September/October 2018 – Franchise Canada https://cfa.ca/franchisecanada Produced by the Canadian Franchise Association Wed, 11 Jan 2023 18:37:41 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://cfa.ca/franchisecanada/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2020/03/cropped-cropped-favicon-32x32.png September/October 2018 – Franchise Canada https://cfa.ca/franchisecanada 32 32 In This Issue: September/October 2018 https://cfa.ca/franchisecanada/in-this-issue-septemberoctober-2018/ Fri, 24 Aug 2018 15:16:59 +0000 https://cfa-ca.flywheelsites.com/franchisecanada-2/?p=4039 Editorial: A&W B Espresso Bar Bank of Montreal Big Smoke Burger BioPed Boston Pizza Café Depot/Coffee Depot Café Van Houtte Canada Bread Cinnaholic Clever Cupcakes COBS Bread Coffee Culture Café Coffee Time Country Style Crepe Delicious Edo Japan Express Employment Professionals FranNet Good Earth Coffeehouse Kekuli Café Ledgers Canada Lice...

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Editorial:

A&W
B Espresso Bar
Bank of Montreal
Big Smoke Burger
BioPed
Boston Pizza
Café Depot/Coffee Depot
Café Van Houtte
Canada Bread
Cinnaholic
Clever Cupcakes
COBS Bread
Coffee Culture Café
Coffee Time
Country Style
Crepe Delicious
Edo Japan
Express Employment Professionals
FranNet
Good Earth Coffeehouse
Kekuli Café
Ledgers Canada
Lice Squad.com
Little Kickers
M&M Food Market
Michel’s Bakery Cafe
Money Direct
Mr. MIKES
Mr. Rooter
MR.SUB
Nestle Toll House Café
OPA of Greece
Pita Pit
Presse Café
PropertyGuys.com
Pumpernickel’s
Quesada
Robin’s Donuts
Second Cup
Serious Coffee
Shoeless Joe’s
Signarama
Silver Chef
Smoke’s Poutinerie
Symposium Cafe
Tim Hortons
Triple O’s
Wendy’s
Wetzel’s Pretzels

Advertisers:

Amazing Jewelry
Angelic Treasures Christian Daycare
BMO Bank of Montreal
Booster Juice
Chin Chin Street Side Kitchen
COBS Bread
Crunch Fitness Canada
Dairy Queen Canada
Driverseat
Edo Japan
Enchanted Castle
Fatburger
Firehouse Subs
Gloria Jean’s Coffees
Great Clips
Heart to Home Meals
Hickory Dickory Decks
International Franchise Association
Jani-King
Kumon Canada Inc
Level UP Learning Centers
Lice Squad.com
M&M Food Market
Mary Brown’s Chicken & Taters
McDonald’s Restaurants Canada
Midas International
Moneris
Mr. Lube
Oxford Learning
Pizza Nova
Pizza Pizza
PropertyGuys.com
Quesada Burritos & Tacos
RBC Royal Bank
Snap-on Tools
Stagecoach
The UPS Store
Twisted Indian Wraps
UCMAS Mental Math
Wild Wing

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Giving Back: BioPed https://cfa.ca/franchisecanada/giving-back-bioped/ Fri, 24 Aug 2018 14:25:12 +0000 https://cfa-ca.flywheelsites.com/franchisecanada-2/?p=4034 It’s not often that a national organization can say their chari­table contributions tie in perfectly with their business goals. So, when BioPed Footcare Centres partnered with Nashville, Tennessee-based Soles4Souls in 2015, it seemed too good to be true. The Canadian franchise was in search of a new, innovative approach to...

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It’s not often that a national organization can say their chari­table contributions tie in perfectly with their business goals. So, when BioPed Footcare Centres partnered with Nashville, Tennessee-based Soles4Souls in 2015, it seemed too good to be true.

The Canadian franchise was in search of a new, innovative approach to distributing used shoes to those in need as part of their company-wide goodytwoshoes Foundation. Founded in 2012, the Foundation supplies Canadians with used shoes which would otherwise end up in landfills. A little research lead them to Soles4Souls, a non-profit organi­zation with a mission to discover entrepreneurship, create employ­ment, and end poverty through shoe distribution in third world countries.

Through Soles4Souls’ unique Micro-Enterprise Program, used shoes are delivered and sold at a low cost to female entrepreneurs in various countries from Haiti and Guatemala to Tanzania, Ecuador and India, among others. The program provides communities a way out of poverty, as women resell the shoes in their local marketplace, employ­ing other women and young entre­preneurs in the process.

“As soon as we met with Soles­4Souls and learned more about the Micro-Enterprise Program, we knew there was something special,” says Peter Scully, BioPed’s President and CEO. “This is our business – we are in the feet business. It’s pretty incredible when you can find a cause that compliments what you do for a living so well.”

Within the first year of the part­nership, BioPed franchisees col­lected a total of 34,000 pairs of shoes from their local communities. The initiative was an immediate success as more and more franchise part­ners became inspired by the work Soles4Souls was achieving, sharing the message with Canadians from coast to coast. To date, the franchise has donated 200,000 pairs with a goal of reaching 1-million.

“It’s really morphed into some­thing much bigger than we ever anticipated,” Scully says. “We’ve even tacked on an additional aspect where our BioPed franchisees get to travel to Haiti.”

In 2016, to reward franchisees’ shoe collection efforts for the pro­gram, BioPed head office decided to bring their top shoe collectors to the country the shoes were being sent too. Now, every time a clinic collects 25 pairs of used shoes, they are auto­matically added into a draw. A hand­ful of names are randomly selected, with the lucky franchise partners winning a trip to Haiti.

“We chose Haiti only because there’s a tremendous need there,” Scully explains. “And we continue to go back because we are continually inspired by the country. The most incredible thing about Haiti are the people and their resiliency. People take care of people.”

Whereas used shoes are collected in partnership with Soles4Souls, BioPed’s trips to Haiti are designed to bring children new shoes. Travel­ling to the country once a year – with plans to make the trip two times beginning in 2018 – BioPed franchi­sees bring over 1000 shoes each visit, sizing children in schools and orphanages across the country.

Sudbury, Ontario franchisee Kyla Rouleau has been fortunate enough to make the trip twice, and describes the experience as life-altering.

“Not only do we meet these chil­dren, we also get to explore the coun­try, visit some of the markets where shoes from the Micro-Enterprise Pro­gram are sold, and meet the women who benefit from the initiative,” she says. “It really changes your entire outlook. On the plane ride home, I always wonder if I gave as much as I received from the experience.”

Each trip to Haiti offers a new opportunity to help children and communities in need. As they get set for their next trip, Scully says they will continue to deliver shoes in addition to finding other ways to give back, whether that be helping with food programs or teaching stu­dents English.

And their contributions haven’t gone unnoticed. Earlier this year, BioPed received the Canadian Fran­chise Association’s Outstanding Corporate Citizenship Award, recog­nizing their partnership with Soles­4Souls and their work in Haiti.

