Bill King, Axxiom Franchise Advisors, LLC

Bill King Bio

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own.
And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go.”  Dr. Seuss quote

How else can you explain how a curious, success motivated simple kid from Cleveland finds his way into an apparel company as a mail order clerk, ascends to become the CEO and ends up as the co-founder of a national franchise consulting company….with a few stops and detours along the way?

From zippers to franchises, if my life was a book it could never be a novel but rather a series of short stories. Born and raised in the industrial city of Cleveland smack in the heart of the Rustbelt, I lived my youth as late night comedians told hilarious quips of our river actually catching on fire from the pollution of the steel mills, one for which my father worked for for 49 years. Yep, it really did happen but being “green” was not exactly a priority of steel manufacturers back in the early days when I was growing up and sabre toothed tigers roamed freely. Who’d a thunk I would find my way into the genteel world of tailored clothing in a company located in this Midwest city known more for steel than body covering? Well when I answered the newspaper ad for a mail order clerk and the interviewer asked the question “What do you know about tailored clothing?” My answer was straight forward, “I know a lot about tailored clothing. In fact, I own a suit and wear it at least twice a year, at Easter and Christmas!” This vast experience alone got me the job and over the next 23 years took me on a wonderful and wild ride including the opportunity to live in Richmond, LA, Chicago, and New York City each time with new alphabet letters in my titles to confuse everyone about what it was I did. They finally ran out of new alphabet letters and combinations to describe me and I ended this chapter in my life as the CEO after helping to take the company private and then selling it later to an international apparel company from Germany. At this point in my professional life I went “over the wall” and became a corporate refugee. Somehow now the air smelled refreshing, the ulcers were in remission, and the airlines calling me to announce I was no longer one of their top 10 frequent flyers seemed like a good thing.

Everything has both a beginning and an end and I was well on my way to experience numerous and interesting new challenges for the next eight years, not the least of which included becoming an investor and principal of another apparel company, an industry consultant, a telecom business owner, a real estate agent and for sure, the most interesting, becoming a team member by one of Forbes’s wealthiest men for a commercial real estate development project powered totally by renewable energy resources and free of fossil fuels. Remember the short stories of my life?

Onward and upward we go! My quest at that moment in time was to take control of my life and buy, build or create a business. Through a good friend and now residing in Atlanta he suggested I investigate buying a franchise. I was truly fascinated with this idea and shortly after talking with a franchise consultant my mind wandered as did my interest. I can’t remember becoming more excited to discover the role of a professional franchise consultant and it seemed to be a perfect fit for my background. After all I had always considered my purpose in life to provide advice and counsel to friends and associates and actually believed I was rather good at doing this. With “Ignorance on Fire” I became President and founder of Franchise Career Consultants, Inc., as a licensed affiliate of one of the nation’s largest franchise consulting organizations. I also became for this organization a franchise consultant trainer providing professional training and instruction to new consultants and preparing them to become successful franchise advisors.

But since I suffer from the Irish curse of wanting more and making something small, larger I met my partner, Tom Redding. We were both franchise consultants with independent businesses, his in Sacramento and mine here in Atlanta. Well one thing you’re almost certain will happen when two Irishmen get together is a celebration for absolutely any obscure event (you may interchange the word “excuse” here) and some deep thought (as though we’re capable) as to forming a partnership and forming our own national franchise consulting company. Not knowing any better and being absolutely confident of our ability to build a successful franchise consulting business we gave birth to Axxiom Franchise Advisors, LLC in January 2007.

So here’s the shameless commercial. “As co-founder and CEO of Axxiom Franchise Advisors, LLC, Bill, his partners and Axxiom’s Advisors have helped many entrepreneurs discover the benefits of business ownership among the vast number of investment quality franchise systems meeting their client’s lifestyle, professional and financial criteria. Axxiom is a national franchise consulting organization providing their clients with education, consultative advice, and valuable unbiased information on the franchise industry to empower them to make better and more confident decisions regarding acquiring a business. Axxiom is the premier franchise consulting company in the industry providing these important professional services absolutely free of any expense to their clients. Bill’s global, executive, corporate, and entrepreneurial experience has proved invaluable to Axxiom and their clients. By recognizing and understanding the changing dynamics of today’s marketplace he has assisted many executive and corporate clients discover new career opportunities in the franchise industry.

Please visit www.AxxiomFranchiseAdvisors.com to learn more about Axxiom and how they may assist you, an associate, friend or family member.”

I am a member of the Executive Advisory Network for Drake, Beam, Morin's International Center of Executive Options here in Atlanta as well as the the Atlanta Advisory Forum, and former member of the Center of Excellence Business Network Institute and remain an active referral and network marketing partner. More information on me (as though is isn’t too much already for almost anyone) can be viewed on my LinkedIn profile at LinkedIn.