Rick Versace: 0:00

the absolute best way to treat your drive is. If they're gonna be on the independent contractor side is to make them have a franchise. If they have a franchise, then you don't have to really worry'cause they're actually buying a business from you.

Ken Lucci: 0:38

Well, good afternoon, uh, everybody on the Ground Transportation Podcast out in the audience on YouTube, watching us on Facebook and listening to us on Spotify, or Apple. My name is Ken Luci from Driving Transactions and I am very pleased to have with me. Two generations of Versaces that operate a one a global ground transportation, one of the biggest operators in Florida, and frankly one of the most prestigious in the country. So I'm really, really happy that you agreed to do the episode. We captured another top 1% operators, uh, that would come onto the podcast. So thanks guys. Uh, obviously we, we have Rick Jr. and we have. The big man himself Rick and Rick, thanks very much.

Rick Versace: 1:27

You are welcome. Good to be here. Thank you.

Ken Lucci: 1:30

Rick, senior, you give us a little bit of a history of a one A. give us a history of your company, what got you into the business and, and how have you succeeded over all of these years, trials and tribulations. So give us a little brief history of a one a.

Rick Versace: 1:45

Well, I actually started in New York City, you know, about 40 years ago, and, and back then I thought the traffic was so far outta control that it would be difficult to make money. So we sold everything and we had always vacationed in Florida and I said, you know what? I wanna live where I like to be, you know, outta all the places in the, that I've traveled. I, I've always loved the, the weather, the people. Just the lifestyle here. So I packed up the, the entire family. Me and my wife have five kids. Rick Junior was just going into kindergarten back then, and, and we, you know, we drove down to Tampa, drove down that side of the coast and said, it's nice here, but it's too quiet. Came across Alligator Alley, looked at Fort Lauderdale, said, ah, maybe a little bit not family. As friendly as we want. When we got to Bo Raton, it was like the Garden of Eden. We said, this is it. And we just put down our stakes. Decided what we wanted to do. And at first I didn't think I was gonna get back into ground transportation because you know, it's 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A lot of aggravation, a lot of stress. And I tried a couple other things and they weren't quite the same. So then I said, you know what? I better stick to what I know. And got back into the game and started A one A.

Ken Lucci: 2:58

What year was this, Rick? What year did you found A one A?

Rick Versace: 3:01

That was 96, 19 96.

Ken Lucci: 3:04

So you've seen a lot, you've been through, September 11th, you've been through the financial crash, you've been through Uber, Lyft, the whole world. You know, TNCs coming into the space.

Rick Versace: 3:17

And the hits keep on coming.

Ken Lucci: 3:18

Oh, oh, absolutely. But, but what sets you apart? How did you grow from a startup to being one of the biggest in Florida? Certainly, again, one of the most prestigious and well-known in corporate travel around the country, as well as in the limousine industry. What sets you apart from the sea of operators in Florida?

Rick Versace: 3:39

I think there are probably two things. I think consistency, showing up all the time, being there, not giving up, you know, giving it a hundred percent really caring about the people you transport, the people that work with you, the, you know, just having that, you know, take care of people and take care of problems, attitude. And I think the other thing was, you know, this industry is a really, a great industry and people are so friendly and so. Welcoming and so willing to help each other. So I'm not the most brilliant guy in the world, but if I traveled to Chicago and learned something from George Jacobs and said, Hey, can I do that back at my place? Yeah, go ahead, do that. And would you, you know, so for the last 40 years we've been curating the best practices of operators all over the country, bringing them back here, setting it up, and we put them into practice.

Ken Lucci: 4:26

well, the key there is you have to be willing to learn and listen, right? And so, you know, you, you've hit upon, you know, George's absolute legacy in the business, and I know some of the biggest networks in the country trust you with their work, but you also have a lot of fantastic corporate clients and private clients on your own. What, what do you think the secret is? There's obviously people out there that come into the market with lower price. What do you think your secret has been? The staying power of a one a.

Rick Versace: 4:54

Well, you know, we don't compete on price. We really just try to deliver the best possible product that we can, and that involves a lot. It involves a lot of training, a lot of caring, a lot of follow up, a lot of things that, you know. Some people might see that's a waste of time. Like even though we have care alerts on that, we still make the phone calls and confirm daily with our clients, with our affiliates, we make sure that the smallest details are looked at and taken care of. We just try to reduce errors and we, we really just try to make it better every single day. If we can get 1% better every day,

Ken Lucci: 5:28

Sure.

Rick Versace: 5:29

that's a home run.

Ken Lucci: 5:30

Well, you, you, you cannot, you, you cannot be low priced and deliver the highest quality service. You can have a similar vehicle, right? You know, anybody can get a loan, a zero down loan on a brand new Escalade. The key is you have to have the systems in place, and you have to have the people in place. That's what I think a lot of operators don't get, especially some of the younger generation. Not that I'm, I'm in a pretty old man at this point, but it's not price, it's not, you know, the biggest Google ad or the most Google ad spend, it is the highest quality service, and frankly, you can't afford to do that being the lowest price. So, Rick Junior, tell us, how did you get into the business, by the way, he said you moved to Florida when you were in kindergarten. So what was that 12 years ago? Or

Rick Versace Jr.: 6:15

Oh yeah. I wish

Ken Lucci: 6:17

So what, what made you get into the business with dad?