“The entire BioPed team are, by nature, caring people,” Scully says. “The work we’ve been doing is just a natural extension of that. Receiving the award was so special because it brought awareness to our franchi­sees of just how powerful their contri­butions are. Our owners are the real stars of the show, so this award was for them.”


By Kristin Di Tommaso

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Q: Will a franchisor provide me with earnings projections? https://cfa.ca/franchisecanada/q-will-a-franchisor-provide-me-with-earnings-projections/ Fri, 24 Aug 2018 14:07:14 +0000 https://cfa-ca.flywheelsites.com/franchisecanada-2/?p=4028 Throughout the evolution of franchise disclo­sure legislation and case law in Canada, the disclosure of financial performance representations and earnings pro­jections to franchisees has been an ever-present topic. In considering franchise opportunities, franchisees invari­ably want to know – “how much will I make?” This invites the franchisor to discuss possible...

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Throughout the evolution of franchise disclo­sure legislation and case law in Canada, the disclosure of financial performance representations and earnings pro­jections to franchisees has been an ever-present topic. In considering franchise opportunities, franchisees invari­ably want to know – “how much will I make?” This invites the franchisor to discuss possible future earnings, and present financial information. However, if there is a break­down in the franchisor-franchisee relationship, franchi­sees typically point to those same earnings projections and change the question to “why didn’t I make that much?” Earnings claims are often the first place where a disgrun­tled franchisee will look to allege there was some misrep­resentations or improper disclosure by the franchisor.

What are they:

So what will constitute earnings projections? The term is defined under the Alberta Act, BC Act, PEI Act, New Brunswick Act and Manitoba Act as “includ[ing] informa­tion given by or on behalf of the franchisor, directly or indirectly, from which a specific level or range of actual or potential sales, costs, income, revenue or profits from franchises or businesses of the franchisor or of the fran­chisor’s affiliate of the same type as the franchise being offered can easily be ascertained.” This could take the form of models provided to a franchisee with numbers inserted, marketing materials, or could simply come from a conversation between franchisee and franchisor. While the Ontario Act does not define “earning projections” the above concerns are still relevant to the Ontario regime.

The disclosure obligations relating to financial per­formance representations or earnings projections are found in the regulations of the franchise disclosure legis­lation.¹ Interestingly, in all disclosure provinces, the leg­islation makes it clear that a franchisor is not required to disclose any financial performance information, but if a franchisor elects to do so, it must also provide:

  • a statement specifying the reasonable basis for the projection;
  • the assumptions underlying the projection; and
  • the place where substantiating information is avail­able for inspection by the franchisee.

What is the Risk:

In disclosure provinces, franchisees have the statutory right to “rescind a franchise agreement, without penalty or obligations, no later than two years after entering into the franchise agreement if the franchisor never provided the disclosure document.”² A franchisee will likely seek to rescind the franchise agreement on the basis of this provision if it fails to receive any of the required disclo­sure surrounding earnings projections and no longer wants to continue as a franchisee.

Though some recent cases point only to a need for a franchisee to be able to make “informed decisions” on the basis of their disclosure,³ other cases suggest that the simple non-inclusion of the information, regardless of its effect on the franchisee, is a fatal flaw to a franchisor’s assertion that they provided a disclosure document.⁴

Practical Advice:

Often the sales process drives the desire to include finan­cial performance representations. Any information that a franchisor, or its sales team, provides to franchisees may constitute an earnings projection, and must then be included in the disclosure document with appropri­ate disclaimers. Gone are the days of providing financial representations on the back of a napkin. We encourage franchisors to give their sales people something to talk about and provide financial performance representa­tions in the franchise disclosure document.

Franchisors must carefully consider whether infor­mation they provide about the franchise could be con­strued as an earnings projection.

The most common financial performance represen­tation relates to the actual gross revenues of existing locations in the franchise system. These figures are preferred because they represent actual facts. The recommendation is to provide the annual gross sales for the previous fiscal year for corporate and fran­chised locations that have been operating for at least a year. This information should include all locations as selecting less than all locations could potentially be seen as “cherry picking” and skewing the results being presented.

The annual gross revenues can be presented in many different ways. For example, they can be grouped by region, by urban vs. suburban, by how long locations have been open (one to three years, three to five years, five years plus, etc.) or by square footage (small, medium or large format locations). When putting this information together, the overrid­ing goal is to always ensure the information is not mis­leading in the way it is presented, that the information can be verified and if there are any assumptions used, that they be disclosed.

Franchisors will occasionally provide a model or template worksheet for their prospects to work with (on their own or with various advisors) so that the prospect can develop a business plan and forecast. A pro-forma is commonly used to give some guidance to prospects, however it is best practices that these remain as open ended as possible, and that the fran­chisor does not make any representation as to what the actual or forecasted expenses will or will not be. A franchisor should leave it to the prospective franchi­see to arrive at their own estimates about potential future profit.

In provinces without franchise legislation, the fran­chisor should still be live to these issues. If a franchisor sells franchises based on false earnings projections they could face common law claims for misrepresenta­tion, or for a breach of their duty of good faith.

Conclusion:

Financial performance representations and earnings projections are an important part of the disclosure process and must be adequately and continuously addressed if being used by a franchise system. They are a useful sales tool for franchise systems, and pro­vide a wealth of information to a prospective fran­chisee, which in turn provides a tool for franchisees to evaluate the franchise business. More and more franchisors are embracing the need to provide finan­cial performance representations as part of the sales process. This better informs prospective franchisees leading to a more considered and reasoned decision to purchase.

Peter Snell
Partner
Gowling WLG
peter.snell@gowlingwlg.com
604.891.2281


¹ S. 16 of Sched. 1 to the Franchises Regulations, Alta Reg. 240/95, of the Franchises Act, RSA 2000, c. F-23 (the “Alberta Act”); S. 11 of the Franchises Regulations, BC Reg. 238/2016, to the Franchises Act, SBC 2015, c. 35 (the “BC Act”); S. 6.3 of the General Regulation, O Reg. 581/00, to the Arthur Wishart Act (Franchise Disclosure), 2000, SO 2000, c 3 (the “Ontario Act”); S. 11 of Sched. A to the Franchises Regulations, Man Reg. 29/2012, of the Franchises Act, CCSM c. F156; SM 2010, c. 13 (the “Manitoba Act”); Part 3 – S. 5 of Schedule I to the Franchises Act Regulations, P.E.I. Reg. EC232/06, of the Franchises Act, RSPEI 1988, c. F-14.1 (the “PEI Act”); and Part 3 – S. 5 of Schedule A to the Disclosure Document Regulation, NB Reg. 2010-92, to the Franchises Act, RSNB 2014, c. 111 (the “New Brunswick Act”). ² See Alberta Act at Section 13, BC Act at Section 6, Ontario Act at Section 6, Manitoba Act at Section 6, PEI Act at s. 6, and New Brunswick Act at s. 6. ³Mendoza v. Active Tire & Auto Centre Inc., 2017 ONCA 471.
⁴ See Giroux et al. v. 1073355 Ontario Limited o/a Schooley Mitchell Telecom Consultants et al., also see Sovereignty Investment Holdings Inc. v 9127-6907 Quebec Inc. ([2008] O.J. No. 4450, 171 A.C.W.S. (3d) 597), Four deficiencies in the franchisor’s disclosure document in this case: (1) failure to include financial statements; (2) failure to include statements related to earnings projections; (3) failure to provide the disclosure at once in one single document; and (4) failure to include the franchisor’s certificate. The court noted that each of these deficiencies on its own was fatal to the franchisor’s assertion that it provided a disclosure document; the franchisee was entitled to rescission under section 6(2) of the Ontario Act.

