Franchise QB

Episode 78: Corey Criss- Franchise Training Director, The Dog Stop

• Mike Halpern • Season 1 • Episode 78

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In this episode of the Franchise QB Podcast, host Mike Halpern speaks with Corey Criss, Director of Franchise Training at The Dog Stop. They discuss the unique services offered by The Dog Stop, Corey's journey with the company, and the innovative approaches to franchise growth and customer experience. 

The conversation also covers the importance of training and support for franchise owners, marketing strategies, employee development, and the characteristics sought in potential franchisees. Corey shares insights into the company's future growth plans and the commitment to ongoing education and improvement in the pet care industry.

Takeaways

The Dog Stop offers a comprehensive range of dog care services.
Corey Criss has been with The Dog Stop since its early days.
The VIP program caters to dogs that don't fit into group daycare.
Customer experience is prioritized with personalized services.
Franchise growth is supported by a hands-on corporate team.
Training for franchise owners includes essential dog care education.
Community engagement is key to building local relationships.
Employee retention is fostered through ongoing education and career paths.
Franchisees are encouraged to think big picture for growth.
The Dog Stop is committed to evolving with the latest dog care science.

https://thedogstop.com/franchise-opportunities/

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Mike Halpern, CAFC
mike@franchiseqb.com

This is the Franchise QB Podcast, where we empower entrepreneurs to win big in franchising. We huddle up weekly to educate our audience about the most successful small business model ever created. Franchise it! Welcome to the Franchise QB podcast. I'm your host, Mike Halpern, a 20-year industry veteran and entrepreneur. My mission is for listeners to achieve their American dreams of creating wealth and independence through franchise ownership. Every week we speak with franchisees, franchisors or vendors that support the industry. Thank you for joining us and let's get started. Joining us on the huddle today is Corey Criss, Director of Franchise Training at the Dog Stop. Welcome to the show, Corey. Thank you, Mike. I'm excited to be here. It is great to have you. So we actually have a Dog Stop location near us in Northern Virginia in the Centerville Market. And the franchise owner was kind enough to give me and my wife a tour of the location probably about two months ago. She was great. We were super impressed with the space. Everything was clean. It was well lit. It was really a nice tour. But for anyone listening that has not been to The Dog Stop, tell us a little bit about your concept. Absolutely. And I just want to point out before you can get to that, the fact that you were able to walk in and get a tour at any time. It's one of the things that makes The Dog Stop special. We want everybody to come in anytime we're open. We love tours. You're super welcoming. Like we just walked in off the street and they were like, Hey, do you want to go take a look around? I love the transparency because you want to see what's going on because people treat their dogs like they're These are family numbers, Like I want to see what's going on behind the curtain. I know I've been a dog owner long before I was a dog stop employee. So I get it. So The Dog Stop for anybody who is not familiar with it, it is a one stop dog care facility. We do daycare, we do boarding, we do grooming, we have retail, we do training. We have a whole myriad of ways to support dog owners and be there. as a support system in their lives with their dogs. So whether they just need someone to watch their dog while they go to work every day or someone to groom their dog or watch them while they're on vacation, that's The Dog Stop. Very cool. Yeah, that's a lot of things that you do. So I'm looking forward to getting more into that. And one thing that's interesting about you is you've been with the company for a long time. So tell us about when you joined the company and kind of your journey working with the Dog Stop over the years. Yeah, it's been a journey. So I joined the company Several years actually before it even became a franchise company, they had just opened, the two founders had just opened their second location here in Pittsburgh. It's where we're based, Pittsburgh VA. And it was October of 2011, they just opened that location and I just stopped in to buy dog food. This new place had opened right by my house. I stopped in just to see what they were about. I was curious, I didn't know the brand, the name, because it was still so small. And I ended up meeting both of the founders and talking to them about this concept and what they were trying to do. My background is actually in education. So I was a college professor at the time teaching English and composition courses. And when I met them, they were like, Hey, we have this crazy idea. We can turn this into a franchise, but we need someone who can write manuals and someone who can put together training programs. And since my master's is in writing and they're like, you You seem to have this background, you're a teacher, you can write things, how about you join us instead? And I spent about a year, like one foot in both camps where I was teaching, but I was also working for Dog Talk part-time trying to get policy on paper and understanding how the business worked and how it was going to evolve. And after about a year of that, I said, you know what? I love it, let's go. I'm in full-time, let's do that. And I spent the first couple of years while we were writing the manuals and getting all the paperwork together to turn it into something that we could concept we could sell. I spent that time running one of