Rick Versace Jr.: 6:21

Honestly, from the time that he started A one A when, I guess I was six years old, I was getting dragged to the office on the weekends washing cars, you know, I was always around the business and just growing up with him, having a one A and you know, other, you know, multiple other businesses. I always kind of knew that I was. Ultimately wanted to work with my father and help grow, you know, whatever business he was in at, you know, at that time when I was ready to do so. And, and ultimately, you know, I went to college, ended up working in finance and investment banking for a few years in New York. And after, you know, working 12, 14 hour days for somebody else, I, uh, uh, very quickly decided, all right, new York's a little cold. I like South Florida and let me go back home. You start working with my family and, and working on our own business and to help try to grow that. So that was a big part of it. You know, I, I always knew that I was ultimately going to, help to grow the family business. Uh, but I, I think going out and trying a few different things before that, it, it ultimately helped me really, you know, bring that back down to, to South Florida and to A one A and

Rick Versace: 7:37

And I kind of did that with all my kids. I pushed them away, made them go out and try something else so that when they came back they appreciated what they had and they said they could see the difference. You know?'cause if you just give them everything that's not that easy. And it was funny'cause

Ken Lucci: 7:50

you just said a mouthful there. You just said a mouthful there. No question about it.

Rick Versace Jr.: 7:55

Uh, one of the biggest things like growing up, we all played sports. Like my dad, he never missed a baseball game, like never missed a one of my sister's cheerleading competitions or vacations. And I had other friends that, you know, is like, they never saw their parents. So, you know, that aspect of owning your own business and, and being able to create your own schedule and, you know, you're, you're always working. You work more than someone that works in corporate America. But you're just able to kind of navigate your time a little bit differently. And I, I think that was a, a big draw for me. You know, know, I'd, I'd say we're it a little bit past a lifestyle business at this point, but you kind of create your own lifestyle,

Ken Lucci: 8:30

yeah, yeah, But that's a benefit, right? You know, somebody said to me, I want to get, I wanna own my own business and make my own hours. Terrific. Number one, they're gonna be three times longer. But you are gonna have some flexibility, right? You are gonna have flexibility and that you know your time is your own. That's a heavy responsibility. Okay. Because you can't go out and play golf four times a week and get the job done. So, but, but you know, Rick, I have to comment on, I come from an Italian family as well, and you know, I think back to the Godfather movie about Michael had really no choice but to, or come into the family business. Until the very end. The Godfather said, I want, I always wanted more for you. Well then why did you push him into the business? Why don't you let him go out on his own and make him go out on his own? I think it makes the kids more well-rounded. I think they see, and they appreciate the real world is it's tough to work for somebody else. You know, you may think, okay, nine to five investment banking, they grind those kits. They grind them,

Rick Versace: 9:38

Grind them up and spit'em out.

Ken Lucci: 9:40

but, but it gave Rick Junior, it's more he came back much more well-rounded. So tell us about the franchise. What was the b We're here to talk about a one, a franchise group. Tell me what the initial thought process and the reasoning behind getting into, uh, creating a franchise group for a one a.

Rick Versace: 11:18

Well, you know, there were several factors that. that brought us to that, area. And what we, what we started doing first is we started franchising to the drivers that had worked with us before. You know, they were, most of'em in Florida, all independent contractors. You know, at the time there was a big thing going on in the industry. Should you use W2, should you do use independent contractors? I wasn't really involved in the NLA on the board level or anything back in those, and I called them and said, who's the best labor attorney in the United States? I want a plan of action that I know I'm gonna do it the right way. And they referred me to somebody in Washington, DC and I told him, what I was looking for, I wanted to make sure that the way I'm doing it is right. I don't have any issues. And he took a long time and cost me a lot of money. But when he came back, he said, the absolute best way to treat your drive is. If they're gonna be on the independent contractor side is to make them have a franchise. If they have a franchise, then you don't have to really worry'cause they're actually buying a business from you. So they can work as much as they want. You don't have to pay them overtime because it's their business. They're running it, they're doing all the things they have to do to be successful. I say, well, that sounds great. So then I had to run out and find a franchise attorney and start the franchise process, which is another whole ball of wax. It took a long time and a lot of money to make that happen. But we started implementing it. And a funny thing happened when we started doing that, our business doubled because now all those guys that used to just work here, they were all the owners and they had a vested interest in making it successful. And before we used to say, Hey, you gotta hand out business cards. You have to do this, you have to market, you have to make it. And nobody would ever do it. Now that they were an owner, they were saying, Hey, I need business cards. Hey, I gotta do this. Hey, I found this account there. They were all out marketing. They were all selling, they were all doing what they had to do, and our business absolutely doubled. So it

Ken Lucci: 13:10

It changed the perception of what they were working for.

Rick Versace Jr.: 13:14

Yeah, they're working for themselves, not just working as an employee or as an independent. Contractor for

Ken Lucci: 13:19

So, so let's step back. You initially did this because, look, I went through it as an operator. We were all W2 and we still got sued. Okay, because somebody convinced an oper, one of my W2 drivers, he wasn't making enough overtime. He should get overtime on his tips. But you decided you wanted to create the franchise system, which talk a little bit about that process because it's not poof, I'm gonna call myself a franchise. Tell us about starting the process because that's extraordinarily difficult.