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Franchise Fun: Bobbi Sullivan, Mr. Rooter https://cfa.ca/franchisecanada/franchise-fun-bobbi-sullivan-mr-rooter/ Fri, 24 Aug 2018 13:56:37 +0000 https://cfa-ca.flywheelsites.com/franchisecanada-2/?p=4024 Passionate and deliberate is how Bobbi Sullivan describes herself. Sullivan, a Franchise Consultant for Dwyer Group, also describes herself as “saucy” (a nod to her Newfoundland friends). In Newfie speak, “saucy” best describes someone with attitude and tenacity. These attributes have served Sullivan well in her role of Franchise Consultant...

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Passionate and deliberate is how Bobbi Sullivan describes herself. Sullivan, a Franchise Consultant for Dwyer Group, also describes herself as “saucy” (a nod to her Newfoundland friends). In Newfie speak, “saucy” best describes someone with attitude and tenacity.

These attributes have served Sullivan well in her role of Franchise Consultant with Mr. Rooter, which is the largest brand operating under the Dwyer Group umbrella. For generations, Mr. Rooter has been a leader in the plumbing franchise industry as they join 19 other Dwyer Group brands that are dedicated to helping people across the world repair, maintain, and enhance their homes.

You have to be a little saucy to thrive in the $92-billion plumbing industry. In 2017, Sullivan utilized her passion and sauciness to help Mr. Rooter achieve more than $300-million in sales. When she’s not helping Mr. Rooter and its 276 franchise units across the world succeed, she’s spending time with her family.

Here, Sullivan shares some of the insight she’s gained in her many years of experience in the franchise industry, including her influences, inspirations, and words of wisdom.

The most interesting thing I’ve done recently is…

Learned to snuba (kind of like scuba diving, but easier) in Hawaii.

In its best form, work is…

Rewarding and fun.

A good franchisee…

Is engaged.

A good franchisor…

Listens!

My top advice for prospective franchisees and new franchisors is…

To do your research and believe in yourself!

The most important thing in life is…

Family – I know that’s a cliché, but this proud “Grammi” has to mention her three brilliant, kind, and loving grandkids!

One of the most enjoyable things to do is…

Hang out with my brilliant, kind and loving grandkids (I guess you saw that one coming)

The hardest thing for me to do is…

Stick to a healthy diet when I’m on the road.

My favourite drink is…

A nice Malbec (that’s red wine for all my beer drinking friends!)

If I could change one thing…

I’d be taller!

If I could meet anyone…

Maya Angelou. I’d love to look at life through her eyes; her perspective is amazing!

The person who has had the most positive influence on me as a businessperson is…

My franchisees because they inspire me, make me laugh and make work FUN!

Canadian franchising is…

Fun, fulfilling, profitable, and growing.

My franchise system began because…

Don Dwyer, our founder, saw a need in his community.

The most positive influence on my life as a person is…

My mom, Barbara. She is smart, charitable and an amazing person!

The key to success is…

Perseverance

I’d like my friends to describe me as…

Someone they enjoy hanging out with

The accomplishment I look forward to the most is…

Being the best Grammi ever!

My personal motto is…

Laugh as much as you can every day!

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Iconic Brand: M&M Food Market https://cfa.ca/franchisecanada/iconic-brand-mm-food-market/ Fri, 24 Aug 2018 13:47:54 +0000 https://cfa-ca.flywheelsites.com/franchisecanada/?p=4021 With a unique offering of easy-to-prepare meals coupled with personalized cus­tomer service, the M&M brand has been a welcome guest at dinner tables across Canada for more than 38 years. M&M Meat Shops was born in 1980 in Kitchener, Ontario when founder Mac Voisin had a vision to pro­vide convenient...

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With a unique offering of easy-to-prepare meals coupled with personalized cus­tomer service, the M&M brand has been a welcome guest at dinner tables across Canada for more than 38 years.

M&M Meat Shops was born in 1980 in Kitchener, Ontario when founder Mac Voisin had a vision to pro­vide convenient and nutritious food to busy people who couldn’t spend hours in the kitchen preparing meals. About a year after the first store was opened in 1980, growth was the focus. In the early 2000s, a shift began as restaurant dining became more conventional. Frozen food began to suffer from the icy perception that frozen meant a compromise in quality.

In 2014, Searchlight Capital Partners LP of Toronto acquired M&M with the goal of revitalizing the brand. “When we looked at the category and the customer base, there was a lot to like,” says Chief Executive Offi­cer, Andy O’Brien.

The new company invested millions in research before embarking on a refresh. “The brand had a good base, but it looked and felt a little dated,” says O’Brien. With changing demographics and family structures, he says the goal was to reposition the company to accom­modate the changing consumers.

The research helped direct the company’s focus to what customers wanted most. Today, modified package sizes offer more flexibility, and the removal of all artifi­cial flavours, colours, and sweeteners from every product reflects the savvy customer’s desire for healthier food options. Taste profiles now include a variety of ethnic fla­vours, reflective of Canada’s ever-changing demographic.

“We wanted to change the composition of what we offer. We really overturned the portfolio,” says O’Brien. “We launched 150 new products in the last five years and have improved 50 per cent of our products. Today, 70 per cent of households contain one to two people, and of three or more are eating at different times. We need a more flexible approach to how we prepare meals.”

The name was changed from M&M Meat Shops to M&M Food Market to more accurately reflect the franchise’s myriad of food offerings.

Research also revealed that customers liked the small format of the store, but wanted to walk in and shop for themselves. The striking redesign included the addition of self-serve freezers and the removal of the service counter, leaving the meal advisors free to roam the store and assist customers when needed.

The company shared their five-year plan with its net­work of franchise partners and built two stores to test the new model and gauge customer responses. Once the proof of concept was in place, they began to roll it out at corporate locations. To date, 105 of 350 stores have been refreshed, and the renovated locations are significantly outperforming the non-renovated stores.

Christine Macri, who has been an M&M franchise partner since 2011, had the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of the five-year plan when she was offered the chance to renovate and relocate her Lloydminster, Alberta location. It was perfect timing, she says.

“I joined M&M because I believed in the concept. We ran our original store for five years and kept a close eye on how people’s shopping habits changed,” says Macri. “We were approached in 2016 and presented with the opportu­nity to renovate. The timing was interesting since we were beginning to feel that the look and feel of what we had was falling off-pace with the market. After poring over M&M’s research and projections, we felt it made sense to not just overhaul our store, but relocate as well.”

