Growth lessons from franchise founders who got it right

Speaker A: The Noti presents Growth Diaries the fascinating

Speaker B: stories behind the best brands in beauty, wellness and fitness, hosted by Sudhir Koneroo.

Speaker C: So, you know, when Self Esteem Brands was there earlier, you had multiple businesses and of course now you have purpose. But you went into businesses which were not just fitness oriented. You went into waxing the City as an example. You know, what drove you to get into businesses which have nothing to do with fitness from what I can see at the surface?

Speaker D: Well, it all comes down to your core foundation, right? So for us, when we look at businesses, I'll just give you that. But when we look at businesses, they have to have the four key components, have to have great people, great leadership, great founders, whatever that may be. Uh, we're proud to say at, uh, Wax in the City for an example, our founders are not shareholders and into the business, but they're still involved in the business. That says a lot because we care about those people. So really working within businesses that have great people inside that business, they have to have a purpose. I'll, uh, give you an example. A lot of people ask waxing, why would you get in a hair removal business? Well, I'll tell you this because I've never. When you talk about purpose and you look at the customer and they're going into get waxed. In every other personal care business, let's say you're going to a hair salon, when you get a haircut, do you look for. You look for people to look at you and say a nice haircut, that makes you feel good, right? Well, guess what? In waxing, no one's seen your haircut. Very rarely, no one's going to look at your pits and say, hey, look at that, you, you got your, your pits waxed. But what we do know is when a customer walks out of a waxing store for they build what I call a level of confidence because they. Remember I talked about investing in yourself. I took my time to go invest back into me. That makes me feel more confident. That's very purposeful and making sure that we live and talk about that purpose and care about that purpose and understand why our customers are coming into our business and what value point they get out of it. And is it something that really is improving their life is something that's important to us. So that's how we choose our businesses. Now there's a lot more to that process. When they check all the four boxes and they got to go through diligence and all that kind of stuff, that's a harder process, but that's how they get in the door.

Speaker C: I myself am a big believer of other things like meditation and breath work as ways of healing and making sure we feel good. So that's good. And I love how this likely flows with your core mission around elevate your everyday. I mean, so that all of these probably contribute towards the same thing.

Speaker B: Absolutely. So our mission has always been to elevate the everyday and you know, to really impact the lives that we touch in a positive way. And to me, Heights Wellness Retreats, this just helps us actually elevate that further and give our guests and members more of what they need to be the best versions of ourselves or theirselves. We feel that every person is an unstoppable force. We all are unstoppable forces from the day that we're born. Sometimes we need a little help from people to let us know how amazing we are. Um, and sometimes we just need to do some things for ourselves that help us understand, understand that we're really this amazing force. And so at Heights Wellness Retreat, we feel like we can help people find that unstoppable, um, side of them even more so with these additional services that make them the better version of themselves.

Speaker C: Being involved first in the hair salon space for kids. And uh, in fact, just recently I was in Minneapolis and I was talking to snippets. Oh yes, kids hair salon footprint. But it gives you the exposure into the industry and the service industry aspect.

Speaker E: Absolutely.

Speaker C: But while all this was going on, you were having a different life completely. And I understand you were working in, you know, pediatric oncology nonprofit group and trying to help them and all that.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: So you were not involved in this, so maybe you should give color. Why did you get involved in this pediatric oncology Toronto group and uh, how it helped you lay the foundation to actually be able to do the blow dry business?

Speaker A: Sure. So I grew up with a father who was a very successful corporate guy in the banking world. So I only knew climbing a corner corporate ladder. So I had started my career in marketing working in Toronto for a number of companies or just one company initially. Then I went to graduate school in the US actually got my mba, came back to Toronto, continued on that corporate path at places like Procter and Gamble. And then I started volunteering for an organization that was very close to my heart called the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario. POGO for short. I'm a survivor of survivor of childhood cancer. So I had been volunteering for them initially as a survivor representative. And then in around 2001 they decided to get into private sector fundraising. They were government funded. So I started volunteering to do that. And eventually they asked me if I would join their staff and develop their private sector fundraising arm, if you will, of the organization. So I came in to do that with no direction, no experience in fundraising at all, other than having spent some time before that reaching into my network, my father's professional network. And, uh, so I came in and needed to figure out what to do. So spent 11 years there growing the brand, which had absolutely no awareness beyond the medical and government communities, working in the field of pediatric oncology and how to grow the whole infrastructure and how to learn how to be a professional, uh, fundraiser.

Speaker C: Cool. And, um, I think this was a format which didn't have much awareness with the people. So you had built awareness, make them, you know, it's like almost building a brand. You're building. People understand that there's a cause here which people should care about and all that stuff.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: And that was kind of helped you in terms of saying, hey, low will also need to build awareness and drive a brand.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. The brand building was a big part of it. My MBA had focused, focused on marketing, so I felt well prepared for that in the nonprofit world. I was able to find agency partners, PR and marketing creative agencies that were able to volunteer their time. So we had incredible work done on behalf of the organization without having to pay for it, which, um, certainly helped. But, yeah, building the brand from that perspective, but also in terms of awareness, because as you said, there was no consumer awareness. Even affected families weren't aware of this organization operating behind the scenes. And in order to achieve our fundraising targets, we had to very quickly create awareness in the corporate world.