Rick Versace: 13:51

It's very difficult and it's very expensive because the lawyer's fees never stop. It's a federal registration. So because it's federal, it supersedes everything else, and you have to follow very specific criteria. You have to have a third party auditor audit your books every year, which, you know, that's very expensive by itself. And there's a lot of record keeping and there's a lot. Uh, you know, to set it up and make it work, and then to be in compliance, like what they have to do, you know, how, what you have to disclose to your franchise, what you have to, you know. Do all the things you have to do to, to make it work. And make it work right. And, you know, it was, it was a hassle. but it, it was worth it because it really grew the business and it, it made people stay around. We have, we have, franchisees that have been with us from the very beginning. They don't go anywhere. They stay because they own it. You know, they, they wanna sell their franchise when they're done. They can, they like the increase in value that they, that, that they're seeing. They like. The whole process that we do, and we, and kind of the, the mechanism is we're like, we are gonna do everything for you. We're gonna do all your sales, your marketing, your all, all everything that you need to be successful. All you have to do is provide absolutely extraordinary service every single time. Just wow the customer. Follow the rules, do it legitimately, and you'll be very successful and you know, it's worked.

Ken Lucci: 15:10

Well, they have a vested interest to make sure that to go the extra mile. Because it's a sense of ownership that they don't get as a quote driver or chauffeur. So tell us about the next step of wanting to go out and duplicate this success around the country. What was the reasoning for that? And I know that Rick Jr. Had a lot to do with that, but so, so tell us

Rick Versace: 15:32

ahead, Rick. you you

Ken Lucci: 15:33

yeah, tell us about that.

Rick Versace Jr.: 15:36

Well, I think ultimately it came down to. Wanting to provide as a consistent level of service for our clients. You know, in our industry, if anyone has a network, we're all doing something pretty similar. You know, we're contracting with affiliates, we're getting affiliate pricing. We're, you know, hoping and trusting that our affiliates on the ground are providing the same level of service that we do. But ultimately, you know, not everybody operates the same way. You know, they may have different procedures for when they go to the airport. They may have different dress code. They, they may have a different, uh. You know, grooming standards within their business and when we're selling to these Fortune 500 companies. A big thing that we're selling is consistency. That when they get picked up in Boston, when they get picked up in Miami, when they get picked up in London, that it's going to be the exact same service every single time. And you know, we looked at it, you know, how, what are the different ways you're able to do that? You know, there's, there's companies doing roll-ups that you can go purchase smaller companies in different cities. That could be kind of an offshoot of your, your overall corporate business. And we had bought other companies in the past, but remote locations, what we have found is it's very difficult to run a, a high operating, operation in different markets without absolute excellent, uh, management. And that's very difficult to find particularly in this industry. And I think there's a reason that so many companies are. Owner operated, uh, because no one's gonna care more than you do in your own business. So, you know, ultimately, you know, and franchising isn't a new thing. You know, everybody knows franchising and, and we were already doing the franchising in South Florida with the single vehicle operators, so it made a lot of sense for us to say, you know, we have, we built up these systems and processes in South Florida over the past 30 plus years. There's no reason that we can't package this up. And. Be able to implement it within other people's operations or, or within a, a startup operation in different cities. Um, so that's what we ultimately decided to do. And, um, you know, giving people the resources to be able to operate as a larger operator, even if they only have two or three vehicles or even no vehicles, and show them this is what you need to do to be able to grow consistently and profitably in your market year over year. And from our side, from a corporate side, they're servicing our clients and we know that it's gonna get done right and done to our standards a hundred percent of the time.

Ken Lucci: 18:06

And franchise SY franchises specialize in systems proven method and ongoing collaboration. It it, it's difficult but to get people to focus on creating systems and written processes. But the more systems you have in place. For every duplicatable process in your business, the more efficient you are, the more profitable are, and the higher quality you are. Simple as that. But you are also bringing to the table 30 years of knowledge and a proven track record and some of that. Rick is the school of hard knocks. You tried something, it, it didn't work, and you're stopping you. You can say to the franchise, listen. If you wanna do that, that's fine. Here's what I learned from this. So your team, you're bringing that kind of experience to the table, so tell me, what is your ideal candidate? What, what do you look for in an operator? To become a franchise?

Rick Versace Jr.: 19:03

Uh, so there's two different main different types of franchises we offer. One is a startup franchise, which is someone who's not in the industry, and the other is what we mostly focus on, or, and that would be a conversion franchise. So that's someone who's already in operation and they're converting their business to a one, a global ground. But they're all, they're all almost co-branded. You know, it could be Diamond Class chauffeurs slash A one eight Global Ground, Boston.

Ken Lucci: 19:26

yep. Credibility to them, it gives them instant national credibility.

Rick Versace Jr.: 19:31

Yeah. You know, our, our franchisees now, I can't tell you how many times they said, yeah, I walked into, you know, the Copley Plaza and when I told'em I was with A one A, they actually knew who I was versus when I would go in there. In the past there I was one of a thousand other operators that walked in there. So it gives them instant credibility, gives them the systems, uh, and then it gives'em support from a, you know, a larger corporate team, both from a sales standpoint, from an operations standpoint, accounting standpoint. And because of that, you know, our ideal. Conversion franchise is someone who's doing anywhere from 250,000 to, you know, a million and a half a year. And typically it's someone who, either they've been in business for a long time and can't seem to get over that hump. Maybe they've been, yeah, yeah, they've been doing a million dollars for the last 10 years and can't figure out why they can't get to that next level.

Ken Lucci: 20:23

they can't scale it.