As the company moves forward, O’Brien says they welcome franchise partners that have knowledge and experience in dealing with the daily household chal­lenges of food.

“We also need people that feel food is not just fuel. It’s more than that. It’s enjoyable and it’s entertaining. They like serving and they like trying different foods. When we launch new products, we want them to be excited about it,” says O’Brien.

His advice to perspective franchisees? Ensure you get into food franchising for the right reasons, before invest­ing the time, effort, and money.

“Start with your heart and find something you love to do, because you’ll be doing it for a long time. If you don’t like food, don’t buy a food franchise,” he presses. “If your heart is not in it, how can you make sure your team is engaged and your consumer believes in what you are doing?”

Second, he says use your head.

“Make sure it’s a business you can make a living doing. Don’t just follow your heart, because your heart can take you down the wrong path. You need to have eyes on both things. Find something you love and then make sure it’s a viable business.”

This view is echoed by Macri, who explains that her decision to become a part of the five-year plan had paid dividends.

“Our network is very tight so when I’m asked whether it was all worth it, I’m fully transparent about everything. It was a major undertaking and a considerable invest­ment. Like any big project, there were bumps along the way but smart planning meant everything worked its way out,” says Macri. “With the dust settled and our vision for where we want to go, I can honestly say that it was worth the increase in traffic, the increase in average basket size and the increase in customer satisfaction. We as a chain needed to modernize and so many of our cus­tomers are blown away with the way the store looks and how easy it is to shop.”

Finally, O’Brien suggests that franchisees get to know the franchisor by spending time in the stores, tasting products, and working with area managers to really get to know the concept. “It’s not like a marriage. A mar­riage…you can end these things. A franchise is more challenging.”

On training and support, O’Brien says that franchis­ing in Canada has evolved, and most companies today have incorporated good solid systems. Beyond initial training, M&M Food Market’s dedicated field trainers work with Franchise Partners after the launch, and they integrate plenty of store visits to stay connected.

O’Brien says that like a hockey team, everyone in the organization has a part to play to foster success.

“A winger can’t play goalie, and the goalie can’t be the coach. Everyone on the team has a job to do, and has to understand what every­one else is doing. I have a tremendous amount of respect for what a franchi­see does. They are making a financial commitment to your concept. They are relying on the leadership and company to make sure that they stick by that investment.”

Part of the goal of the rebrand is to revitalize that commitment and invest in a concept that offers ben­efits to the consumer and the organization.

“Our best franchisees are significantly invested, they work hard and they bring input back to the head office on how we can improve the brand, and we listen to them. It is a team sport. Those that are engaged, those that are investing, they are usually the ones that are winning.”


By Gina Makkar

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Leadership Profile: Ken Leblanc, Propertyguys.com https://cfa.ca/franchisecanada/leadership-profile-ken-leblanc-propertyguys-com/ Fri, 24 Aug 2018 13:09:28 +0000 https://cfa-ca.flywheelsites.com/franchisecanada-2/?p=4017 As a young student, Ken LeBlanc had a pretty good idea of what he wanted to do once he completed his business degree at his local col­lege in Moncton, New Brunswick: he wanted to study law. But a private ‘For Sale’ sign spotted in front of a house derailed his...

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As a young student, Ken LeBlanc had a pretty good idea of what he wanted to do once he completed his business degree at his local col­lege in Moncton, New Brunswick: he wanted to study law. But a private ‘For Sale’ sign spotted in front of a house derailed his carefully laid out plans.

The enterprising LeBlanc saw a brilliant business opportunity in that sign – an opportunity too good to pass up. What if all the private home sales across the city were organized within one easily accessible website, he wondered. Putting his thoughts into action, LeBlanc mobilized a couple of fellow students to join him in set­ting up just such a website, which they aptly named PropertyGuys.com.

“We saw an opportunity to disrupt the traditional real estate model and organize private sale a little bet­ter,” says LeBlanc, now CEO of PropertyGuys.com Inc. “It was scattered, with people just putting up a ‘For Sale by Owner’ sign on their lawn and hoping for the best. So we set to work leveraging our knowledge of technology to bring people together. We created the PropertyGuys. com website and it took off. It was pretty much an over­night success, locally.”

The year was 1998 and the site was the first of its kind in Canada. It provided homeowners with a portal where, for a nominal fee, they could list their home privately. Until then, the only online listings were those handled by licensed real estate agents.

In another first, PropertyGuys.com featured interior photos of the homes, allowing prospective buyers to have a ‘virtual viewing’ on their computer. This opened up a slew of opportunities, especially for distance home buyers. In fact, to the young students’ surprise, their first PropertyGuys.com sale was by a couple in Newfound­land who bought their Moncton, NB home sight-unseen, at least in the physical sense. At that point, says LeBlanc, “We knew we were onto something really big and that it would be a success.”

Upward climb

Today PropertyGuys.com has helped over 85,000 sellers discover their fresh approach across all the provinces except Quebec – not bad for a business founded by a trio of students barely in their twenties.

Eventually, one of the co-founders withdrew from the project to focus more on his studies, but LeBlanc and his remaining partner, Jeremy Demont, now Vice Presi­dent of Operations, stayed the course. By the time they graduated – all while building their embryonic company – they were working on PropertyGuys.com full time. (In due course another partner, Walter Melanson, Director of Partnerships, also joined the company.)

LeBlanc ultimately sees himself as an entrepreneur at heart. While his work experience prior to his real estate venture was somewhat limited given his young age, he had done some programming and website development (he taught himself HTML and coding), which equipped him with useful skills. Before that, he had worked just about every job available to a teenage boy at the time: lawn mowing, snow shovelling, a paper route, even pumping gas when he was just 14.

While their start-up was fairly successful from the get-go, the partners soon realized they needed to think outside the box if PropertyGuys.com was to grow beyond just a local operation. They looked to franchising as an option, with Leblanc strategically choosing franchise devel­opment as the topic of his senior-year thesis to learn more about it. “This way I was able to learn how it worked and then transfer that knowledge to Proper­tyGuys.com,” he says. “At the time, we were just university students who really had no extra money to expand our business beyond Monc­ton; franchising allowed us to drive rapid growth.”

PropertyGuys.com sold its first franchise in 2002, when it showcased about 125 listings annually. The initial focus was on building a franchise network close to home to make it easier to provide training and assistance. “We wanted to make sure that the first 10 franchises were all in the east in order to be able to support them,” says LeBlanc. “It was the market we knew best, and we knew if we had to hop in the car it wasn’t going to be more than a four-hour drive to reach any franchise location.” Their strategy worked, and within five years PropertyGuys.com had expanded to more than 50 franchises.

Industry disruptor

What unites the franchisees, says LeBlanc, is a belief in the company’s vision, which revolves around the idea that the country’s long-established real estate model is outmoded. “The one thing all our franchisees have in common is that they agree that the traditional model is broken and they believe, like we do, that PropertyGuys. com is the future of real estate,” explains LeBlanc. “We’re like the Robin Hood of real estate because we help people save a ton of money in commissions, so our franchisees ultimately have to have that passion to help people.”

