You have probably heard about creating a customer experience and creating a relationship with your customer, but what does it actually mean? And, what does it look like in practice?
Well our guest today, Patrick Stewart, is the CEO of Apricot Lane Boutique, which is a national women’s retail franchise with over 80 locations and soon to have well over 100 locations! He shares with us how his company creates a personal connection with their brand and how you can too for yours!
**Subscribe to our NEWEST Podcast called: Franchise Your Business. CLICK HERE
LINKS:
**Find an Apricot Lane Boutique location near you: https://apricotlaneboutique.com/
**Learn more about Apricot Lane Boutique Franchise at: https://apricotlanefranchise.com/
ABOUT OUR GUEST:
Patrick Stewart is CEO of Apricot Lane Boutique – the most popular women’s fashion franchise with over 80 locations. BeforeApricot Lane, Patrick was CMO of Sears Holdings, and he was responsible for driving record revenue of $1.2B and a 35%increase in profitability.
Numbers-wise, there are currently 80 Apricot Lane franchises with a soon-to-be 100. The brand also first opened its doors in 2007and in 2008 received the prestigious International Council of Shopping Centers Association (ICSC) as the Hot Retail Concept for Fashion – getting over 70000 votes in favor.
SPONSOR
This episode is powered by Big Sky Franchise Team. If you are ready to talk about franchising your business you can schedule your free, no-obligation, franchise consultation online at: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/ or by calling Big Sky Franchise Team at: 855-824-4759.
TRANSCRIPTION
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (00:00):
You’ve worked hard to build your business and now it’s time to grow. Welcome to the Multiply Your Success Podcast. I’m your host, Tom DuFore, CEO of Big Sky Franchise Team and a serial entrepreneur. The purpose of our podcast is to give you a weekly dose of inspiration and education to help you multiply your success. And as we open today, I want to talk about this idea of creating the customer experience and creating a relationship with your customer. I’m sure you’ve heard of that, but what does it actually mean?
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (00:33):
And really what seems to be missing in discussion is, what does that look like in practice? What are some companies and organizations that are out there doing that? Our guest today, Patrick Stewart, who’s the CEO of Apricot Lane Boutique, shares about how his company is doing that and creating a real personal relationship and experience with their customers. Apricot Lane Boutique, additionally, one of the reasons I’m excited to have them on it’s a franchise company, national retail women’s retail company.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (01:08):
They have over 80 locations and growing to well over a hundred, and he also shares some tips in ideas and suggestions on what they’ve done to grow over the course of the last year. Let’s go ahead and jump into my interview with Patrick Stewart.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (01:23):
Hey, Tom. Thanks for having me. My name is Patrick Stewart. The franchise company is Country Visions, Inc., but the brand is what people know, Apricot Lane Boutique. We’ve got about 80 locations nationwide, and we’re growing pretty robustly. We’re covered pretty well across the United States, but there are some places like if any of your listeners are in New Mexico, we don’t have locations there, but we’ve got a lot in Texas, California, up and down, everywhere else, where there are heavy populations is where people probably have a good chance of knowing us.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (01:58):
Sure. Yeah. And a quick plug, if anyone in New Mexico is interested, you’d be happy to talk to them, I’m sure.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (02:03):
If there are enough people there. We just haven’t cracked that one yet.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (02:08):
Perfect. Well, thanks so much for being here. Your brand is really interesting. You have, if I understand right here, over 80 locations growing to a hundred here that’s coming up, and you’re in this boutique retail franchise world. How did you end up in this kind of a business?