the stores. At that point there were myself and the two founders, we each had three stores at that point. We each ran one and started selling them. I opened our first franchise in 2014. And I've done every franchise training since the beginning. I was 10 years. we were still young and growing, I spent 10 years overseeing operations as well. as with any startup, it's been a lot of wearing a bunch of different hats, a lot of learning as you go and taking crash courses and things and playing catch-up sometimes. But um it's also been very exciting and I don't think I could have gotten this kind of learning opportunity had I stayed in education or had I joined a bigger company. It's just been a wild and... Wonderful and very blessed ride so far. Yeah, no I appreciate Sharing kind of that whole story and you and I have that in common like early in my career. I would find intentionally like seek out independent multi-unit restaurant concepts and try to find ones that really had their act together and we're looking to make a transition into growth through franchising so I While I wasn't I didn't have the skill set you have with Writing those manuals, I would hire technical writers to come in and document the methods, the recipes. They'd write recipe books, they'd write training manuals, real estate manuals, operations manuals, and then kind of help them franchise the location after that. My role was more on the development side and recruiting franchisees. But that's really cool that today you're training owners and you've seen it all. You started when... It was an independent business with two shops and now it's like this huge chains. It's expanding all over the country. And that's really neat that you've kind of, you know, seen it all from the beginning. That's a unique perspective. When I think about it and I look back at it, Oh wow, we have come so far already and so, so many places yet to go. is insane. Yeah. Well, I can feel the enthusiasm. So it's cool that. This far in, a decade plus, you still feel that way about the brand, which is cool. There's still so much to conquer, right? It keeps it fresh and exciting. There's still so much left to do. Yeah. So you touched on some of the services. What can we expect if we're a customer at a typical location? Can you go a little bit more into that? Sure. So the bread and butter of any of our locations is daycare and boarding. And we strive to make it as easy of a process as possible. um We are very focused on information gathering and information tracking in all of my locations. So um every new client, we're hopefully giving them a tour, we're explaining services, we're bringing their dogs in for an evaluation day where we do an assessment to make sure that daycare is the appropriate fit for their dog. But if it's not, and this is one of the cool things that The Dog Stop does, a lot of our competitors, if your dog isn't a fit, for group daycare, then it's a, no, I'm sorry, we can't service you. We saw these clients and said, well, this is a group of people who has a need that's not being fulfilled. And so we developed what we call our VIP program or our very independent player program. And these are, it's a program specifically for dogs who they love people, but groups of dog play, it's just not their jam. And that's okay. It's not for everybody, you know. I happen to have one of those uh when I introduce you to Madison in the green room a little Boston Terrier She is super friendly with people with kids a couple of dogs There's like three on the planet that she gets along with but the rest uh It's just not a pleasant experience because she will be real aggressive and it takes a while for her to warm up And I just don't want another owner or another dog to have to go through that transition period. It's just not pleasant. So we've just said, you know what, if we board you, you're going to be a VIP. Absolutely. And there's no shame in that. I've had a VIP before. It's funny. Most of us at corporate have at least one VIP dog. We're like, well, we saw that need because we are those people. So that's cool. It's definitely something that we want to make sure that we're servicing as many people as possible. But ultimately, you know, this is a relationship business. We are getting to know our clients. We're getting to know our dogs on an individual level. And I always say that, you know, no two boarding experiences are the same for any dog because every time they're coming in, our staff are constantly evaluating what does this dog need during this day? Because maybe it changed from the last time. Maybe this time they're not loving daycare as much and they want to do more one on one play or they they want to do some cuddle time on the couch. We have a whole menu of enhancement services that people can customize every single stay for their dog to make sure it's enjoyable. know, they're going off to be on vacation and hopefully do something fun and wonderful. We don't want them to feel guilty about leaving their dogs behind. We want them to know, hey, dog stops fun. This is a great place. This is a great experience for the dogs. And we have all these services that you can pick and customize and make it a wonderful time for your dog while you're away. Yeah, that's awesome. Um, I do want to mention this is really timely, but I received a, an offer today by email from our local franchisee. was unbelievable. I was like, is this for real? It was like $99 for a two month period. And then obviously the rate goes back to the rack rate, but what a great incentive for someone that really can enjoy those unlimited, you know, visits for their, their dog. That goes back to what's helpful for us and what's healthiest for the dogs. It's one thing to bring your dog in for an evaluation day, which is free. We never charge for that. So it's a free evaluation day. we don't always get the clearest