The broken model LeBlanc is referring to is one where licensed real estate agents make a commission based on the final sale price of the home. While it made sense in the ‘50s and ‘60s, when considerably more work was required by agents to find, show, and share information on properties with their clients, the Internet has com­pletely transformed the playing field and changed the parameters involved in the lead-up to a final sale. As well, a site like PropertyGuys.com creates a more equita­ble option for sellers in hot housing markets like Toronto and Vancouver, where the cost of homes has skyrock­eted to shocking levels, yet the work involved in a home sale remains relatively the same.

LeBlanc believes that the time was ripe for a market disruptor like PropertyGuys.com to launch in the late ‘90s, and while it began on a simple premise – sellers would pay a nominal fee to post information on their house on a dedicated website – the business has since grown into a far more sophisticated operation con­necting buyers and sellers across the country. Today homeowners can access a suite of real estate services that incorporate the full spectrum of steps involved in a home sale. Professional photography, pricing consul­tants, lockboxes, answering services, home staging, real estate lawyers, and marketing experts are all part of the PropertyGuys.com service offering.

For LeBlanc, it’s all about meeting the needs of home­owners searching for more options and choices in how they sell their properties. It’s also about broadening the scope of the PropertyGuys.com business model. The company recently partnered with CanadaStays – an online vacation rental marketplace – to add over 50,000 vacation rental properties to its site. Later this year, PropertyGuys.com will be adding apartment rentals, with plans in place for commercial and developer pack­ages as well. It also introduced the PropertyGuys.com brand to Australia – the company signed on a master franchisee there last year – and is now in talks with sev­eral potential master franchisees South of the border in a bid to enter the U.S. market.

PropertyGuys.com is an excellent example of the tre­mendous contribution young entrepreneurs – those with little money but a great idea – can make to the country’s business scene. It may have spelled the death-knell to LeBlanc’s aspirations for a great legal career, but no one is mourning. Certainly not the thousands of homeown­ers who have saved a fair chunk of money thanks to LeBlanc’s lightbulb moment two decades ago, as well as the many franchisees – now numbering over a hundred – who have built a rewarding business for themselves.

As for LeBlanc, the career path he stumbled onto is right where he wants to be. “I love franchise sales,” he says. “That’s where I hung my hat from day one, and I continue to love bringing people into this business and seeing them grow their franchise and help people get the most out of the sale of their property. That’s what I really enjoy.”


By Roma Ihnatowycz

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Day in the Life: Side Order of Poutine https://cfa.ca/franchisecanada/day-in-the-life-side-order-of-poutine/ Thu, 23 Aug 2018 19:45:22 +0000 https://cfa-ca.flywheelsites.com/franchisecanada-2/?p=4014 At Smoke’s Poutinerie, you could say that being Weird, Wild and Wacky is a prereq­uisite for opening your own franchise. The unique Canadian brand, which was founded in 2008 by Ryan Smolkin, has expanded into a national phenomenon with 150 locations and counting across the country. Still, the growing franchise...

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At Smoke’s Poutinerie, you could say that being Weird, Wild and Wacky is a prereq­uisite for opening your own franchise. The unique Canadian brand, which was founded in 2008 by Ryan Smolkin, has expanded into a national phenomenon with 150 locations and counting across the country. Still, the growing franchise won’t take just anyone.

Smolkin has built the brand with consumers’ enter­tainment and love of poutine in mind, which means careful consideration has been made to ensure new franchise partners understand the company culture. Franchisees must be committed to helping the fran­chise achieve what they call “GLOBAL DOMINATION!”, all while serving customers a wide-range of delicious poutine with an outgoing personality and an affection for the unconventional.

For Cheryl Howlett and her husband Bill, stepping into this world couldn’t have been easier. When the Howletts met Smolkin in 2011 at the Canadian Fran­chise Association’s Franchise Canada Show, they were immediately drawn to Smoke’s Poutinerie.

“We kept coming back to the Smoke’s Poutinerie booth,” Howlett reflects. “I was completely sold on Ryan and his business acumen and my husband was sold on the model and the brand. So, it was a little bit of a no-brainer. It’s where we naturally fit.”

In less than a year of their first meeting, the Howletts opened their location in St. Catharines, Ontario. Having successfully been operating the fran­chise for the last seven years, the husband and wife duo know their way around the Quick Service Restau­rant (QSR) industry and are grateful for the freedom that comes with being their own boss.

A typical day

Though the veteran franchisees have enough experience to tell you what it takes to find success within a Smoke’s Poutinerie franchise, it doesn’t mean running the busi­ness is always smooth sailing. Still, with twin daughters at home, the Howletts have managed to find a schedule that works for their family’s needs.

Generally working the weekday shifts, Bill gets to the Poutinerie at 9:00 a.m., ensuring everything is in order before officially opening the doors at 11:00 a.m. Cheryl will come in at 5:00 p.m. to take over the late-night shifts, which includes Fridays and Saturdays when closing time is 4 o’clock in the morning.

In-between helping their seven employees serve cus­tomers, the hands-on owner-operators spend their days reviewing inventory, scheduling staff, and conducting ongoing training. Though days are always busy, espe­cially around the dinner and late-night rushes, Howlett says it’s nothing compared to what life was like during the first few months.

“It was absolutely crazy,” she says. “Bill would go in first thing in the morning while I stayed home with the kids. When I’d get in, we’d high five, I’d let him know what the kids were having for dinner and then I would get ready to close.”

The tag team operation eventually slowed down, though Howlett realized some of the challenges to run­ning the business would never disappear entirely.

“I had worked for franchisees, QSRs, and even man­aged a few restaurants on my own before we invested in Smoke’s Poutinerie, so I felt pretty confident in my abili­ties,” Howlett says. “Bill had always worked customer service, so we figured it couldn’t be that hard. Now we laugh at ourselves because there’s lot more to running a business than most people realize.”

One of the ongoing challenges the duo faces revolves around staffing. Between September and April, the own­ers rely heavily on students who attend the nearby Brock University. Though the summer months are still busy, Howlett says she can’t justify putting three to four people on one shift. As such, balancing the schedule to ensure all employees get an equal number of shifts can be a difficult task to meet each week.

Yet, the challenges that may come with working in the QSR sector are nothing compared to the benefits. Interacting with customers fits perfectly with Howletts’ outgoing and personable demeanor. Couple this with the frequent occurrence of watching skeptical, first-time poutine eaters try the Canadian delicacy, Howlett says she finds joy in working for the franchise, which she hasn’t found anywhere else.

“I love it when a customer comes in and they look at the menu for the first time,” she says. “And then, when they try the poutine they’re amazed. We get a lot of exchange students from Brock, and because we’re close to the border, quite a few Americans drop by as well. When they try the poutine they can’t believe they don’t have it back home!”

