Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
John Francis is back in the franchising business with PostNet, after a short and doomed foray to a dot-com in 2000.
He is the area franchisee in Minnesota and Wisconsin for PostNet, 1,200-square-foot stores that offer everything from copying, printing and computing to mailing and faxing. There are seven in Minnesota; the first opened in Blaine in November 2001. He plans for 50 to be opened in each state over the next 15 years.
Francis is part of the family that owned The Barbers, which grew to 1,000 Cost Cutters and other hair-cutting salons over 36 years. “So PostNet is where The Barbers was 10 years ago,” Francis says. “I’m excited about that, because I know where we’re headed, and I think that I can take my experience at The Barbers and apply it to the PostNet model.
“It’s like going back to Disneyland — you know which rides to get back on and the ones to avoid.”
It takes about $150,000 for an owner/operator to open a PostNet store. That includes $40,000 for working capital until the store flows cash, which generally takes 12 to 18 months.
“We sold The Barbers in the summer of 1999. I screwed around in the summer of 2000. I got involved in a dot-com. I got out whole; I was very, very lucky. Then I decided to stick with what I know, which is franchising,” Francis says.
He looked at more than 30 different franchises that weren’t in the area yet, and was heavily recruited to buy the area rights by the PostNet people, based in Las Vegas. He figures his biggest benefit for franchisees is site selection. “That’s one of my particular strengths, real estate work,” he says. He also likes PostNet’s chances now that UPS has bought all the Mail Boxes Etc. stores. UPS is known for shipping, not the full range of services at PostNet, Francis maintains, and operators there are now constrained in matters like pricing.
“The point is, it’s a familiar process, it’s familiar people, it’s the same general category of retail services,” Francis says. “The nice thing is, and I don’t know how to say this the right way, I’m not dealing with hairdressers.”
John Francis, PostNet: 651.698.1334;*********@*******mn.com“> jo*********@*******mn.com; www.postnet.com