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (02:28):
I’ve always been in apparel… I shouldn’t say always, but for 30 years in apparel for different retailers across the nation and big ones, small ones. Most of the team that I put together has really deep experience in different retail. What that leans toward for the franchisee is a really strong team that can guide through and navigate with a lot of expertise and all different disciplines of retail. We know what works, what doesn’t.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (03:03):
We know why big companies have a difficult time being very nimble, and we know the strengths of both small and large companies. And boy, that makes it so that we’re able to have a really steep learning curve and create really great retailers. And for us, the thing that differentiates Apricot Lane Boutique is it’s going to be locally owned. We’re going to train the owner to do all the buying on their own for their local audience and turn them inventory faster than any other retailer.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (03:43):
For the shopper, that means it’s always going to be this constant flow of newness every time they visit. There’s no one else in retail that really has new goods arriving every day. But that’s what it’s like inside an Apricot Lane Boutique. It’s not just new and we kind of hope you like it. The local audience is specifically who’s being bought for. It’s good new arrivals nearly every day.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (04:11):
You combine that with the type of service that you only really get from a local owner that owns their own shop, and you’ve got a lot of entrepreneurs in your audience, it just can’t be replicated. It makes for a really good, strong and growing business, even in the very tricky world of apparel retail, which is a tricky world. But done right, it’s a growth world. For example, we’re 80 locations right now, but I’ve got us on track to have 55 new franchises awarded this year alone. It’s pretty steep upward growth.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (04:50):
Wow! That’s incredible.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (04:53):
Customers really, really like what they get when they shop in Apricot Lane Boutique.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (05:00):
Well, that’s an amazing story and thank you for sharing all of that background there. It sounds like really the franchisees are really empowered. They’re doing that local buying, local sourcing to serve that local customer base, whatever that local customer is interested in.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (05:18):
That’s exactly right, and it’s moderate price too. I think some people think when they think boutique, they go, “Oh, that top is going to be $300.” No. We’re talking about an entire outfit, the customers out the door for under $100. It’s moderate priced with this really elevated level of service, and the product is purchased by the owner for the people that shop. They aren’t buying for their own closet. They’re buying for the customers that shop with them.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (05:48):
They’re trained to buy in micro, small quantities, specifically designed to sell out. When you hear the talk of treasure hunting in the world of retail, that’s what it’s like inside an Apricot Lane Boutique every day. But it’s not hunting through to try to find a treasure, it’s all treasure and that it’s not going to be around long. It’s going to be purchased. It’s going to be sold out, and it’s going to be replaced with the next fashion.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (06:16):
The really good thing about where we teach and when we make introductions to like 70 different vendors, there’s this great variety. Even in today’s challenging world of COVID related inventory-supply chain disruptions, we’re able to navigate that. Because of our breadth of options for purchasing, they aren’t really seeing those problems. A lot of the hurdles and challenges that others have had, we’ve been able to just consider as small road bumps for us.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (06:52):
We make big hurdles turned into small boxes. That makes it for a much more pleasurable, profitable owner who’s in business having fun. And again, the customer is the one that really notices the difference there. They like the experience.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (07:09):
I’m curious to know when you describe, okay, you’ve got over 80 locations and you’re adding 55 this year, that’s substantial growth, especially when you think about the… As you were talking about before, the challenges that just any retail business experience during the pandemic. I’d love to know what it is that you’ve been doing, or how you’ve been kind of bringing this to light. Has there been any magic trick or anything that you’ve been doing that you could share?