Rick Versace Jr.: 20:24

it's, uh, most of the time, I'd probably say nine times outta 10. It's just a lack of systems. They don't have. The, you know, a CSR that works nine to five every day.'cause they're still answering the phones themselves or they're running out and they're, you know, picking up a last minute job at 2:00 PM because they'll, they wanna throw a little bit of extra money in their pocket, not looking at the value they're giving up. If they were in the office calling on clients or servicing their clients better, how much more that would enable them to grow. So. really finding those operators that they want to grow. They have an appetite for growth, but they just can't figure out what those next steps are. And

Ken Lucci: 21:06

It makes a big difference. So I don't think anybody who owns a small business doing a million dollars is, not working hard. They're all working. Everybody's working hard. The issue is, are you as the owner of your business doing what an owner should do or are you doing. Administrative work. Are you doing things during primetime selling time that are keeping you from growing? It's very difficult. back in the day, I, I worked with someone who used to, use. The phrase is what I'm doing right now, providing maximum value to my business. And a lot of, entrepreneurs can't let go of doing every process. I, I bring up an operator. You know, that's been in business 30, 30 years or so, and he, he has certainly had a ceiling on revenue and he says he, he's in his QuickBooks two and a half days a week all day. And I'm like, okay, I am a finance guy. I get it. But that's something you could job out to a bookkeeper. have other owners that say, you know, I just don't have a personality. Ken, I mean, you guys have a very outgoing as well. Well, I can't hire a salesperson. you hit the nail on the head when you say the owner is the best person to represent the company, but as part of a one A, you're giving them a credibility of a national brand.

Rick Versace: 22:36

Yeah. And you know, and you're right Ken.'cause you know what it is like when you are a single, you, you are in business with yourself doing a million,$2 million a year in business. You're wearing all the hats, you're doing everything dispatching, you're driving, you're fixing the cars, you're trying to do your Google campaign, you're trying to set everything up. You're trying to get affiliates. It is hard to do that.

Ken Lucci: 22:53

It is almost impossible.

Rick Versace: 22:55

what we are saying is let us do all that other stuff for you. We've built a national sales team, we've built a national affiliate team, we've built a digital marketing agency. We have all of that stuff covered. You don't have to do that. Join the A one A family. We're gonna take care of that for you in your market. You still represent your company. You still own your company. You still do all the things you did. Just focus on the thing that you do best, that's giving your customer unbelievable service. You know, and, and it, and it really works. And you know, an added benefit is now when you become an A one A franchise. Now affiliates look at you differently. Because of the credibility that we built up over the last 40 years. If you are a one A in Cleveland, they're like, Hey, we know it's gonna be good, because those guys take it very serious. And their training's unbelievable. Their systems are unbelievable. So it really does help. You know, it really makes a DI a big difference.

Ken Lucci: 23:46

And, and it's funny to me that a small business owner, a lot of them are just, they're still employees, but their boss really is not running the company, meaning they're self-employed. They're wearing the owner hat as well as the people doing the, the line employee hat. And what you are doing is you're overlaying the systems on top of that and also your know-how, your knowledge, you know, it's, it's statistically preparing for this, I'm a student of business, I become more of a student of business success. But it also, you have to look at failure in order to really look at the success and. The average independent business does, 50% of them don't make their fifth year. They go out of business within five years. If it's a proven franchise system, the success rate is 90% chance you're gonna make your fifth year. Okay? Because you have proven systems. 80% of franchises survived 10 years, while only 30% of independent businesses survived 10 years.

Rick Versace: 24:56

If those are powerful numbers, Kent,

Ken Lucci: 24:58

They are and, and, and, and I have become a student. You know, I've got a project coming up where I really have to try to delve into all of the small business statistics. The failure rate of small business is frightening. And it's not because they, in our business is so much churn, especially on the below million dollar mark, the million five mark or even the$2 million mark. That's a, that's a tough space to be in because you're on a hamster wheel. So if you have, systems in place, you've automatically increased your success rates. And to me. They have the ability to work with you constantly, continuously to be better and develop your, use, your best practices that you've compiled and, and put into systems over 30 years. It's, it's a winning combination. The statistic that really got me. Because we deal with this all the time. We have companies for sale, and they're tough to sell, and they're tough to sell because they're not profitable. They have no systems. They really have no brand out in the marketplace. They've not built a brand. They've not built a real company. Only 20 to 25% of businesses that are independent businesses that are put up for sale ever sell. That's private business. That's a, a well-known statistic. You could Google it. Franchises. Franchises have three and a half times more resale rate, or 3.5 times more chance that you'll be a successful reseller because if you build out the franchise in certain cases. You'll help them resell it or they can sell it or they can keep it and pass it down. and that to me is, is why if you look at some of the biggest success stories in franchising, you know, they're not, unicorn businesses. They're things we do every single day. They're, they're fast food or they're cleaning services, or they're pest control, their transportation. These are things that we do every single day and the average person can operate those businesses. But why, if it's a franchise system, is the success rate so much better? It's all about the systems,

Rick Versace: 27:09

when they try and sell, like if they're not part of a franchise, it's all on them.'cause they were the owner, they were doing everything. So when that person leaves. You lose a lot of business, you lose a lot. But when you have a system in place, you're not selling what that guy did. You're selling the entire system. And so there's a, a, a much higher and, and you know the other statistics that I just saw, Ken, that I thought was very interesting and you know,'cause you're in mergers and acquisition, that's what you guys do. You know, the average business, you know, in our industry. You're lucky if you get two and a half, three times EBITDA when you go to sell, if that's the valuation you are using. But with a franchise, I saw that you can get anywhere from eight to 12 times EBITDA because it's systems that you are buying, not just assets or a book of business or a phone number. It's a total, totally different thing. So somebody looking to get out with a exit plan down the road, this franchise is absolutely the way to