picture on that first day of what your dog is really like in daycare because they're nervous and they don't know what's going on. They don't know if and when mom or dad are coming back at the end of the day. So we don't see them at what we consider to be their baseline. And so we wanted to think of a promotion that would get these dogs back in our doors as much as possible so that we can start to help them acclimate faster and get a better idea of how can we customize their stays? How can we make sure the dog's off is the perfect fit for them? And so we came up with $99 for one month. you can prolong it for a second month. Come as much as you want. Bring your dog every single day. would love it. That's really cool. And that kind of leads to my next question. I know that. The Dog Stop is experiencing unprecedented growth on a franchise scale. think a lot of that has to do with the innovative approach you have to keeping the places busy. ah But how many locations do you have open currently and how many are in various stages of development? know with a business like this where you have to kind of improve the space and make it look and feel like a dog stop, they don't launch the moment someone... decides to sign a franchise agreement. what does that whole look like? What's it look like in terms of the state of the franchise? Sure. So as of this week, actually, we just opened our 39th store this week in The Colony Congratulations. Thank you. We're very excited for them and for us, but for them, they've put a lot of hard work into this and we're super excited to watch them thrive. Where's that location again? It's The Colony, Texas. Oh, Texas. Yeah. Yeah. So we're excited for that. So 39 stores open. By the end of this year, we're expecting to see around 15 new locations opened by the end of the year. um We'll build on that number for next year. I think in total right now, we have 83 that are somewhere in development, uh but some of those are multi-unit locations. So it might be a little bit before they get their second and third ones up and running. I saw that you opened 12 locations last year. So for a system with 39 units, opening a third of those in the past, 12 to 18 months, I mean that is a lot of work and especially you're on the training side of the business so I know that means you're super busy. So I'd love to kind of learn a little bit, like in your view, what are some of the key advantages or enhancements that Dogstop has implemented to kind of improve this experience for like customers as well as franchise owners? Sure, you know, everything I say I want to point out, it is a team effort, it is you know, no... No Man is an Island at The Dog Stop corporate. is definitely a lot of us, call it The Dog Stop family. We would not accomplish what we accomplish if we weren't all working together and working towards this common goal. We are all still very excited about the growth, about the company, about our concept. So it's easy to come to work and be excited and want to build towards something every day. um When we talk about, you know, what do we do to make it easy for our franchisees? We take a very hands-on approach with them. Every franchisee is assigned a franchise success manager. um We have several people in place in the pre-opening stages to check in with them every couple of days to make sure, you hitting all of the benchmarks that you need to get open? We're helping with lease negotiations and site selections, not in that order, but we're doing those things to really make sure that we're setting them up. for success and we're using all of our institutional knowledge that they can take that and build on it. So I think our hands-on approach is a big part of that. know even over Easter weekend, I was taking calls Saturday night from one of my franchisees who had questions. So we try to make ourselves super available. Their success is our success. We recognize that. So we know that we all have a hand in the future of this company. We're also constantly evaluating new methodologies, new platforms. that we think can help streamline services and help streamline reporting for our franchisees. We just rolled out a new point of sale system for the Dogstop that also includes like a CRM. It also includes a lot of reporting features, includes a scheduling feature. So we're able to consolidate a lot of those different platforms where we were having to run to different areas to consolidate it all, make it easier for our franchisees. So stuff like that where we're just, constantly looking to improve. Yeah. And I know it's kind of a painful process to go through. Like when you switch CRMs or you upgrade technology, I went through that for my business from like December through really February. But when you come out the other side and you're like, okay, eventually this is going to be really efficient, save us a lot of time. Like you said, streamline things. And it's hard to do at the franchise or level because it has to filter down to the owners. But, you know, long-term it becomes something that's super beneficial for. for the whole system. So, have six of our own corporate locations. So everything we push out, we're demoing in those six locations first to make sure it's worth everybody's time. It works out like the staff understand the benefit. We can work out kinks in the, you before it gets pushed system wide. Cause you're right, rolling out new technology is certainly a headache. Even the best of technology is it's, a huge obstacle for some people. So we want to make sure that everything we do is very intentional and purposeful and that we can clearly state for our franchisees, this is why we're doing it. This is what you're going to get out of it. Yeah. No. And I know that the, know, when someone opens a dog stop, there's going to be a long period of time for the construction project, even beyond, you know, you