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (07:44):
Well, what we see teach and train all of our franchisees is really summarized by this. There are really two big schools of thought and retail. One is transactional and the other is relational or let’s just call it relationships. You can either be transactional, and that’s commodity goods, and you should think that’s the entire world of online business. That is, I went there. I wanted to get it done. The quality, I couldn’t know. I couldn’t touch and feel it.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (08:19):
I looked at it a little bit, but made the transaction. Think fast food dining. I ate. Wasn’t that good, but I ate. Then think going to one of your favorite restaurants where it’s more of the entire experience. If it’s one of your favorites, you like the ambiance. You like the waiter staff. You like the menu. You like the treatment that you get from everyone there. You like the overall experience, that is boutique shopping.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (08:51):
We really teach what is the difference between what the customer wants who shops a boutique. They’re very different than the customer that just wants a transaction. Lean into that. You have a boutique shopper that wants all those things that a boutique is going to offer, and you are empowered to do things that other retailers aren’t empowered to do. First of all, you’re moderate priced. That’s just setting the baseline there, but the service is you’re able to cater to that shopper in a way that no one else can.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (09:31):
You are buying for them. They aren’t really getting that from other places that they shop. They’re getting here’s product, hope you like it. And if you don’t, sorry, I guess we’re not for you. But when you’re trained to do your own buying for that customer, even if they don’t have something that they love right then, if you can find out, you can deliver that and you can deliver that to them in a matter of days.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (09:56):
But if you do have something that they like, then you’re able to lean in even further. They’re getting the great experience right then. You’re able to replicate that again and again. You’re building a relationship, and that is the thing that really is… I mean, customers by and large when they discover it, they develop a very strong preference for it. There’s folks that have also been denied through COVID the interaction that they’ve craved in different parts of their life, right?
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (10:26):
They had so many things stripped away from them. We helped our owners navigate the tricky waters of COVID and the shutdowns that happened and the things that they couldn’t do and limitations on how many people they could have inside their boutique. And all the things are related. We help them navigate that, but we made sure that they were developing relationships the entire time.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (10:49):
We empowered them digitally to have Facebook Live events and not lose this relationship that people still wanted to have, but they were prevented from having. We kept the strength going and now the big rush is really on for people who’ve had so many things stripped away from them. The boutique and the owner that’s local is standing out more than ever. They’d already had a lot of momentum. There’s already people that had a preference for it. Now it’s just stronger than ever before.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (11:24):
Patrick, one of the things that really is standing out here, which is one of my favorite things of franchising, is that local owner-operator. I’m a huge endorser and believer in that local owner-operator. Are all of your stores locally owned and operated? How does that work?
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (11:40):
Yes, that is right. And the only time that it is… Well, they are all locally owned and operated, but the operating word is, well, what happens if you own two? Is the owner and both of those? And the answer is, well, they’re going to split their time. We don’t have anywhere and I don’t want to award any franchises if a person doesn’t have a passion for fashion and doesn’t really want to connect with customers. You have to want to be in your boutique to make that connection. It’s not a difficult thing.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (12:15):
If you have a passion for fashion, you want that interaction because that helps you. It brings joy to you as the owner to outfit from head to toe a person in apparel if you have a passion for it. That’s part of what makes the magic happen. We have that, and we’re fortunate to have it as the company headquarters. The owners are really happier if that is part of their make up.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (12:46):
It’s just us being… And not being mean to say, if you don’t have a passion for passion, this isn’t you, but kindly speaking, that pretty much is it. There’s probably something far better for you. If you don’t have a passion for fashion and I told you, “Hey, we’re empowering you to buy. We want you to have new goods arriving everyday,” that would be a chore for you if you didn’t have a passion for fashion. But if you do like that, then that’s something that you look forward to.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (13:14):
You’re like, “This is great. I love having new goods arrive everyday.” We found that we attract those type of owners and they make the best owners and their customers definitely think that that’s the best experience. It all works when it’s handled that way.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (13:34):