Ken Lucci: 27:58

Because you could, you are a built in continuity plan. Think about that. You know, business owners don't understand that the more, the deeper and deeper they're involved in the business, the less that business is worth. Okay? You know it. I always tell people to take this test. Can you go away for 30 days? Now I remember when my dad died. My dad died in 20 10 and I was in the limousine industry and I remember handing over the keys to the building to my second in charge. His name was Brent Sour and I'll, I'll be honest with you, he was a great guy. And I said, Brent, I don't know when I'm gonna be back. Okay? Because you know, my family was from Massachusetts. I said, but you'll be back when I can. And I said, FedEx up the payroll checks, good luck. And I could do it. And I could do it because I became the least important person. First of all, I was chaos, so they didn't want me in the, in the operation. You, you did not want me on the dispatch board. There are people watching this now that are going, yep, he was chaos. You didn't want that. But we had systems and the reason we had systems is in my past life. We owned a distributor network, kind of one level below a franchise, and everything was a standard practice. Everything. This is how you bill, this is how you collect, this is how you sell, this is how you market its systems in place, and that's what people struggle with as an independent business person. They don't have somebody like you to go to, they don't. So what's the future look like and what's your ultimate goal with the network? If you said. You know, I, this is what success looks like to me. For the A one, A franchise group, what does it look like?

Rick Versace Jr.: 30:48

Yeah. I would say right now our focus is establishing franchisees in all of the. The top 20 major markets around the

Ken Lucci: 30:56

Sure. Top 20 MSAs. Yep.

Rick Versace Jr.: 30:59

yeah, so that's our, our main focus. But, uh, as we continue getting the word out there about the franchise, we regularly have companies from other areas, you know, rally North Carolina

Ken Lucci: 31:11

Sure.

Rick Versace Jr.: 31:12

uh, you know.

Ken Lucci: 31:13

and coming market, by the way.

Rick Versace Jr.: 31:15

Yeah, yeah. That reach out to us. And we are not shying away from bringing on franchisees in any of those markets. Uh, so I, I would probably say our goal is to be at 20 franchise markets within the next two years. Uh, and with the goal of just continuing to be able to service our clients with that consistent level of service more broadly. Yeah. You know, just in increasing overall quality. You know, one of the big parts of it is just the combined, you know, marketing power behind the, you know, 20 different companies all contributing to a national advertising and sales fund. You know, very quickly starting to be able to. Compete on the levels of, you know, a hundred million dollar company. You know, that's ultimately our goal. Not necessarily trying to, again, roll up all of the companies throughout the country, but more allowing everyone to participate together and create success together. You know, that, that's what really gets me excited about the whole idea is that again, these companies that are doing a million dollars a year for the last five years. The idea that we can come in, change a few things in their business, plug them into our systems and our infrastructure, and they start to see very quickly meaningful, a lot of times life changing growth within their company. That's the exciting part about it, is that we're able to, to help people unlock a new part of their business and their wealth that they probably never even thought was imaginable. So

Ken Lucci: 32:43

Well, think about it. The average entrepreneur has, you know, the, the shared, personality traits. Grit, definite risk taker. Okay? Definite idea person. And there's no question to be a successful entrepreneur, you gotta work hard. You have to, you can't have start a business and then again, go out and play golf or go fishing three or four. You have to give it your time. But those same things, those same things also could cut the other way. You know, at some point, those four things or five things only get you to a certain point. It's almost like a Peter principle. It's almost the glass ceiling. But when you plug yourself into systems and you plug yourself into other people who've been there, it breaks the glass ceiling. So talk to me a little bit about the startup. I mean, I get frustrated. You know, we, we get a lot of people that call us from the podcast, and I love speaking to people. Every Friday I have open office hours. My, my. My business partner doesn't like it because, you know, we track our revenue by the day, and I'm not that productive revenue wise on Friday. In fact, it costs money to run this damn thing. But anyway,

Rick Versace: 33:52

And you're having fun, right?

Ken Lucci: 33:53

I, it's, listen, I can't look at spreadsheets. I can't look at spread anymore spreadsheets. I can't do it anyway. So I get a lot of young entrepreneurial drivers. They're, they're single car operators and they're. They're on the hamster wheel of a different kind. They're working for Uber Black, they're doing black lane. They're being taken advantage of by some brokers out there. or aggregators, if you will, that are grinding them on price and they don't know any better. Talk to us about is this a good fit for somebody who maybe has been doing it for a year. He's got the chauffeuring down, or he likes he can handle the hours, obviously driving. Talk to us about the startup franchise that you offer.