find the site, you negotiate the lease, you get the permits, you have to build the thing and that's a lot, right? It's almost like two different businesses. There's one building it and there's one operating it. I know you spend a lot of time on the training side. So when a new franchise owner is like, you know, they get the keys, they're built out, they're ready to launch. What do you do and what does your team do to prepare these new owners for the launch of their business? Yeah, that's a great question. That's my bread and butter. I love that. So for us training and we... I usually start my calls with the franchisees about three months before they even plan to come to Pittsburgh. And so every franchise that we open, they have to travel to Pittsburgh with their management team. They have to have a team of at least three managers that they're bringing with them to travel to Pittsburgh for a week and work with us in person. So about three months prior to that, I'm already having calls with them talking about these are the prerequisites to being able to schedule that training. And some of the things that we require, a lot of it is based in education. So we have virtual courses on dog behavior, basic dog handling. We have virtual courses on CPR and first aid. I'm a certified canine CPR instructor. Everyone in our company has to be certified in canine CPR and first aid. So they have to take those courses. We do a partnership with an outside, a third party vendor called Fear Free Pets. They're a company that started in the vet industry working on helping veterinarians make vet visits less fear inducing for dogs, less anxiety ridden. And they have also since pushed out certification programs in being fear free certified in daycare and boarding facilities as well as fear free certified in grooming facilities. So we also require these teams have to be fear free certified as well. So we've started a national partnership with them. So all of this is saying we're laying a foundation before they ever come to Pittsburgh of basic concepts on behavior, on fear, anxiety, stress, on how do we keep these dogs safe? How do we be proactive? How do we prepare ourselves for worst case scenarios? And then when they travel to Pittsburgh, it's a hybrid of working in the classroom and doing deep dives on different dog theories and principles. talking about all of our manuals, the outs manual, employee management, customer service, all this stuff that you would expect, as well as, okay, let's talk about how do we build our daycare rooms? Our corporate offices are located directly beside one of our locations. So teams are going into the stores every single day, working with dogs, working with the director of dog care, Brett Reynolds, who's my counterpart in almost everything I do, to get that hands-on practice. before we then send them back to wherever it is they're from and say, okay, now teach the rest of your team everything we taught you. It's awesome. So, um you know, once they're kind of up and running and they start to kind of get a foothold in the community, how do you guys support the owners beyond the launch? you know, I would imagine the two biggest challenges of any business owner are going to be, how do we keep dogs coming in? So we're busy and how do we keep great caretakers and care providers and employees to kind of keep the business coming away? So how do you guys kind of step in and help? I mean, I know it's the franchise owners business. But how do we help beyond the launch? So a couple of things. um But I'll do the how do we keep dogs coming in first? We expect in our marketing team, especially I want to give lots of props to them because they are very hands on with grassroots marketing. In addition to all the, you know, the traditional, whether it's print or whether it's media marketing that they're doing, they're also very helpful in putting together grassroots plans for all of our franchisees where Once they're open, they're going to every vet's office to build relationships. They're going to dog parks, they're going to dog friendly restaurants, dog friendly hotels. They're raffling off things at dog friendly apartment buildings. So there's a whole menu of things that they have to accomplish with establishing themselves in the community. We help them set up foster partnerships. Many of my stores foster for local rescues in the store and bring in dogs who need homes. We want Any community we're servicing, we aren't just servicing our clients, we're servicing the dog community as well. So we're very focused on how do we get our foot in the door there and start to make our name for ourselves, not just at being the best at daycare and boarding, but also giving back to the dog community at large. The other part of your question was how do we reduce employee churn, which that's the million dollar question anywhere, right, when you're dealing with entry level employees. And maybe it's because I'm in charge of training, but for me, everything filters back to education. And how do we create roles? How do we create ongoing learning opportunities where we are investing in our employees who are sticking with us for long periods of time? So for me, it means I'm creating different learning paths for all of these employees and giving them opportunities where if they want to rise up through the ranks or if they want to do things like become a dog trainer, become a dog groomer. and create that career for themselves, The Dog Stop has a way to help them get there. So we're really looking for longevity and for people that this is not just a part-time job, but this is a passion for them and they want to develop it into something more. And that helps us really find those candidates who want to stick with it and who want to make dogs their lives. Yeah, no, I love how ongoing education is kind of at the core of what you do and it