Amazing. I love how you were talking about making that personal connection and viewing this really as a relationship that you’re building, because I can see it. If you have a passion for this, you’re going to go in, you’re going to be excited to help that customer who’s in your store. Maybe can’t find somebody or need something specific. That night or that day, you’re going to be sourcing and finding something to meet their needs.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (14:02):
That’s right. And it leads to really great experience. An experience is, someone comes… Or Here’s a non-experience. Can I help you? No, thanks. I’m just browsing. But an experience is the person really says, “Oh, I like what you’re wearing,” it’s because they do. “Where did you get that?” And they got it here. “Hey, I just wanted to let you know, I don’t know what you’re looking for, but I do want to show you these new goods to just ride today.” They lead them over to that.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (14:34):
And then the conversation leads them, “Do you have some of that you’re going to?” Yes. If they’re say a mom, they can sense that, and they say, “Do you have kids? What ages?” If they’re already the younger age, they’re like, “Do have some school event that you’re going to?” Real conversations, real curiosity about what they like, what their style is. Do they have something they’re going to that they’re particularly wanting to have an outfit for? Those real conversations, they aren’t forced.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (15:07):
If there’s a passion for the fashion and if it’s a local owner, they really are developing kind of like a friendship with these people. And It’s going to last. It’s going to be because they know they’re going to see the person again. It’s not the shallow doesn’t have any depth transactional type of thing. It’s much more of a… It’s like that restaurant example that I told you about. If you have a favorite place and you knew the owner or the chef, that pretty much becomes your favorite place.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (15:36):
Because you’re like, “Oh, I got to talk to the owner.” They talk to the menu and they made the menu. They can adjust the menu. They’re truly in control. It’s a very different experience than you just encountered an hourly worker who pretty much this was a stepping stone to something else. They’re didn’t really want to be there. They’re very different. Since you are a believer in the local ownership, you know exactly what I’m talking about, that is, it makes all the difference.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (16:11):
Yeah. It’s interesting, as a lot of folks that are going to probably end up listening to this are either franchising or emerging brand or thinking of maybe franchising their business down the road, you’ve described kind of this niche, specific person that is probably going to be interested in your franchise. I just be curious on your selection process and ruling folks out that maybe don’t fit that passion person, passion for fashion as you kind of described.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (16:44):
Yeah. Well, I mean, really the motto is, if you don’t have a passion for it, I think that a lot of the joy of owning the business is going to be lost on you. It’s going to be… Yeah, you can be profitable, but why don’t you go for something else that is a passion for you? That’s my real business advice to people. Just, you must pursue your passion. If you have entrepreneurs out there that are listening to this and they are not loving what they do, find a path and make it as short of a path as possible for you.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (17:22):
I mean, a timeline path, six months, maybe a year to get out of the thing that you’re doing that is not bringing you joy and find something that is. You will be successful in it. Have confidence. If you really enjoy it, you’re going to be successful. You don’t just have to settle in your life for something that maybe you’ve been doing for a long time, maybe you’re well-trained to do, maybe you happen to be really good at it. If it’s not bringing you joy, abandon that and go find your passion.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (17:55):
That’s the solid advice that I can give you. And know that when you find the passion, you’re not only going to be happier, you’re also going to be successful.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (18:05):
Great advice. I love it. I love it. Well, this is a great time for us just to kind of transition to our formula for the show. We like to ask every guest before they go the same questions. The first question we always ask is, has there been a miss or two maybe along the way in your career or personally, whatever, that you’d like to share and something you’ve learned from it?
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (18:30):
Well, I have, but I would say lots of misses and lots of hits, and I think that all of them are fantastic. I’m the type of person that would give people this advice. You can learn probably more from your mistakes than you can from your wins. In sports world, from your losses, you will learn a lot from it. The wins are great. You will learn a lot from your losses. Don’t consider them losses. Consider everything just learning moments.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (19:04):
Big misses I’ve had along the way, some steps, I don’t even really register them that way, so I don’t really have an answer for you. I just know that they’re all learnings along the way. So embrace them. Don’t deny the negative moments. When it comes to the highs and lows, don’t get too low for something. Don’t get too high. Be more even keel and know they’re all learning moments on your journey. Good stuff there.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (19:32):
That’s great. I love it. Is there anything maybe on the make side you wanted to share or add in on that?
