-mike: mike ference. -lemonis: how you doing, mike? -michael: my pleasure. lemonis: nice to meet you. i'm marcus. -mike: pleased to meet you. -andreas: come on in. -lemonis: you guys are married. -mike: we are. lemonis: so, you own the business together. kathleen: together. we're partners. mike: and then we're gonna concentrate hopefully more on franchises. -lemonis: legitimate franchises? -mike: legitimate franchises. they actually have a 10-year franchise agreement with us where they pay an up-front fee. lemonis: how much was that? mike: it's $10,000 per store. and then they pay an ongoing royalty fee, as well. lemonis: okay. franchising is an incredibly attractive business model because it allows you to get paid once you perfect a concept. my big fat greek gyro only gets about $10,000 when they sign up a new franchise. in success, that fee could grow much higher. better still, each of your franchisees pay the owner a royalty on a monthly basis. that could be anywhere between 4% and 12% of your monthly sales. mike: right now we're making about $60,000, $65

. ♪ just over a year ago, i met mike ference and his wife, kathleen kamouyerou, the owners of a fast-casual outside of pittsburgh called my big fat greek gyro. they opened their flagship restaurant 11 years ago. and when i met them, an additional 4 franchisees had opened in the greater pittsburgh area. andreas: what can i get for you? woman: the gyro, fries. lemonis: kathleen's two sons, michael and andreas, were in the process of buying their original location. andreas: if you could just sign that for me. lemonis: and though the family had dealt with tragedy... michael: i was 15 when our father passed. lemonis: oh, my gosh. michael: they were ran off the road by a semi-truck. -you were in the car? -kathleen: yes. lemonis: ...they were extremely tight-knit. andreas: come on, mikey. michael: come on, mike. you can come in. lemonis: the business on the other hand, was in absolute chaos. i quickly learned that the franchise model had never been properly established. mike: we just set up the llc. kathleen: it was a mess from the beginning. lemonis: every restaurant had its own look and feel. an