A new adventure

Like many prospective franchisees, Howlett’s invest­ment into franchising came from a desire to take charge of her career and a need to find a balance between her personal and professional lives.

After her twin daughters were born premature, Howlett spent countless months in and out of SickKids Hospital in Toronto, making frequent trips to the city every week from her home in nearby Newmarket. By the time her maternity leave was ending, she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep up the busy schedule with her current job.

“Not everyone was going to bend for our hours,” Howlett says. “That’s when we started looking into fran­chising and went to the Franchise Canada Show.”

When it came down to choosing a location for their Smoke’s Poutinerie franchise, the Howletts had several options. Neighboring Barrie made the most sense for the family, however opening west of Toronto in Guelph, Ham­ilton or St. Catherines were also viable options. Know­ing that finding success with the franchise was still an uncertainty, the Howletts decided to go all in.

“We thought, if we’re going to make this kind of a life change and throw all our eggs in one basket, let’s move. Let’s make it an adventure,” Howlett says. “So that’s what we did. We picked up our lives, moved, and never looked back.”

The taste of freedom

Starting a new life in a new location is no easy venture, yet Howlett says the St. Catharines community has welcomed her family and the Smoke’s Poutinerie franchise with open arms. The unwavering support received not only on a per­sonal level, but professional one as well, has encouraged the business owners to give back any way they can.

Most notably, the franchisees are using their small business status in partnership with Community Care of St. Catharines and Thorold to assist underprivileged individuals. The freedom that comes with being a fran­chise partner, especially one with Smoke’s Poutinerie, means owners are able to invest their time and money into causes that matter most to them.

“It’s really important to us that we invest in commu­nity events,” Howlett says. “In keeping with the Smoke’s Poutinerie brand, we don’t want to do anything too nor­mal, but we also want to make sure we are finding cre­ative ways to incorporate our business in community initiatives. They’re giving us so much, it’s our small way of showing our appreciation.”

Having the freedom to do this is one of the reasons Howlett says she and her husband have found success. And if anything, her experiences have taught her to trust the system and take advantage of the support.

“I can’t say enough about the support we get from our Global Headquarters,” she says. “Ryan isn’t just a fran­chisor to us. I can call him day or night if I have a ques­tion or a concern. It’s one of the things that makes this brand so great. It’s still a lot of hard work, but if you’re interested, absolutely do it!”


By Kristin Di Tommaso 

 

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The First Year: Success on the St. Lawrence https://cfa.ca/franchisecanada/the-first-year-success-on-the-st-lawrence/ Thu, 23 Aug 2018 19:39:30 +0000 https://cfa-ca.flywheelsites.com/franchisecanada-2/?p=4011 Alain Simard doesn’t sugarcoat things when talking about those first few months as a franchisee. It can be tough. “Like a very, very heavy storm,” the French-speaking Simard explains through an interpreter. “You have so many new things to learn and manage.” When he started as an A&W franchisee in...

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Alain Simard doesn’t sugarcoat things when talking about those first few months as a franchisee. It can be tough. “Like a very, very heavy storm,” the French-speaking Simard explains through an interpreter. “You have so many new things to learn and manage.”

When he started as an A&W franchisee in Matane, Quebec in 2011, he worked 70 to 80 hours a week. What got him through, he thinks, was a stubborn belief in success and a chance to achieve it in his hometown.

“You need to invest all that time and energy,” he says. “If you can do it in an environment that you enjoy, where you can feel comfortable, it’s much easier.”

For the 56-year-old, that environment has always been the north shore of the Gaspé Peninsula, where he also has an A&W location in Rimouski that he opened last year.

Simard knows this gorgeous stretch along the St. Law­rence River well, especially its food. He started working in the kitchen of a Matane restaurant at 14 years old and later became the manager of a local bakery. He was also in charge of food service at nearby schools before becoming manager of the Matane A&W in 2004.

“I didn’t know that I wanted to own my own restaurant when I started at A&W,” he says. “I found out it was the perfect fit.”

With a wealth of experience working in Matane’s food service industry, Simard’s success is not a surprise. While his years of experience did play a part, he believes his competitive spirit also played a role. When he’s not at his restaurants, you’ll probably find him on a bike, out for a run, or playing badminton. When it comes to running a franchise, he compares it to coaching a hockey team.

“I run my business like I would manage a hockey club; with the right team, following the system, being together for the system,” Simard says.

Like any successful hockey team, Simard and his team quickly began racking up some serious hardware. In 2012, just one year after Simard became the owner of the restaurant, the Matane crew won A&W’s Gold Award for having one of the top three performing restaurants in Canada. Every year after that until 2016, they also won A&W’s President Award for having the best-managed restaurants in Canada, becoming the first and only fran­chise to receive the distinction in four consecutive years.

Small-town team, big league rewards

Simard is definitely proud to win those awards, but he’s prouder to win them playing for a small market team, operating franchises in places like Matane, population 15,000, and Rimouski, 49,000.

“When you’re in smaller communities like these, you have the opportunity to know the people and to be known by the people,” he says. “If you do the right thing, people will support you. They will be very faithful customers.”

The other plus, he says, is that he enjoys small-town living. He appreciates the quieter, slower way of life that Matane affords. So much so, that he would confidently raise his family in Matane. His daughters Stéphanie and Marie-Pier have followed his lead, sticking around the Gaspé to become co-franchisees with him.

Although Simard’s Matane A&W is one of the compa­ny’s top performing restaurants, he faced a new set of challenges in the opening of a second franchise. Rimous­ki’s population is three times as high as Matane’s, there were a lot more competitors, and, most importantly, there were a lot more employees for Simard to convince that his system works.

But right from those first days of opening in February 2017, he had that stubborn belief in success. He knew his team would learn the system, get behind it, and achieve their goals. “I believed in them so much that I kept tell­ing them I wanted our franchise to be the fastest quick-service restaurant in town,” he says. “I’d show them their results, the numbers. They started to see they could be the best in town. Doing that develops a feeling of pride and trust, and everyone wants to work hard and see improvements.”

Trainee becomes trainer

Simard is passing a few of his motivational tricks of the trade along to other A&W franchisees as a trainer with the company.

A&W’s eight-week franchisee training program is a mix of online and in-store training. The format includes online lessons, and in-restaurant hands-on training about specific topics like drive-thru operations, inven­tory management, and staff scheduling. The last two weeks of the program are more open-ended, giving fran­chisees the opportunity to train in whatever areas they and their trainers feel they need to improve. Later, when it’s time to open, A&W sends six of its best people to help out the franchisee four days prior to the opening and four days after. Those six people could include managers of other restaurants, corporate employees, other long-time employees and experienced franchisees like Simard.

“It’s a great thing to have that feeling of being on the same team with the training and openings, having the same level of excellence you want to achieve,” says Simard. “You don’t feel any jealousy because every­body’s equal whether you’re a franchisee or corporate employee. You are all a part of the franchise.”

The other great thing, he says, is that he gets to learn too. “One of my motivations to do this is that new fran­chisees, and new employees may have helpful ideas for me. They can be very innovative. With new openings comes new equipment or processes that I can stay up to date on.”