It's a perfect fit for your background as an educator. So I can see how you've kind of bring that to the table and your team helps people continue learning about what's going on because the business evolves and it's not going to be the same, you know, two, three years in as it was when, when you guys launched. So I'd love to hear from your perspective, what are some of the key differentiators that Dog Stop has compared to, you know, other providers, whether they're independents or other franchise chains? Hey, I'll talk about that all day long, We'll try and meet with a good time. The first thing want to mention is what I mentioned at the beginning, transparency. We are, if anything, over communicators with our clients. I want to make sure that everybody who walks in knows they can take tours at any time. This is not something you schedule or we say, no, you have to come back in only 20 hours, so 2.30 and 2.45, are you allowed to take a tour or something like that? We like that transparency. We also, because of our new point of sale system that we utilize, we text our clients as well throughout the day. We'll text them updates on their dogs, pictures, videos of their dogs, how they're progressing, especially our new guys who are coming in and we have nervous owners who want to know, are they making friends? Are they acclimating? Are they having fun? So we'll text all that information to them em to help put their minds at ease that their dogs are doing really well. We also are very vocal about, if something does, if their dogs do look like they're not enjoying daycare anymore, I'm not saying it's true or not true, but I have heard that from some other places they kind of bury it under the rug because there isn't an alternative of, well, their dog might not like it, but we just won't say anything because they're okay. We try to be very vocal because if your dog doesn't like daycare and isn't excited to come to daycare, This is a VIP dog. have a whole separate program that can still support this animal and make it a more fun and exciting and supportive experience for them. We're also very big when it comes to differentiating about training our staff. So like I mentioned earlier, every single person in the entire company has to complete courses on CPR and first aid for dogs, which is huge. oh All canine employees are all dog-tub employees. complete a course on basic dog handling and behavior before they're ever allowed to touch a dog. And then on top of that they have a three-day shadow checklist where we're going through observing them doing, think it's eight pages of different activities with dogs before we say yes you're allowed to work one-on-one with the dogs or go into the daycare rooms. We also focus a lot on training our clients. I always say that I want dog owners to be smarter because The Dog Stop exists. I want our stores to set themselves up as dog experts in the lives of our clients so that they know it's not just their vets that they can turn to with questions, that we're a support system for them as well. And we can talk to them about behavior, and can talk to them about fulfilling their daycare and boarding needs. We can talk to them about nutrition. We have nutrition courses. I'm a certified K9 nutrition as well. So we have a lot of nutrition courses out there that can help educate our clients on this is how you do the best by your dog. So a little bit of everything. We do a dog stop podcast where we talk about client problems with their dogs and how we can step in and correct things and how the dogs might be seeing it from their perspective. There's always two sides to every story. And then our partnership with your free that I mentioned earlier where we are dedicated to being, um, you know, all experts in recognizing fear, anxiety and stress and being proactive and reducing those for the dogs. So, you were definitely prepared for that question. I can see that there's a lot of kind of pride in the differentiation that Dog Stop has and you know, because you've been doing it for over a decade. So that's really cool. I'm sorry. no, it's interesting. I appreciate that. So Tell us little bit about the leadership team at The Dog Stop. Are the founders still involved? Are they still in the business? What's that leadership team look like? Yeah, the founders still own the business. One of them is our CEO and has been from the beginning. I've been there for almost 14 years now. And we have a couple of other staff members at corporate as well who have been with us for going on a decade. So we try really hard to promote from within. And recognize the people who have been dedicated to the brand that being said we're still you know, our corporate team is about 14 people So it's not like it is a huge Monstrous team. We are all extremely hands-on and extremely close-knit And working together in tandem to make sure we're accomplishing everything but I mean, it's a really good ratio though of corporate to 39 stores I mean you can tell that the company's investing in like labor to be forward thinking about the growth of the business. Because you guys have a lot of new locations coming online with 80 plus in development. And I know that they're not all going to open the same day, but it's smart to kind of just look a couple years ahead when you see the growth coming. um So tell us a little bit about the timeline. I know it's going to differ, but how long does it take when a new franchise owner signs an agreement? to when the location opens. Is it typically like nine months, a year? Is that kind of the sweet spot or is it quicker, take longer? What are you guys seeing? The 12 months is the sweet spot. We've seen it less, we've seen it happen in longer. A lot of it depends on site selection and then getting the permitting to go through. That's the longest part for any concept I'm sure is finding the correct location. What's