Speaker E: When somebody comes to us asking us for advice on if they have an idea that they want to open or a concept, I tell them to read the book. Start with why by Simon Sinek. Because your why has to be so much bigger than what you actually want to do. Because it's what will get you out of bed on the days that you're like, how am I going to get through this? And being rude, rooted at that is so important things about hard things. Yeah. He says one line in there, when things go dark, they go really dark. And that only another founder can understand that because it's like, hello. Yeah, it's like pitch black when it's bad.

Speaker C: You know, I was going to ask you, in fact, about what book do you like? So the why book and.

Speaker F: Oh God, we like,

Speaker E: we're lifelong learners, so I think reading is an Incredible thing that anybody can do. And you can learn so much just from. From reading a couple things about leadership or entrepreneurship if you really want to. To understand what it's like or talk to people, too. M. There was Masters of scale. That's another atomic, uh, habits. Masters of scale. The hard things about hard things. Start with why the secret? The four agreements. How to win friends and influence people. In the first book, everybody should.

Speaker C: I'm sure too many people reference the four agreements.

Speaker B: Oh, it's so good.

Speaker E: I think Lauren and I too, as entrepreneurs are. I think some founders and entrepreneurs, there's so much ego that they stop trying to get better. We are literally like, how do we get better every day? You know, we're constantly trying to figure out how to become better leaders, better people. Go to therapy, you know, work on ourselves. You can't really get along in an org unless you are doing those things. So they're important.

Speaker C: Why should a customer choose foxybox?

Speaker F: We're just so cool. Come on, Sudhir. Uh, I mean, there's a million reasons why you should choose FoxyBox. One, we are the best at waxing, but our mission is that we're not just a hair removal concept. We are a brand on a mission to help inspire and empower people to celebrate their uniqueness and rock what they've got. Our mission is to leave people feeling powerful and energized. And that is from our branding. When you see us online, from when you walk into our stores till you get your service, it's not just, oh, uh, come get your hair ripped out. It's, we want to make people feel good. Our stores are funny. We have funny sayings over. We call ourselves magicians in our treatment rooms. We have Viva lavalva. Don't beat around the bush. Like, we have funny sayings everywhere, right? So, like, you should come to us because we're fun and we're funny, and we also double as therapists. So if you're having a bad day. If I'm having a bad day, I go to see my favorite consignment shopping place. They make me feel better. Same with foxybox. If you're having a bad day, come to foxybox.

Speaker C: I knew your business when it was only less than 10 stores when we first met. It's been wonderful to see you grow now to almost 50 locations across the country. And the first thing I want to start with was your journey with, you know, in terms of the services, because I remember you were always known for hair and hair transplant kind of services. So Maybe you should expand and give us color because I think that's the interesting part of how you built a very robust businesses. Where did you start, the roots of the kind of services you used to offer and what do you do today? The breadth of what you.

Speaker G: So hair is still close to us. It still contributes approximately 35, 40% of our business. Yes, you're right. At one point it was more than 80, 90% and we were entirely a uh, hair business. The journey started when we introduced laser hair reduction. That was the first step because we realized it is not as technical as perhaps offering doctor led treatments and it is a technician led treatment essentially. And there is what, what we also understood was that there was latent demand from our existing customers. And we, once we realized that there was a, uh, good response for laser hair reduction, then we added skin. And Dr. Anupriya Goyal was my sister in law. She joined the business. She became extremely interested in anti aging. She started, you know, she became an international trainer for 11, uh, renowned celebrity anti aging dermatologist. So yeah, that's how we started. And I think it was a good decision because now looking at how much revenue is being contributed by other services apart from hair, and it's often the same client as well. So we, that decision has actually increased our uh, revenue per square foot. Yeah. And customer lifetime value as well.

Speaker C: Yeah. And I think in medspas that's a good learning for most people is that you seem to have followed your customer in trying to understand the same profile of the customer and say, what's the lifetime value? What else are they looking for? And continuing to expand the business, I think rather than theoretically expand and ad services, I think listening to your customer very closely and continuing to expand the breadth of what you offer, I think is an important thing for anybody in medspa because it makes their business more robust. As you said, you start off with 90% of your business being hair related to heroin. Now it's 35%. So it's like without the other services and expansion, your business wouldn't have been as robust as it is today. Love the show. Leave us a quick review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge difference. And don't forget to follow us on Spotify and YouTube for more episodes. So moving on, one other thing is, so this business started off as a single service where the original founder design saying I just want to do blowouts and that's all I'll do. But over time you've tried to evolve this business to say, can we make this More robust? Can we make it generate more revenue for your franchisees, make them more profitable and really expanded the services that you're offering. But they're so logically kind of flow with it kind of thing. So how did you go about discovering what services would flow with it and not like bring in haircuts because that would not be in true to your brand spirit.