Rick Versace Jr.: 34:41

So the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of the startup FraNChiS or a guy who is just operating one vehicle, the biggest qualifier ultimately is gonna be what his access to liquid capital would be. Be because we are, the first thing we're we're gonna tell them is you have to get out of the vehicle. You Exactly. You have to treat it as you are the owner of the business and you are employing. Franchisee drivers, you are not the driver anymore. So if they have the liquor capital to be able to get onto Santa Cruz to be able to go out and purchase two or three SUVs, to have the runway to know that they're not gonna have a hundred thousand dollars a month in business, you know? Right away, but they're gonna work towards it and Exactly. Until they hit that break even. That's what it really comes down to. And, and you see very quickly if someone has that mindset or if someone has that, patience, I would say. Or if they want to just, you know, continue to make the thousand dollars a day that they're making out, out driving

Ken Lucci: 35:52

So let's think about it. That's a hamster. They're on a hamster wheel, okay? They can only do with one, one vehicle. They can only do between maybe 200 to 300,000 a year, right? And then if something happens, they've got nothing. Okay. And you know, I see it with, with people who try to do Uber black and, and I feel bad for them because they have taken out a massive loan in a lot of cases and they're not covering their costs. They don't understand the difference between, Hey, I made quote made$200 on that trip. No, you didn. You drove from Providence, Rhode Island down in New York. how many miles was that? It's three hours. And then you hung out, down there thinking you wanna get something and you deadheaded all the way back. I mean, look at the cost. breakdown, what you are offering them. And that's why I, I, I made the hockey stick kind of a thing. You know what they have is they have the ability with that one vehicle to make a living 200. 300,000 a year in total revenue if they're lucky. I know some guys, you know, some guys make a lot less than that driving uber black, and they don't even cover their payments. What you are offering them is the ability to grow and to go up the hill and to create a business where they can employ people. Where the ultimate goal is to try to make money while you're sleeping, right? to utilize your systems. Utilize your brand because the brand is critical. It gives them credibility instantly, and the idea is to try to make money when you sleep, or certainly make money when you're not in the driver's seat. The other day somebody called me single car operator and he said, you know, I, I just happened to drive so-and-so, and you know, he wants me to, do all of his corporate work. I'm like, okay. your plan? Well, well, I was thinking I'd have four or five drivers get together and I'm like, that's not gonna last you, you don't have an infrastructure, you don't have the systems. You, you know, this guy was telling you that he has people, he has people that use that, that do transportation, that fly out all of hours. He wants you to do national. You need a system. You, you can't do that overnight. I'd love to tell you that you're capable of doing that. My option to him was, is there someone established? No, no, they're competitors. I don't want to do business with them. See, the knowledge you guys bring to the table is the key. I mean, people don't call me to for my looks and they it is, it is usually because I've gone through it or I know somebody who has and I will put them onto the solution. You guys have, you have the systems in place. I hate to say the word cookie cutter, that you can drop in, but So

Rick Versace: 38:44

But you know, Ken, that's important. Important. But you know what I think is even more important than all of that is your integrity. 40 years. It's not just the systems, it's the integrity that we always pay our affiliate, we pay our affiliates, we do great service. We, we live up to our word. If we say something, we're gonna do it. We'll stand behind you to the end of time. You know, don't screw us.'cause then there's hell to pay. But there's, you know, we we're an integrity is the most important thing that we look for and the most important thing that we value as a company.

Ken Lucci: 39:15

Well, let's leave names out of it, but we all know a decent sized tech company that came in to the corporate space pr trying to say to people, we'll give you an app and we'll be able to do all of this. And they're great at capturing accounts. Their driver quality is terrible, and they don't even speak to their drivers. So they don't, you know, they get paid like this and, and they have, the drivers are treated like chattel. Their idea is churn and burn. and, and that technology didn't do anything because they wrecked their brand because the smart drivers stay away from them. So I agree with you. I think that the two. The two go hand in hand. I don't know, a decent brand that doesn't stand for integrity, and that's unfortunately our industry. What

Rick Versace: 40:06

It's getting rarer and rarer. You're right.

Ken Lucci: 40:08

it is the other thing that, that, that worries me a little bit for the, for the industry, it don't think for a minute that our end user clients aren't looking in some of those same Facebook groups. Hearing that their networks are not paying their drivers. Okay, so the integrity of the A one A brand, that's what I said, it's instant credibility to an independent business person. so, you know, when you, if you hit that glass ceiling of a million, I love it when I see people that go to the conferences and they're all looking for that breakthrough idea. The breakthrough idea is the systems. The breakthrough idea is systematize everything and make yourself the least important part of the, of the day to day so you can go out and generate business and, and build a brand name.

Rick Versace Jr.: 41:02

And you know what, that's probably the hardest selling point that we have to get across to people.'cause you, they go to the, you know, CD show and the sexy things on the floor. Be a, you know, a new sprinter or a new reservation and dispatch software with ai. And people may think that's gonna be the game changer. That's what's gonna set me apart from everybody else. The systems are the non-sexy part when realistically that is the biggest thing that these small businesses need.

Ken Lucci: 41:31

They're missing Completely. Completely. And, and what happens to further your point, Rick, is they'll call me. They've achieved a million or 1,000,005. They have no systems in place. Nothing, nothing. Everything is haphazard. And they'll call me and they'll say. I need to sell my business because something bad happened. And okay, what do you think your business is worth? And they tell me and I'm like, I'm sorry it's not gonna sell. Because you've got it to the point where you've gone from an employee to, you're the, you are the prime operator of that business. Take yourself out of the equation. You have nothing. What builds a company is the brand and the systems. It is, the people that can carry on without you. I will never forget, I didn't cross my mind when I left that business. When I left the ambassador, when my dad died, I had no choice. I had to go to Boston. I, I had to help my family, so it meant a lot to me. I was always big on the SOPs. It meant a lot to me. To make that people, they ran that thing. They're like, Ken, we've got this. Just go do what you have to do. You know, they couldn't have gone out and bought two or three more vehicles and expanded, but, so what's been your biggest surprise? What's been your biggest success story of the Franchise Network and what's been your biggest surprise?

