see is partners unlocking different revenue opportunities in market. Right? And then us, I mean, the greatest example that I think a lot of folks in franchising know is that the Big Mac was invented by a franchisee. I think everyone's heard that story. You know, for us, what we see is, you know, our core business is senior care. We keep an aging family member at home. And then we see in certain markets, there's different opportunities that present themselves. In, I remember in the US, it was the VA opportunity that was something that was sort of built within a franchise location, and we saw that, supported them, and then scaled that across the country. Massive opportunity. You know, in Australia, it was disability services. Right? And seeing that.

36:36Bill Gallagher: And that's you're providing services to VA benefit recipients and then billing to the VA?

36:41Arif Abdulla: That's right. Yeah. Exactly. So, you know, seeing that, or in one of our markets up here, there was providing services for children, special needs children. And so those innovations coming in, and, you know, it's not a new burger, but it's a different way and different market we can go after. And building, you know, these supplementary revenue streams become really tangible for franchisees, and it gives us a model to say, okay. Here's what it looks like, and here's how you can go after it. So that value certainly is there. And then I think the other thing too, I'd say innovation from our side has been a lot around leadership development. So we built an entire program around leadership development because what we started to see is, you know, twenty years ago, we launched our franchise system. Of course, you're thinking long term, but some of those innovations come later on. And we realized we need to support franchise partners to build those larger teams, to build their management teams, to build leadership within their organization. So we call it Bold Kindness. It's our leadership philosophy, and providing that across our system has led to a lot of great innovation within the market.

37:49Bill Gallagher: You know, I heard about a book recently that some of your franchise operators might like. It's about recognizing when they're too busy and then rethinking.

37:59Bill Gallagher: They probably will.

38:02Arif Abdulla: Yeah.

38:04Bill Gallagher: I'm so naked in my self-promotion. Maybe they should read Busy Is Broken. I'll send you 200 copies. Awesome. Or 400 it is, right? So that's a good book sale for me. So I think it'd be interesting to think about, like, maybe there's some stories that you could share with us where it went badly, where it wasn't the right fit, where it didn't work out. You can anonymize, but maybe you could paint a picture of what doesn't work, because I think that's as helpful often as what works.

Ending a franchise process when the fit is wrong

38:49Arif Abdulla: So I'll tell you a story. So I was on a call today. So our discovery process is about ninety days long, right? So as we get to know a candidate, their interest, their experiences, etcetera, it ends with what we call a final interview day, discovery day, kind of common language to use in franchising, where they meet the team. We spend a whole day with them. But right before that day, I have a call with virtually every prospective franchisee. And I was on a call this morning speaking with a prospective franchisee that had been researching the business for probably forty-five days. And I realized in the call that this franchisee was not the right fit for our business. And they're about ready to commit themselves to it and pay a franchise fee and do all those things. And it's not easy, right? Like, you're looking at me like, okay, well, maybe they'll be successful, but they're not the right fit for our business. And I think twenty years ago, fifteen years ago, I think we made the mistake—I made the mistake—of maybe allowing for that. Not consciously, right? It's like you're trying to grow and you think they've got some skill set and it's great and you move forward. And today, on the call, I said, this is not the right fit for you. And so we ended—I ended the process right there and then and did it in the right way, as much for them as for us. But what I learned over the years is that dealing with the wrong partner is way more brain damage than it's worth. It just doesn't work. And quite honestly, it's bad for both groups, right? They're investing financial resources, they're investing time. Quite honestly, they're investing their life, right? And they have families and they have goals and dreams. And to go forward when you don't believe it's the right fit is the wrong thing to do. So to me, that's been a big learning: making sure we're really clear on who's gonna be—not to say we're gonna get it perfect every time, but if you can cut down on those mistakes, you're gonna grow a lot faster in the long run.

40:48Bill Gallagher: You know, it sounds a little bit like calling off the wedding as you approach the altar, right? Like, we're not gonna go through with this marriage. Everybody's here, everybody's dressed up, we're right about to say I do, and then you're like, yeah, maybe not. And I think a lot of times in business and in life, you have a gut, and then sometimes you just go through it out of inertia. And then, but it actually, although that's awkward in that moment, it's more expensive later—in every sense—to dissolve a marriage, a business, than than just before you've done it. So even if you've invested a lot to get there, and I think that there's the gut that tells you, maybe this isn't a good idea. And then I do think you need to inspect. Well, wait a minute, why do I think that? Are my facts right? Like, I wanna sort of double-check before I then bail on a thing.

41:47Arif Abdulla: Yeah. I mean, you certainly don't wanna be reactive, but I think when you have that feeling, you have to listen to it. You have to pay attention to it. And I think it's a really great point you raise: ask yourself, well, how do we get here, right? What is our system, broken? Is there something that needs to evolve there? And sometimes the answer is yes. Sometimes the answer is no. Like, we got to that stage and this is a point of that call. But being able to and having the courage to sort of say no, right? Or in some cases, it might be to fire a client. It might be to say no to a revenue opportunity. Like, you have to be able to make those decisions.

