APRIL PORTER

Founder of Ask April Porter & The Infinite Franchisee SM Program

 

Former trial attorney and judge, award-winning author, 4x top-earning franchise owner, and business strategist for hundreds of franchisees, accelerating their growth and profits in record time.

I scaled my first franchise location to profitability within three months and earned recognition as one of the fastest-growing companies in my region three years in a row. Continue reading about my journey below. ↓

April Porter in Sparkly Jumpsuit

 
2023 Top Influencer in the Global Franchising Industry - 1851 Franchise & SEO Samba 2022 Top Influencer in the Global Franchising Industry - 1851 Franchise & SEO Samba 2022 Top 10 Women of Distinction in Franchising - Success Pitchers Magazine 2022 Chairmans Award for Distinguished Service to the Franchising Industry - American Association of Franchisees and Dealers 2022 Bear of Excellence Award - Missouri State University Alumni Association 2021 Hall of Fame Inductee - Missouri Sports Hall of Fame 2019 Trailblazer Award – American Association of Franchisees and Dealers 2018 2017 2016 Top 50 Fastest Growing Companies in St. Louis – St. Louis Small Business Monthly 2015 Businessperson of the Year – West St. Louis County 2014 Business of the Year – West St. Louis County
I started my career as a prosecuting attorney, advocating for the victims of violent crimes.

I zealously fought to right wrongs by persuading jurors to find the defendants guilty.

Although I was passionate about pursuing justice, I was never satisfied with the 9 to 5 of working for someone else. I filled my evenings with side gigs, like presiding overnight court as a Municipal Judge, until I stumbled upon the opportunity to invest in a kickboxing franchise.

 

Becoming a franchisee was a scary proposition.

Was I ready to give up a steady paycheck? What if I failed and lost our investment? Was I even capable of owning a "real" business???

But, my excitement pushed out the doubts and I signed a multi-unit franchise agreement.

April Porter Infinite Franchisee

Looking back, it was kind of bonkers to promise to open three territories with no business-ownership experience, but I was confident the franchisor would give me everything I needed to be successful. After all, that's the whole point of franchising…Right!?

Once we opened our first location, things were looking really good. Our membership was growing.  Our customers were happy. And, even though I was more exhausted than ever, I was riding the high of being my own boss.

Within three months, the business was in the green!

Things looked great from the outside. I had mastered the franchise operations, but I still had a million questions. I could feel that there was so much I didn't know - I didn't even know the right questions to ask, but I knew my franchisor didn't have any more answers.

 

Meanwhile, my husband and I barely saw each other.

When we did, every conversation was about the business. The gym was stealing all of our time and hijacking our joy.

April Porter - Infinite Franchisee

I kept telling myself, “It'll get better when…”

It will get better when we get the second location opens; it will get better when we hire the next team member.

But while the staff grew and our revenues increased, so did the stress. Everything seemed urgent all the time, which never allowed me to take a break.

I knew I was supposed to "work on the business, not in it,”  but I didn’t know how to manage my time to do that.

I had a great team, but I wasn't turning over the reins. I felt guilty if I took an afternoon off, worried that my staff would think I wasn't working hard enough. I didn't understand how business moguls could have multiple locations, let alone multiple companies, and not be doing all the things to keep the business running.

It was something I wanted to learn, but not something my franchisor was teaching.

My franchisor had taught me about kickboxing, how to teach others to kickbox, how to persuade leads to try kickboxing, and how to sell a kickboxing membership… but my franchisor did not teach me how to become a true entrepreneur.

 

I was ready to admit that I could no longer try to crack this code on my own.

After all, if I knew how to do it by myself, I would have done it already!

April Porter - Infinite Franchisee

Determined to succeed, I trial-and-errored my way through mentors until I invested in the right one, learning advanced business strategies and leadership techniques to remove myself from the day-to-day and allow my team to grow the business!

Within 60 days, I wasn't working nights or weekends.
Within six months, I was completely off the schedule &
we had all 4 locations Earning revenues in
the top 20% of our brand!

My phone started ringing. Franchisees from across the country wanted to know how I was living such a different lifestyle from them when we were all running the same business model.  

They were still burning the candle at both ends, exhausted, burned out, and ready to give up.

These were all high-achievers, capable of greatness, but stuck in the minutia of the business - troubleshooting, problem-solving, covering shifts, missing time with family, and sacrificing the personal passions that once brought them joy - just trying to keep their doors open.

It wasn't fair...

They'd invested their life savings, sometimes more, into the dream of business ownership. They were smart and hard-working and were applying everything the franchisor told them to do, but were still coming up short. They could feel that something was missing, but couldn’t pinpoint what it was or how to learn it.

That's when I realized that this gap in business education and development was bigger than my brand.

 

This was the “Franchise Gap,”
existing throughout
the industry.

I felt a calling to do something about it - to advocate for the franchisees and small business owners left behind.

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Ask April Porter and The Infinite FranchiseeSM program was born!

Over the past 3 years, we've helped hundreds of franchisees to build their dream lives through business, rather than building businesses at the cost of their lives.

By implementing the teachings from the Infinite FranchiseeSM program, our clients have:

  • taken their first vacations in years
  • broken revenue records
  • opened more locations
  • sold businesses to scale up
  • and some even credit us with saving their marriages!
but they all are creating lives of SWAGTM - Sanity, Wealth, and GratitudeTM.

The Infinite FranchiseeSM  Program is a division of Ask April Porter and AP Consulting created through my passion to provide education and help other franchisees reach their SWAGTM - Sanity, Wealth, and GratitudeTM.