Rick Versace: 43:00

I would say, you know, the biggest surprise is, you know, we are very trusting. So there have been people that we brought in or companies that we brought in that we thought were gonna be a good franchise and invested a lot of time and effort in trying to bring them up to speed only to find that they one out a one a quality, and they couldn't, no matter how much we trained them, no matter what we brought to the table for them, they couldn't. Past muster and you know, we had to dee

Ken Lucci: 43:32

Sure.

Rick Versace: 43:32

a number of them because we're not letting anybody ruin the quality reputation that we've built over the, the last 40 years. It's really very important. You know, we have to, we have to do that.

Ken Lucci: 43:43

look, there are some small business people that are their own worst enemies, right? they get into things for the wrong reason. They don't have the right integrity. I mean, the dollar amount is only one thing. But the other piece of it is in addition to grit, hard work. Great ideas, no question about it. It it, it has to be your character. Your character is your brand and you're trusting people with what you built. So I can see that, where that would be a challenge.

Rick Versace: 44:13

Yeah.

Ken Lucci: 44:13

of good,

Rick Versace: 44:14

It's all about, it's about relationships, you know, and, and the other thing that I've seen in our industry is a lot of companies, all they rely on is affiliate work. Like when we start looking at them and talk, we see that mostly what they do is affiliate work. So they get affiliates and they sit around and they don't do anything to build their own business and their own market. So that's one of the key things that we bring to the table. We don't say, Hey, become part of the A one A franchise network and we're gonna send you the work. Although we do send out millions of dollars a year. To our affiliates and franchises all across the world, what we're telling you is we are gonna show you how to get work in your market. Affiliate work is only a very small part of the pie, and if you're relying on that for 50, 60, 70% of your business, you're in trouble.'cause affiliate rate relationships are very fragile

Ken Lucci: 45:02

Yep.

Rick Versace: 45:03

you can't count on them.

Ken Lucci: 45:04

Well, the, you know what it's good for, the affiliate relationships are good for keeping the grease, keeping the wheels moving, right? But they are absolutely not going to build a quote company. Okay? It's a, it's a hamster wheel of a different speed, but it's still a hamster wheel. So, uh, uh, quick story. I went out way back in the day when I started doing consulting. I went out to San Diego and I met with a company and they were in a commercial office. Big industrial area, and it was office condos and then some big office buildings. And the operator was needed, wanted my help, and he was telling me how much affiliate work he did, and then he, I said, what are you doing to generate your own business? Well, I'm doing 4,000 a month in Google Ads. Okay, how's that working out for you? What's the return on investment? And he started stammering. I said, let's play. Let's do something easier. Who are the people to the left of us, to the right of us and across the street? Well, what do you mean? Who is out in this marketplace? Who do who? How are you networking? Do they know you? Do you know them? Well, no, I, that's what's missing. So his whole idea was. I'm gonna do the easy stuff. I'm gonna write a check to Google PPC, and then I'm gonna try to do affiliate work. I'm gonna go to Vegas. I'm gonna, I'm gonna literally go to every affiliate table. And he didn't even have relationships with the people in that industrial park. I, I couldn't get over it.

Rick Versace Jr.: 46:39

Which is so funny because then we tell this to the franchisees that do a lot of inbound affiliate work. How did you get that work in the first place? Oh, I went to Vegas and I went to the retreats and I made relationships throughout the industry. And it's no different in any other industry. In any other market. You know, you go to the local networking meetings, you go to. MPI events or local GBTA chapters, it's the same thing. You know, maybe you don't feel as comfortable there.'cause it's not, it's not other limo people, but at the end of the day, they're all in travel. You know, you guys all speak the same language and it's getting them over that hump, changing their mindset. Like it's just a, just a new group of people. And it might take six months for you to feel just as comfortable around them, but until you start going, you're never gonna, you're never gonna know.

Ken Lucci: 47:24

Well, and think about what you just said. I mean, now they can go out and they can say, Hey, hey, I'm Ken from Ken's limo service. I'm Ken Lucci from A one A Global Ground. We are in the global ground Transportation logistics service. And, and you know, it's funny, when you said it, I was thinking, hmm. The affiliate work is actually the cash base I can use to go out and grow my regular business, but what I have to do is I have to have the systems in place. I can't be the primary driver for that affiliate work. I have to have the systems in place in order to go out and create the business. And you guys give them that. Uh, you know, I'll, I'll never forget talking to someone and saying, when I first worked with'em, give me your 32nd elevator pitch. What. Tell me what your 30, give me your, give me your three minute presentation of what you do. Who are you and what you do? Well, I'm in the limo business and my, you know, my name is John. Okay, well, you guys give them instant credibility. You, you kind of do have to have that corporate speak. If you want to get into corporate, if you wanna talk to corporations, you, you do have to have the credibility and you guys give them that, but it, it, it, it always astounds me. Like you said, they're all looking for that inbound affiliate work, but it's almost like heroin, isn't it? it's almost

Rick Versace: 48:41

Yeah.

Ken Lucci: 48:42

addicted to it,

Rick Versace: 48:43

And, and you know, you know from the m and a side, when somebody comes to buy you, the first thing they do is take out all your affiliate work'cause they're not paying you on that.'cause it's not real work.

Ken Lucci: 48:52

correct. It's not, It's not. And, you know, and, and let's, let's also. The reality is people who want to sell their businesses in the transportation space, it is more and more difficult to sell these businesses outside the industry because of the insurance problem. And I know, Rick, you've tackled that a little bit. Do you ever see to the, getting to the point where the franchisees can get into a captive?