42:24Bill Gallagher: Years ago, we spent considerable time and energy winning an account with Macy's and Bloomingdale's. And, you know, it's very prominent, like, huge retailer, big opportunity for us. Lot of work went into getting to that point, and we're going through the handshaking process of getting our distribution set up, going through the orders and things like that. And in it, I saw that the fundamental relationship there was unlike our other stores. It was very adversarial and always, like, pushing the supplier on their back foot, pressuring to unseat, unbalance you and the whole thing, and not to help through with partnership like we have to win together. It wasn't a win-win thing. It was like, let me push you and see how far I can push you and dangle the carrot of, like, this is worth millions. And I called for some help with one of the operational matters to the principal buyer whose motivation should have been for the partnership to work, and they were pretty hostile to me in response. And I paused for a second, and then my gut was like, oh, it's off. This is not right. And and then I'm like, I did, like, quick, like, rational picking apart of what I felt emotionally in that moment. And I said, you know, I feel like maybe if this is the way it is at this point, that maybe we shouldn't be doing this. Like, this is not—it's gonna get worse from here. This is a point where it should be more, like, rosy, if anything. And her reaction was very, like, hostile, like pushing back on me. And I was like, okay. Well, I guess we should stop this project. And I, like, ended it in that call, right? I went from trying to solve a problem to ending a multimillion-dollar relationship in one phone call. I did go through the paces. I did check a little bit on it, but it was—and she just was livid. Like, how dare you kind of, you know, like, oh, I can't believe this. And now I'm sure at that point, she had some investing in time and energy in it as well. So she wanted to go forward, but there was no breaking of character there.

45:03Arif Abdulla: Well, that probably validated your feeling, right? It's like, this is not—

45:07Bill Gallagher: I was like, oh. And I got off, and I was like, okay. That was all uncomfortable, and I'm a little shaken, but I feel like I dodged a bullet. Like, I'm glad I backed away.

45:20Arif Abdulla: Good for you.

45:21Bill Gallagher: And it cost millions of dollars, right? Like—

45:24Arif Abdulla: But maybe saved you more in the long run, right? Like, maybe saved you more in avoided—

45:29Bill Gallagher: Maybe saved me more in the long run. That early heart attack. Yeah. Hey, we're kinda running out of time. I'd love for you to share, because we've had Ken on the podcast before, what have you learned or watched in working with Ken over the years? Like, I mean—

Learning from Ken Sim to take chances in uncomfortable growth

45:50Bill Gallagher: I realized he's a friend. This is all very public, but share what you can.

45:59Arif Abdulla: Ken's been a great mentor in taking chances and not being afraid about making a mistake or being wrong. I think even, you have to have super thick skin to be in politics, and I commend him for what he's done there. But I think one of the things I've just taken away even just through osmosis with Ken is not being afraid to take those chances. And I think about, I've been asked to do things here that I've never done before. Hey, lead our US business. Hey, let's expand into Australia. I've never done that before. And not being afraid, not having that hold you back, not having a lack of experience hold you back. So now you have to make up for that lack of experience in different ways. But to me, that was a big piece of it, is not being afraid to do things that are uncomfortable. And I think even our CEO, one of the things she always focuses on is like, growth happens when you're uncomfortable. Right? I think that's so important to know that when you're feeling uncomfortable, that's probably a good thing. You're in a growth place where you have the opportunity to grow.

47:13Bill Gallagher: That's a brilliant little thought to finish on. Like, the discomfort is useful, is growth oriented, and makes us alive, and we accomplish things that we had no idea we could do. Past shows, you can go find them with Kathy and with Ken, Kathy Thorpe, Ken Sim. And we talked to them, so you might be interested after hearing this conversation. Arif, that's so helpful. If you want to know more about Nurse Next Door, nursenextdoorfranchise.com is a part of the business. I really appreciated our conversation today. Thank you so much for coming on and joining us.

47:49Arif Abdulla: Thanks for having me.

47:51Bill Gallagher: And in case you hadn't heard, I have a book coming out, Busy Is Broken. It's out now as you get this. Busyisbroken.com is the website. We'll have the diagnostics, some extra things there. Go pre-order, order wherever, whenever you're hearing this. Any format. You like to listen to a book, I narrate the book for the audiobook, Kindle, and hardcover, softcover, like, whatever you want. It's all there wherever you get them. They should be everywhere, Amazon, etcetera. So busyisbroken.com. Thanks again, everyone, for watching, for listening. Until next time, keep scaling. Thanks to Wanda, to Verne, and all the rest. Keep scaling. Busy Is Broken. All that. Bye bye. Thanks for listening today. One last thing. If anything in this episode hit home, my book digs into it further. Busy Is Broken. Do Less. Scale More. It's all about how to stop drowning in work and build a business and a team that scales without you. Available right now with content samples at busyisbroken.com. Go grab it. Be less busy.