nice about The Dog Stop is we're really not looking for that main on main location. We're a destination. We're not looking for people just walking by and popping in. We can be back a few blocks off of the main drag and that's, you know, it's a better rent for us and it's better for our concepts, better for the dogs actually to not have all that activity around them. like the, location that's near me, it's in a really good shopping center, but it's kind of a little bit in the back. So you can see that the location matters, but they probably got a little bit of a break on the rent and being like right at the main entrance. Exactly. So. We say, yeah, 12, 12-ish months. Once you actually get your lease and once you get the permitting and you start construction, it's 10 to 14 weeks for construction. Very cool. Appreciate that. So who do you guys look for? Like when you're looking for a new franchise owner, is there a certain set of characteristics or traits? mean, obviously they have to have capital because it's going to take a little bit to get this. I'm imagining this is a half a million to a million dollar investment all in. what do you guys look for? So capital short, everybody wants capital to make sure that they can float their salaries and get everything, all the retail and everything in and keep the store looking full and be fully staffed. It's hard to say, we have such a mix of people and some of them, they all do it really well. They just have very different characteristics. I would say that we are looking for people who understand that they're buying into a franchise and They're not here to reinvent the wheel. They're here to help us refine the wheel and work beside us and continue to enhance the brand and be a team member for us is certainly a big part of it. We are looking for people who also understand big picture thinking. It's great to want to go into your stores and work in your stores, but the reality is, and we say it all the time, you can't grow the business inside the business. You've got to be able to have time where you can walk away and you can do marketing. All that grassroots marketing I was talking about that our marketing team just drops that to-do list on their laps. You have to have the time and the flexibility to get that kind of stuff done and to be the face out in the public for your location. um But we also want people who... understand reporting, who can go keep their finger on the pulse of what their stores are doing and are interested in problem solving alongside us. yeah. Cool. Thanks for that. And can the business be operated with a GM or does your typical owner, are they the operator of the business? They leave their W-2, they do this full time. Or do many of them keep another job, dedicate a certain amount of hours to make sure their team is correct and they're overseeing hiring and firing and you know all the day to day stuff. What do you see like in the model? Do you allow both kind of? We do allow it, yes. We do allow it and we have people who have done both really well. We have a couple of owner operators who do it really, really well. I will say that I think it is maybe less stress inducing to have franchisees who keep their day jobs and are just dedicating so many hours a week to Dog Stop time. think that's easier on their lives and it's not putting as much financial strain on the business. And that way they're not having to pay themselves a salary and they can just, you know, have their higher general. Reinvest in the business. Exactly. So that's usually preferable, but we have some, had some people break that mold and do really well. Very cool. Well, Corey, this has been awesome. I appreciate you dedicating the time to kind of talk to us about The Dog Stop. Anything else you want to add to the mix before we wrap up today? Gosh, I mean, I could talk about this kind of stuff all day long. It's hard for me to narrow it down. I'm really excited about what we have coming up. I'm excited to open those 15 stores this year. We're hoping to hit close to 20, 25 next year. So there's a lot of growth coming down the road for us, which means a lot of potential for franchisees coming in, new corporate positions. We're excited to continue to grow our team. And we're excited to continue to, like you said earlier, revise everything that we do. We all consider ourselves lifelong learners, and we recognize that dog science is something that is constantly evolving. Every year we're rewriting our manuals to make sure, okay, is this the best reflection possible of the science we have available? So I like to make sure that everybody knows that that's what we're all about. That's awesome. Well, I can just feel the dedication, the excitement, the passion, which is really cool. So thanks for sharing that with us. And if anyone listening would like to connect with Corey and her team to learn more about becoming a franchise owner with The Dog Stop. contact me at FranchiseQB.com or on X @QBFranchiseQB. I'll get you guys connected. Thank you, Corey, so much for taking the time to get in the huddle to discuss The Dog Stop with us today. Thank you so much for having me, Mike. This is awesome. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Franchise QB podcast where you're at the helm of your future as a franchise owner. If you enjoyed the content, please rate the show and recommend it to anyone that might be interested in franchising. Make sure to visit franchiseQB.com to subscribe to my newsletter and for an actionable playbook to go from walk-on to legend in your new business. Follow us on Twitter @QBFranchiseQB and join us every week for a new episode. See you next time. Visit franchiseQB.com to take the next step of your journey towards wealth, independence and franchise ownership. And remember when working for the man gets old, you must do something bold. Thank you for listening.