Rick Versace: 49:19

We're working on it, but something we're on our, on our radar. Would definitely,

Ken Lucci: 49:24

Yep.

Rick Versace: 49:25

at that carefully.

Rick Versace Jr.: 49:26

That's such a huge part of it

Ken Lucci: 49:28

it is a huge part of it. So I think the message is to me, and I kind of preach this all the time, and sometimes I give up. It's like pre preaching the word of God to the agnostic. Sometimes, sometimes even worse. But I, I, I, if you want to build a business with value, you have to put the systems in place. The systems cost money, and you have to try to make yourself. The least important person as far as getting the trip done, but the most important person as far as developing the business. Why is it so difficult for people to understand that?

Rick Versace: 50:07

And, and you know, the other thing I I, I, I think is funny, Ken is like, when I look at it, I feel that basically we're in the hospitality business. That's what we do, you know, and so a big part of our training to our customer service reps, to, uh, dispatches, to our chauffeur is teaching'em hospitality and like. Owners can't go out and go to a Chamber of Commerce meeting, like they're out of their comfort zone. You have to be that, you know that person that's able to go out, be friendly, shake everybody's hand, say hello. you gotta move outta your comfort zone to do those things. To make your company grow. You gotta be hospitable, You know,

Ken Lucci: 50:45

have to, you have to. I'm reading a book called Never Eat Alone, and it's all about networking, small business, networking. It's all about being the feeder, and it's not about being gregarious and using every, you know, using three syllable words. It's about, it's about being hospitable, it's about being friendly and ha making people want to trust you.

Rick Versace: 51:10

I, I just read the book, unreasonable Hospitality. Unbelievable book. You gotta read it. It's great. It doesn't really apply to our industry. It's about the restaurant industry, but all of those same principles apply to what we do every day, and we learn so much from that and incorporated a lot of that into what we do and what we

Ken Lucci: 51:27

think about what you just said. Okay. People don't realize this, but look at the restaurant business. Why do people get into it? Because they're good chefs. They can make good food. Why do people get into the limo business? Well, frankly, you like to drive and you feel you're good with people. Okay? Similar kind of hospitality skills, but it's not the whole picture. Okay. I think some of the, some of the worst restaurants are the ones run by chefs because they don't get the rest of it. It's all about those systems. So tell me again about what that book, the name of the book.

Rick Versace: 51:59

Unreasonable hospitality. It's great, great read.

Ken Lucci: 52:02

I like it.

Rick Versace: 52:03

put it down.

Ken Lucci: 52:04

Well that, and you know what you hit the nail on the head there. There's always parallels. Every time I read a business book, I'm reading one about Intel right now called Only the Paranoid Survive, and it, there's tremendous amounts of parallels. He talks about strategic inflection points, and quite frankly, we're entering one in our space. So I love what you guys are doing. So G, give me an idea. What's the best way, if I wanna find out about an A one a franchise, what? What's the easiest way for me to do that?

Rick Versace Jr.: 52:42

I would say just email me directly. Uh, so we do have the franchise website that you could submit a, an inquiry on. It's a one a franchise.com. But the easiest way to get more information would be to email me directly, my email's, Rick Jr. RICK Jr a one a limo.com. We do have someone who manages the franchise development, our, our franchise development manager. I'll coordinate you with them. And, you know, I'm a big part in the, the ongoing conversation of it all. Um, but we do have someone that's from the franchising world who helps kind of go through the initial steps because there, there is a lot of, you know, red tape and a lot that goes into just getting qualified to become a potential franchisee.

Ken Lucci: 53:22

Well, you want the best of the best. You absolutely look,

Rick Versace Jr.: 53:25

what it's. you know, we're, we're trying to disqualify, disqualify as fast as we qualify. That's what it comes down to.

Ken Lucci: 53:32

You can build the most beautiful hotel, but not many of them allow you to put the Ritz Carlton moniker on it. So I, I appreciate what you're doing. We will put the link in the, on the episode so people can contact you. And I appreciate what you're doing for the industry because to me, what you're doing is you're professionalizing, you are raising the level of people that really need it. I hate to see somebody who's been a million dollar operator for 10 years and they come to us wanting to sell their business, and they're always extremely disappointed. The statistics prove out that if you become part of an organization, part of a franchise, you are three and a half to four times more likely to be able to sell the business because you know you are building their succession plan. Anybody who comes in to look at their business is gonna say, okay, wait a minute. I'm not buying Joe's limo. I'm buying into an A one a franchise. So I love that you guys are doing this in, in a, it makes my life a little bit easier. I'd like to, to see you guys succeed quite a bit and because I, I do believe uplifting the industry. Is a tremendous, tremendous thing that you're doing, and I love the fact that you're expanding the A one a brand nationally. So I appreciate you being on today, and we will make sure that that link to your franchise website is on the, uh, YouTube and also on all of the links when we publish the podcast.

Rick Versace: 54:58

Thanks, Ken. It was fun. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Ken Lucci: 55:02

Well, uh, I appreciate your time guys and wish you a lot luck, a lot of success, and we will see you in Vegas at the end of February.

55:11

Thank you for listening to the ground transportation podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please remember to subscribe to the show on apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. For more information about PAX training and to contact James, go to PAX training.com. And for more information about driving transactions and to contact Ken, Go to driving transactions.com. We'll see you next time on the ground transportation podcast.