Future first years

Even with those extra duties as an A&W trainer, Simard is no longer working 70 or 80-hour work weeks like he did in his first years as a franchisee in Matane and Rimouski. It’s more like 40 now, he says. With all of those awards, all of that A&W experience, all of that competitiveness, a few extra hours to contemplate the future, the question remains: will he open more A&W locations? The answer is a resounding yes.

“I would like to open two, three, four more restaurants probably,” he says. “I’d be happy to have five in total. My goal is not to have many more because I want to keep the family spirit in the restaurants and help the team achieve success together. And I want to keep having fun.”

He also wants to keep building his business in smaller centres like Matane and Rimouski. “That’s the goal, because I want to be here and because I believe that if you do the right thing, you follow the system, you can be successful even if the market is very small.”

To hit that goal, he knows he’ll likely go through a few of those first-year storms almost every new franchisee experiences. But by now he also knows that a healthy dose of belief in the system and hard work will see him and his future teams through.

“The key bit of advice I give to new franchisees is that while you may have doubts about making the right deci­sion, if you believe in your success, you will see the sun coming back quite quickly after the storm passes. You will need lots of discipline, perseverance and patience to achieve that, but you’ll see — it will be worth it.”


By Jordan Whitehouse

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Millenials in Franchising: Fresh Obsessed https://cfa.ca/franchisecanada/fresh-obsessed/ Thu, 23 Aug 2018 19:30:52 +0000 https://cfa-ca.flywheelsites.com/franchisecanada-2/?p=4007 After graduating from Guelph–Humber University, where she majored in marketing, Stephanie Tieu partnered with her uncle to open a Thai restau­rant in Aurora, Ontario. “This created an interest in catering,” she says. As a catering coordinator and co-owner of the restaurant, her interest in the food service industry continued to...

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After graduating from Guelph–Humber University, where she majored in marketing, Stephanie Tieu partnered with her uncle to open a Thai restau­rant in Aurora, Ontario. “This created an interest in catering,” she says. As a catering coordinator and co-owner of the restaurant, her interest in the food service industry continued to grow. Tieu knew she wanted to take her investment in the restaurant business fur­ther, and like many millen­nials, the idea of making her own way and setting the pace for her own success was extremely appealing.

Tieu ultimately chose the Pumper­nickel’s franchise because of the company’s commitment to good food, and now operates her location in Toronto, Ontario.

“We at Pumpernickel’s pride ourselves on our fresh, simple, and delicious food. From the salad dressing to the roast beef, it is all done on prem­ises. It is nice to work in a company that still takes pride in the quality of food,” Tieu says. Pumper­nickel’s offers a proudly Canadian fast-casual dine-in and catering experience. “We make food with equal parts love and obsession,” the franchise’s website states, and Tieu could not agree more. She adds how Pumpernickel’s is a dynamic franchise with an energy and philosophy that speaks to the millennial mindset and values.

“Pumpernickel’s takes pride in the food we serve. As people become more health conscious, they are coming to us for fresh and clean eating,” explains Tieu. “No mat­ter which Pumpernickel’s location diners visit, the food and service they receive is identical,” she adds, making the franchise a reliable and consistent choice for people who want to feel good about what they’re putting in their bodies to fuel their day.

Fast-casual for a fast-paced world

With Pumpernickel’s also offering catering service, cus­tomers who want to bring fresh, healthy food to their meetings and events can look to a company they are already familiar with and trust. People know they’re get­ting the same high quality food and customer satisfac­tion through the company’s catering service as they are when they dine in at a Pumpernickel’s location. Tieu’s experience with catering is a definite asset in managing this combination of services offered. Most millenni­als, like Tieu, have only known a fast-paced world— something that helps her and other young franchisees adapt to whatever comes their way.

As well, being a savvy social media user is perhaps an undervalued asset that is second nature to many mil­lennials. Social media helps Tieu make sure her location stays on the cutting-edge of the competitive and ever-growing fast-casual restaurant industry.

“Being able to understand the web and to be able to utilize the internet to our advantage is key. We can see what trends are going on and decide what steps we want to take to ensure we stay current,” Tieu notes. An active social media presence also helps a franchise stay up to date on customer concerns and react quickly to address them.

A hands-on franchisor–franchisee relationship is extremely important in ensuring locations stay current in the competitive food-service industry. “Our business is a turnkey operation,” Tieu says, which means that each Pumpernickel’s franchise is a fully formed business before the franchisee takes over. “The franchisor is very hands-on,” she continues. “There is ongoing support from our head office and our head chef. When there’s a question, they are always there to assist.”

“There is also the benefit of having exclusive rights with suppliers. You don’t need prior experience in cater­ing to run Pumpernickel’s,” Tieu explains, though her formative experience with catering has certainly served her well. “The franchise will equip you with the staff and tools to make sure you succeed,” she adds.

Being a franchise owner often requires an individual to be a “jack of all trades” and to do plenty of on-the-spot problem solving—part of what makes the job of a fran­chisee challenging but also extremely rewarding. “When I was starting out, sometimes a customer would have questions about the food we offered and I would have to take some time looking through the recipe book,” Tieu says. “To overcome this as a new franchisee, I spent the majority of my time in the kitchen, learning by watching and assisting with the food process. There is no better way to learn than by being hands-on. Even though I may know the ins and outs of this business, I am still newer to the field. I am constantly learning,” she adds.

As with any new endeavour, there will of course be growing pains, but the support of the dedicated Pum­pernickel’s franchise team has consistently seen Tieu’s operation through them all. “As a younger owner, I found it very difficult to earn the respect of the older employ­ees,” Tieu admits. “After proving myself to them through hard work, they turned around and I started to receive the respect I deserved,” she shares. Knowing that she had the backing of a successful franchisor who believed in her was also invaluable as a new franchisee.

The future looks and tastes fresh

“My business is fairly new, and I will be able to watch it grow in the com­ing years,” Tieu shares excitedly. “As a millennial, it is easier for me to adapt to a changing world. As our brand is growing bigger and faster, changes are happening more frequently and more dramatically. I am able to adapt to them and implement changes with no issue or hassle,” she continues.

Tieu’s experience as a young business owner has been overwhelm­ingly positive. A definite benefit of running a business that is part of a franchise system is that there is a corporate structure in place to ensure each location has what it needs to succeed. “The tools are given to you and you should use them,” she advises. Pumpernickel’s has a solid support system in place for its franchisees, and owners knowing they can count on that is key to the business success of each location and of the franchise as a whole.

“There will be changes that the franchisor will enforce that you may not think are beneficial,” she notes, “but do not doubt your fran­chisor—they are there to help you succeed.” And Tieu’s future with Pumpernickel’s certainly looks bright. “As you succeed, they succeed too. Before you start your investment. Be sure you know what you are getting into. If you don’t believe in the business, you won’t succeed,” she shares.

