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Franchisor Spotlight: Krystal Kolenich, ‘Sexy’ Aradia Fitness – Franchisee to Franchisor
Krystal Kolenich started life as an x-ray technician, before buying a franchise with Aradia Fitness when they were just starting up. Since 2007, she has been the Canadian franchisor for Aradia fitness, as well as continuing to run her own franchise locations. Aradia Fitness, which is expanding rapidly, currently has 21 franchises across Canada. Talking to Krystal is fascinating as she has a strong sense of both sides of the fence – having been both franchisee and franchisor – the franchisee relationship at its best.
Franchise Offering
Krystal’s franchise has the possibility to be very controversial when you consider that Aradia Fitness’ line of business are pole dancing lessons. Talking with Krystal you realise she is extremely passionate about the benefits of her franchise, and what it offers the women who come. She’s fighting against a strong stereotype (that pole dancing is for strippers) but is very convincing about the benefits of Aradia Fitness and full of amazing stories about what it has done for different women of different ages and all different levels of fitness. Krystal says:
“Women don’t want to be sexy 24/7, but we give them a place to be sexy when they want to. There’s no sexuality in the workplace or in many women’s lives – that’s not a bad thing, but we want to be able to bring that back; to give women the confidence – after the first class, it’s amazing; they walk out with their heads high and walk differently down the street and they don’t care what anyone thinks”.
Straddling Both Sides of the Fence
One of the biggest challenges/opportunities for franchises is the relationship between the franchisee and the franchisor. This can be a source of great growth & energy for a franchise, but it can also be very painful when things go badly. When Krystal became the franchisor, she thought a lot about whether to continue as a franchisee or whether to sell her franchises. She decided to continue as a franchisee so that she would be equally affected by corporate decisions. Read more
Franchisor Spotlight: Fay Price from WrapZone – Ahead of the Healthy Eating Trend
Fay Price - CEO of the WrapZone franchise – sat down with me to share some of her story and advice for women looking at franchising their companies.
Fay and her husband Bruce McGee, her sister and her brother-in-law founded WrapZone in 1996 after a trip to San Francisco. Wraps are a healthy, great tasting, fast food alternative, with a variety of nutritional fillings in a burrito-style. Their first location was an instant success and they moved into franchising very quickly, working with a company that specialized in helping good companies to franchise. From the beginning, they saw the potential of serving nutritional, tasty fast food, but Fay says they didn’t realize that they were ahead of a huge health trend and what an advantage it would give them. In the current economic downturn, their long-held focus on nutritional value and their focus on healthy food has been a huge benefit to the company. “Isn’t it time you discovered fast food you can feel good about eating?” clearly resonates.
Fay’s best advice for people considering franchising is:
1. Do your homework & understand the concept clearly
2. Talk to the right people; do lots of networking
3. Get expert advice (lawyers, accountants, etc)
4. Have all your systems in place
When WrapZone first opened, Fay was responsible for the creative side of the business, while her husband, Bruce, did the management. When Bruce retired, Fay stepped up to lead the company. As she says, it was a challenging transition but one that she has loved every minute of. In Fay’s own words:
“If I knew then what I know now, I would have been too intimidated to get going. But we were full of the passion & the possibility. Then reality set in… The beautiful thing for me it that it’s helped me to grow; forced me to step up & do things I wouldn’t have done otherwise. It’s my life and my passion – I can’t imagine not doing it now.”
Fay has seen how technology can help or hinder her franchise growth and has seen the importance of technology grow over the journey. She has recently discontinued all traditional advertising (finding it too hard to measure results) and is moving into buzz marketing, promotional campaigns and product sales and promotions. Her franchises are in the process of moving to new software systems to support their continued growth and build franchisee satisfaction and management information processes. Fay says she’s not a risk taker, and the success of the WrapZone does seems to support that, but she is still near the front of the new trends as she moves into buzz marketing and online promotions.
Franchisor Spotlight: Judy Brooks from Blow Dry Bar – Business Wisdom
Judy Brooks is a well-known entrepreneur in Vancouver. Prior to launching Blow Dry Bar in 2007, she ran ProActive ReSolutions; a company working with organizations to build respectful workplaces with offices in Canada and Australia. The first Blo Blow Dry Bar location was born June 6th, 2007. The concept was simple: no cuts, no color — just wash-blow-go. Blo opened three locations in under a year. Since opening, Blo has received over 100 franchise requests from around the world and had over 85 editorial features. Being first to market in the category of Blow Dry Bar has had its advantages. Blo’s cheeky brand has been aggressively built. Blo has a global vision and Judy is working with the young team to capitalize on the success with a well-developed growth strategy. Not only is Judy in great demand as a speaker and advisor to other businesses, but Blo has recently merged with Melonhead, Canada’s largest kids’ haircut salons, to form Head Company Inc.
Judy says that Blo is not in the salon/hair industry business; “we’re in a service business that happens to provide a blow dry”. Growing her company has come from growing the brand and building a strong community, where customers know that they have something in common with the person sitting next to them, whether they ever speak together or not. Her brand is built down to the smallest detail; calling new staff ‘hair cadets’, fit out details for the premises, playing on the name ‘Blo’ and teaching new staff to honour the fact that customers chose to spend their money with Blo. Her staff tend to be young and very plugged in – Blo is active online with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and online bookings. Judy says that Blo is her first experience of a B-to-C business, and one with public exposure. Both her previous companies were B-to-B, but now she finds herself in demand at dinner parties as people hear more and more about Blo and are increasingly excited by the concept. “It’s a whole new experience that makes me feel awesome.”
Judy’s biggest advice for people considering franchising is: Read more
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