The following is an excerpt from the E-2 Startup, Buy, or Franchise Webinar with Joorney Business Plans and Vetted Biz
What is Visa Franchise?
Visa Franchise is an advisory firm. We help find and analyze businesses, principally for the E-2 investor visa. Clients engage our services. We’re based here in Miami, Florida. We have staff in China, and Mexico, and Argentina. We speak six languages, so Journey has us beat. Our, our clients have created 2,000-plus jobs over the year which is fantastic for the U.S. economy, 95%-plus approval rate for the E-2. Keep in mind, I mentioned earlier, we have had a few clients that have tried investing $70,000, $80,000, $90,000.
Fortunately, they got denied the first attempt and they had to invest more money in buying a company car, funds for Google marketing ads, Facebook ads. Working with their immigration attorney they were all about overcome the denial. But whenever possible, you should really try to invest at least $100,000, $120,000, $150,000, or more. It’s just going to make the whole process a lot easier, especially depending on the post. But you’ll hear more after speaking to a licensed immigration attorney on that side.
E-2 Business Options Available
So we have a few different models on how we work with our clients. And these are a few different options in terms of investing first in a franchise through your E-2 visa. You can either be an owner-operator or someone that needs operational support. So owner-operator, you’re there every day. At least, in the beginning, you’re working 20 to 50 hours a week for the first year to 18 months.
You’re going to invest generally significant amount of your net worth into the business. We have researched 2,900 franchises to date. I’ll go through some of the things that we look out for when we analyze franchises and existing businesses. That’s a great option for those clients that are willing to work hard in the business and are able to stay in the U.S. and not have to travel to attend to their company in their home country.
Businesses with More Operational Support
Then we also have the clients that they need more operational support, they want to be involved in the business that they’re investing in. They have to for the visa regulation but they don’t necessarily want to be there day-to-day. They want to be able to check the point of sale software, the QuickBooks, they want to have that full financial transparency and controls in place with their employees, but they don’t want to be going to the business every day and they might have to be traveling going back to Europe or Latin America to tend to their business needs in their home country or elsewhere far.
So for those types of clients, they genuinely partner with the franchise or themselves. They’ll invest between $200,000 and $350,000. The operational support clients tend to be more high net worth, where we require a minimum of $1 million net worth. And those clients, again, tend to be later in their careers, 50s, 60s, they’ve already made it.
They have a business that’s producing profit and they don’t need to solely live off the U.S. business they’re investing in. So we have those two options from a franchise perspective. And then also you have the self-guided search option, which opens up existing businesses for sale, where we’re running an ambitious project right now but we should have 3000 existing businesses mostly in the State of Florida by the end of the year for you to browse and compare how the asking price comparison to different businesses in that industry.
Franchise Data and Analytics
We already have a lot of the data and comparison tools for the franchise space. So we’ve gone through over 1,700 Franchises Disclosure Documents for 2019. We’re going through 2020 now. A lot of the franchise documents were delayed because of the COVID in terms of the filings. So there’s a lot information on our site that is I’ll go through today.
But if you want us to be in close contact with you, your attorney, the chosen franchises, and be with you every step of the way, then you’re definitely going to want to look at engage in Visa Franchise if it’s going to be a franchise or licensed business, or if you want to go the existing business route, which is a great option for those that already want to have the business in place and the systems, and it’s better to work directly with a business broker together with your immigration attorney and we can connect you with business brokers.
If you’re looking more for an independent business that you don’t want to, maybe you want to change the model around and you don’t want to stick to what the franchise system is, that could work for you. And there’s great deals right now, especially given what’s going on with COVID, a lot of people want to retire early, get out of the business, sell their stake. So there’s good options, both in the franchise and the existing business space right now.
E-2 Case Study On Property Management Franchisee
So real quick, I wanted to go through a couple case studies. So we have two case studies here. One is on a property management. Our client invested in Los Angeles in 2017. Now he has over 200 locations under management, 200 units rather under management. He started with zero. He invested $110K that went into franchise fee, rent deposit, some working capital, marketing spend, his corporate car to visit the properties. So I got him to 110,000. He has ownership of 100% in this franchise. He wants to stay in this for the foreseeable future.
He’s very happy with the portfolio of businesses that he has built up over the years. He has a few employees. Which with three W-2 employees it should be a layout for their new, old E-2 visa in two years’ time. And it’s been a pretty high-profit margin business with sales well over $500,000 a year.
Property Management
If he was to sell his business today, right now, property management franchises or property management businesses, if you want to buy an existing property management business or say an existing other service-related business, like landscaping or commercial cleaning, they’re usually set trading at one times revenue. It can vary, but right now we’re seeing pretty high evaluations for those service businesses that are a little less affected by COVID.
If it’s doing $500,000 in sales or $600,000 in sales, you could expect it to have the asking price around then, and maybe you get it for a little less. There is an option to invest more money. So from day one, you have revenue coming in, but keep in mind, it’s going to cost you. But there are great opportunities right now to buy existing portfolios of property management throughout the U.S. especially in Florida, California, and Texas.
Green Card
And then everyone asked about the Green Card option. I don’t want to go into that much today. Our focus is really on the business. But for this client, his wife’s already employed and the employer is in talks with her right now to sponsor her Green Card. I’m not sure if it’s EB2 or EB3. But that is a very popular option for our clients that want to stay in the U.S. where you have the investor that invests in the business, whether the franchise of existing business, and then the spouse, you have work authorization so you can get a job outside the business and then have the employer sponsor you for the Green Card.
E-2 Visa Approved With Landscaping Business
So this option is a little different where the client invested more money, $225,000 in a landscaping business where the client owns 51%, the licensor has a minority non-controlling state, 49% in the business. Client wants to keep this on for years. They want to keep renewing the E-2 visa. They’re happy with their annual return around 10%. It’s been a little less cause of COVID, more like 7%, 8%, but that annualized return over the next 5 years is closer to 10%. He’s happy with that return.
And for fiscal reasons, he doesn’t necessarily want to have a Green Card. So for this option, the client did purchase existing contracts. It’s not a franchise, it’s a licensed business. And you have a 49% partner with skin in the game that’s there to support the day-to-day operations of the business and the client has full transparency of the financials through the bank account, point of sale software, the accounting software, the QuickBooks, and they have monthly meetings to review the financials and the strategy of the business.