“I am absolutely in love with my job. Never in a million years would I have guessed that I would be part of a business like this,” Tieu beams. “When I tell people I wake up at 5 a.m. for this job, they feel bad for me, but I honestly cannot wait to get to work to see my staff and start our day. I enjoy making and serving food that I am proud of, from scratch.”


By Jessica Burgess

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Home-Grown and Locally-Owned: Big Smoke Burger, Mr. Sub, & Ledgers Canada https://cfa.ca/franchisecanada/home-grown-and-locally-owned-big-smoke-burger-mr-sub-ledgers-canada/ Thu, 23 Aug 2018 19:23:06 +0000 https://cfa-ca.flywheelsites.com/franchisecanada-2/?p=4005 You have to start somewhere. These three Canadian franchises all began with one location each. Two of them started in Toronto and the third began in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Their single location days are long gone, as these franchises have grown to become established Canadian brands. They are proof positive...

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You have to start somewhere. These three Canadian franchises all began with one location each. Two of them started in Toronto and the third began in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Their single location days are long gone, as these franchises have grown to become established Canadian brands. They are proof positive that a good idea and a good product or service will mean a prosperous system and an excellent return for an investor.

Big Smoke Burger

Bruce Miller, Brand Leader for Big Smoke Burger, says in 2008 there wasn’t a gour­met burger on the quick service restau­rant market. So, Big Smoke provided one by serving a product that he says is simple in concept but difficult to get right.

Well, Big Smoke must have got it right because starting from just one location in Toronto 10 years ago, there are now 13 franchise locations in Can­ada and another eight in the Middle East.

“We’re spread out,” says Miller about the Cana­dian system, which stretches from Ottawa to Southern Ontario and as far west as Winnipeg and Calgary. Under construction and expected to open this year are four more franchises in Markham, Hamilton, Mississauga, Oakville and Aurora, all in Ontario, with three more coming on-stream next year.

Anyone interested in investing in Big Smoke will need some food industry expo­sure, says Miller, speaking from a regional office in Richmond Hill, Ontario, who says he’s “OK” with both owners and owner-operators, although he prefers the lat­ter. Training in Toronto takes five weeks, with one week in-class and the other four on-site. A full time staff also provides in-field coaching for franchisees.

Owned by MTY Group, the cost of a Big Smoke fran­chise ranges from $350,000 to $575,000 depending on location and other factors. Big Smoke restaurants can be found in a range of malls and at street fronts. Size ranges from 1,200 square feet to 1,500 square feet. Miller says his target customer could be anybody.

“The reality is everyone loves a burger,” he explains. “We do skew a bit younger and male, but not much.”

Like his customers, Miller’s investors, men and women, come from equally broad demographics, and get owner­ship in the premium quick service concept in Canada, he says.

“They get to be leaders of the pack with fresh gourmet burgers.” Further, he continues, there’s a great marketing team behind Big Smoke and 10 years of experience with its signature product.

Ledgers Canada

Ledgers Canada is a one-stop solution for small busi­nesses that want to keep their financial house in order. Whether it’s accounting, business plans, tax returns, or bookkeeping, Ledgers Canada has the answer.

President and CEO, Gordon Haslam, says the com­pany began in 1994 in Sydney, Nova Scotia, when a group of chartered accountants realized the small business market was being short-changed. Haslam, who was running a very successful payroll service, bought the business in 2000. Since day one, franchis­ing has been the preferred expansion model.

There are now 47 franchises, Haslam says from head office in Newmarket, Ontario. About half of them are in that province, and the rest are spread evenly across British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan in the west, and New Brunswick and Nova Scotia on the East Coast.

As for who his clients are, Haslam says generally they are businesses with fewer than 20 employees and less than $20-million in revenue. Ledgers Canada offers a “central processing” setup, Haslam explains. That means franchisees sell Ledgers Canada services and provide customer service; the actual number crunch­ing can be performed at headquarters in Newmarket. “We are really adapted to iCloud technology,” says Haslam, adding franchisees will need a virtual office, however.

The cost of a franchise is $40,000, which includes mar­keting and materials. Training in-class in Newmarket lasts five days and there are another three days of on-site train­ing to cover promotional events and similar expenses.

“We definitely see more men than women [investing with him], but most of our best operators are women, says Haslam.

There’s a range of ages among his investors, some of them Canadians who want to work for themselves, and others recent immigrants who want to pick up where they left off in their home countries. There are six expan­sion franchises in the Ledgers Canada pipeline, Haslam continues, and he’s looking at expansion everywhere, with Western Canada looking particularly promising.

As for the skills he’s looking for, they are very similar to those required for every service industry.

“They (investors) need people skills,” says Haslam. “We’re dealing with people’s finances and it’s very, very personal.”

The benefits of becoming a Ledgers Canada franchi­see are substantial. Haslam says system support is the biggest of them, with the firm’s buying power second to none: Ledgers Canada is QuickBooks Canada’s larg­est customer, for example. As well, the system offers franchisees a liability package, helps them prospect for clients, and employs a social marketing manager. Plus, Haslam concludes, Ledgers Canada franchises don’t suffer from seasonal variability.

MR. SUB

Toronto’s Yorkville neighborhood is one of the premier parts of town. It wasn’t always. In the 1960s it was hippy central and it was there in 1968, with a single location, that MR. SUB got its start when two friends put the iconic submarine sandwich franchise together.

MR. SUB’S growth over the last five decades has been exceptional. This year, it’s celebrating 50 years of serv­ing sandwiches – and helping the community. This past July, over a period of one week, $1 from the sale of every large Assorted Sub – its best seller – was donated to the Breakfast Club of Canada. And to further celebrate its 50th anniversary, MR. SUB now serves a choice of pro­teins that are raised without antibiotics.

MR. SUB has 270 stores in Canada – about 70 per cent of them in Ontario – and nine more in places such as India and Dubai. And expansion won’t stop there. Jason Brading, Brand Vice-President at MR. SUB, bought in 2011 by MTY Group, says he’s still looking at opportunities coast-to-coast and expects to open another 20 to 30 stores a year.

MR. SUB began franchising in the early 1970s, and Brading says the model that works best for the system is that of the owner-operator. Some hospitality background would be useful for new investors, he continues, and so is a positive approach.

“It’s a lot to do with personality,” explains Brading, noting how outgoing owner-operators certainly seem to thrive within the system. Brading points out that a lot of stores are passed along from parents to children, and many franchisees who sell their businesses return to the fold later on.

A franchise costs anywhere from $250,000 to $260,000, and training takes three weeks. There are two weeks of training in-store and another week at MTY University at the regional office in Richmond Hill, Ontario.

Brading says MR. SUB attracts a real cross-section of investors, split about 50-50 between men and women. The system’s customers tend to follow the demographics of store locations, he continues, with the main customer base aged 30 to 55, all of whom love their sandwiches.

“Our customers appear to be extremely loyal,” says Brading.

That’s one benefit of a MR. SUB franchise. The oth­ers, says Brading, are a national marketing program, the strength of its core menu, and an opportunity for fran­chisees to work for themselves.


By David Chilton Saggers

 

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