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (19:40):
Yeah, the make side for me personally was really realizing what I had preached before about pursuing your passion. I had a career where I made a big step into a fantastically lucrative, very big multi-billion dollar company, and I didn’t enjoy it. I had thought that was something that I wanted, but I realized this is not what I like. I followed my own advice, got out of that and moved to a different… Set a different goal for myself and achieved it, and I’m far happier for it.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (20:24):
I was fully qualified for it. It had been a dream. I achieved it and was not happy and was willing to face that and say, “There must be something else,” and very quickly adjusted. Absolutely no regrets ever with most of the decisions that I made. But definitely it can be hard for many people to have been on a path and they think that’s the path that they wanted. But if it’s not bringing you true joy, just abandon it. It is the best advice that I can give to anyone.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (20:59):
Oh, I love it. That’s great advice. How about this idea of a multiplier? We’d talked before the show. This is a question we get the most diverse answers to. Is there a multiplier you’d like to talk about?
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (21:14):
Well, I think that from some of your listeners that are either already own a franchise, if you’re not part of a franchise now and you’re in business as an entrepreneur, you’re taking the hardest path ever. So kudos to you if you’re successful. If you’re not successful, so you got the franchise because it just means this, proven business model. Whatever passion you like, look at the franchise first because they’ve got a business model and it’s like having a map to guide you to your destination.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (21:50):
Now, if you’re a super adventurer and you’re type person that doesn’t use maps ever, just wanders until you find your way, go for it. But for many other folks that are like, “No, no, no, a map is fine. I’m sure to get there,” then a franchise can be pretty valuable. When it comes to multiplier, one of the things that I would say to your folks that I think could be pretty helpful is fairly recently, I diversified greatly the advertising channels that we use to help folks that are interested in franchising find us.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (22:25):
I diversified greatly our advertising and took the advertising budget and tripled it. We’ve been very successful for that maneuver. Diversifying the channels means that previously we used only a few channels. I tripled them as well as the budget so that I wanted to be seen in multiple areas. That is a good multiplier I would say, is that the advertising channels and all digital channels, by the way, and everything is not old school broadcast or anything like that.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (23:04):
It’s all digital, so it can be very tracked. But I would say that if you aren’t really leading into trying new things and you’ve been doing it maybe the same way with only subtle variations, now might be the time for you to try something very interesting, which is a great diversification and you’ll see that completely work. It has for us. We’ve greatly exceeded our goals that we’ve set, and it is through that diversification of the advertising channels that we use.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (23:44):
Well, that’s a great story for you to share and tell, and thank you for talking about that. What I’m hearing is the pandemic happens, things are going on. And instead of kind of rearing back and hunkering down, you it sounds like did the opposite. You really went after it tripled things and added things. Is that the direction you took?
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (24:09):
That is. That’s the big lean in. During the toughest part of the pandemic, I was really expense managing, and so we did cut back then. We weren’t really leaning in there, but that period was really… It was three really tough months. Even though people would… If you look at the media, it’s like, well, it’s been a year and a half or so since the start of the pandemic. For us, it was only the first three months that were really tough, and then it was, okay, now we are stabilized.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (24:38):
Things weren’t back to normal, but we were stable. We had a path forward for folks and the worst of the storm was over. It was still raining, but the real hurricane had stayed around. After that three months is when I really started leaning it and did diversify and really have seen big growth since then. If we look back, and it is a year and a half now, now we’re in a very different situation where the growth is the biggest that we’ve ever had.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (25:12):
Well, what I like about your business being boutique and very niche and focused is it’s going to attract people naturally that are interested in it. I found just in franchising in general, we’re seeing just in a franchise community at large that franchise sales in general is booming. It’s a really great time to be in franchising right now. And I think that the shock of the pandemic did what you just described.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (25:41):
People are taking your advice where they’re saying, “I don’t really like what I’m doing, or maybe I don’t like the direction I’m going. I want to be my own boss.”
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (25:50):
Yeah, there’s a lot of that. Exactly. You’re exactly right. I think that the pandemic and the things that happened as a result of the pandemic shook a lot of people. There still are a lot that are very afraid, but there are far more that have said, “Hey, I am not going to just sit idly by anymore. Now I’m going to really pursue my passion.” It shook them to action. And for most entrepreneurs, and that’s who your audience is, this is a group of people that have already made the mental leap.
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (26:28):
And that’s the most important step is the, can I do this? Can I not just be working for someone else? That mental leap is the first step. That is one of the good things that came from with the pandemic situation was it a lot of people to take that first step. I don’t just have to work for someone else. I can be my own boss. That’s a big deal in franchising, right?
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (26:52):
Yeah, absolutely. Yes. No doubt about it. Well, Patrick, the last question we’d like to ask every guest is, what does success mean to you?
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (27:03):
Success really just means that you found something that really makes you happy, that you can look forward to every morning. The night before you go to bed, you’re looking forward to the next day. If you’ve got that happiness to look forward to, boy, that is what anyone should really consider to be a success. Because if you take that away and you aren’t looking forward to the next day, whatever you’re doing, something is fundamentally wrong. That’s it for me.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (27:37):
Amazing. Well, as we bring things to a close, is there anything that you were hoping to say or share that maybe you haven’t had a chance to yet?
Patrick Stewart, Apricot Lane Boutique (27:45):
Well, yeah. How about this? How about whoever is listening to this, go ahead and look into the number one women’s fashion franchise. That’s Apricot Lane Boutique. You can easily just do a Google search and find us easily doing that, looking into a women’s fashion franchise. You’ll find us. But if you want to get to our website directly, apricotlanefranchise.com is the place to find us. You can find out more. Because if you’ve got a passion for fashion, we definitely want to hear from you.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (28:16):
Patrick, thank you so much again for being here. What a fantastic interview and just amazing information you shared. Thank you so much. And now let’s go ahead and jump into our three key takeaways. Takeaway number one is when he talked about having two primary schools of thought and how you run your business and view your customers. The first Patrick mentioned was about viewing it as a transaction. Just basically money in, money out. Customer comes in, they buy stuff, and they leave, and they’re gone. Here and gone. Here and gone.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (28:48):
The second is relational, where you’re looking to create that customer experience, to create that ambiance, the desire for that customer to come back and have a connection with you. And which bucket do you fall in or does your business fall in today, transaction or relational? Is it in the category that you want it to be? Takeaway number two is you can learn more from your mistakes, especially if you embrace them and don’t deny them.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (29:19):
I thought that was a nice little takeaway that Patrick shared. The third takeaway is related to his franchise sales efforts, which I thought was fantastic. He said during 2020, when things got really rough, when stores and states and pandemics and shutdowns and lockdowns and so on, he said he diversified his advertising and he tripled his advertising budget. That in turn has led to explosive growth for him in his franchise sales efforts.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (29:49):
For all of you in franchising or thinking about franchising, it shows that he tripled what he was doing and has really found a lot of success. And now it’s time for today’s win-win. Today’s win-win is when Patrick shared how he awards franchises to people who have a passion for fashion. I thought that was a phenomenal takeaway as a win-win here, because number one, he used the word awards. He grants or awards franchises. Number two is he really wants people in a system that have a passion for fashion.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (30:26):
And as he said, if you don’t have a passion for fashion, this is not the right franchise for you. I want you to think about your own business and your own brand and figure out what is that passion for fashion for you? What is that little way to summarize what you’re doing that prospective franchisees could have great clarity on, that can be viewed as a magnet to attract or repel away? Bring the right folks in that you’re looking to have come into the system or repel those away.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (31:03):
I think that’s a great win-win because it’s going to be a win for your franchise company and your organization. It’s going to be a win for the other franchisees. It’s going to be a win for your training staff. It’s going to be a win for those franchisees that don’t buy your franchise and choose something else that might be a better fit. That’s the episode today, folks. Please make sure you subscribe to the podcast and give us a review.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (31:25):
And remember, if you or anyone you know might be ready to franchise your business or take your franchise company to the next level, please look us up at bigskyfranchiseteam.com. Thanks for tuning in and we look forward to having you back next week.