Speaker A: Exactly. And it's been not an easy process. I remember back in the day when franchisees had said to us, I'd love to be able to offer makeup services. So many of our customers come to us for special occasions and getting your hair done, getting your makeup done, they really go hand in hand. And we struggled with it. We thought the whole brand positioning is that we're a single service business. We don't cut hair, we don't color hair. We're just about the blowouts. How can we add another service offering without jeopardizing the core of what made us successful in the first place? And funnily enough, we actually took, uh, inspiration from Starbucks. Starbucks around that time started introducing food. And we thought, okay, that's an interesting model. How do you evolve? How do you enable the unit sales to grow but without jeopardizing the core of the success? And so we at, ah, this around the same time explored an opportunity that we refer to as Body by Blow, where we would have bigger footprint locations. Most of the real estate was taken up with our standard Blow format, eight or ten chairs. And then we also added nail waxing and these makeup services. So we opened a number of locations with that format, the Body by Blow format. And we came to realize that in our model, makeup did succeed, makeup did make sense, the other services did not. And so as we continued to open additional blow locations, we allowed franchisees to offer makeup services as well and then eventually made makeup services mandatory. And it's now become an important competitive advantage for us. And we partnered with wonderful makeup partners to be able to really put a spotlight on and build that makeup business. And we continue to look at opportunities. Growing the average unit volumes or sales of low locations is our number one strategic objective and continues to be so as they grow, we're continually looking to say, we, what else? And I love to use that analogy, there's more juice to squeeze in this orange. So how do we go about doing that? So some of the service proliferation has been driven by our wonderful product partners and products that they've come out with that have enabled us to add special conditioning and other hair treatments. It's also been about Things like adding hair extensions. And we'll continue to look for other opportunities to drive revenue on the service side. But again, really making sure that what we're doing is adjacent and logical in its relationship to our core services. Because if we just become a full service hair salon, then what are we? We're nothing but the same thing as every other full service hair salon. And then the other thing that's been a big important part of our evolution is our retail. So originally we have always had the opportunity for customers to purchase the products that are used in service. And then we started recognizing the opportunity to bring in other products. And we've got wonderful products on the shelf that are the kind of products that a customer would walk in and go, oh, I saw that online. I saw an ad for that. Or funny, I was just, um, about to go to this other shop and replenish my product. Now I have it here at uh, Blow available to me. So building out our retail offering has also been an important opportunity for our franchisees.

Speaker C: So I just heard the latest news. Massage Heights is now Heights Wellness Retreat. And so tell me more about what's the change and why and you know.

Speaker B: Yeah, well, Massage Heights celebrated our 20th birthday this year. It was our 20th anniversary, April 4th of this year. And we have been, you know, we've had, uh, wonderful results and served millions and millions of people over the last 20 years. But the industry is changing, the needs of our customers is changing. You know, our core demographic is also aging and they have kids that are very influential in their lives. And the wellness trends have changed as well. And so while our business model of massage therapy and membership based massage has been just a really strong business model for a long time, we absolutely see the need and the data that has us looking at things a little bit differently. So, you know, massage skin care, but we're looking at providing a more holistic experience for our, uh, guests and members to really help advance the treatments that they're getting with us. So yeah, it's post Covid people really became far more aware of wellness in general, whether that be physical or mental wellness. And mental wellness now is just such a more streamlined thing that it's than it's ever been. And so you think about meditation and talk therapy and those types of things along with healthy things like massage therapy and taking care of your skin that make you feel better. So the idea around Heights Wellness Retreat is to provide a holistic experience, both thousands of years old touch therapies like massage along with the skincare and then touchless Therapies that enhance the experience.

Speaker C: Now, you started your business with Laser. Uh, with. There was no laser in your business when you started, but when did you decide to add laser? And then, I mean, again, comes back to, you didn't know anything about laser, I'm assuming. So you have to go learn. So.

Speaker H: Yeah.

Speaker C: Why and where?

Speaker E: Why?

Speaker H: Why?

Speaker F: Yeah, I wanted laser hair removal, so I got a machine. Everything I've done is my own vanity laser. We brought on about five years ago. I was always super nervous to bring on Laser because I thought that it would cannibalize our business. I thought if we bring on Laser, then, like, people won't come in for waxing. Boy, was I wrong. Bringing on Laser. I had just been thinking about it. Thinking about it. Uh, I call myself a master manifestor. Sudir. I had been thinking about laser for some time, and then a laser sales guy walked into my store, you know, and I'm like, okay, sure. I just signed, sure, I'll take a machine. And that's how we went to market. And laser has opened up a whole new opportunity for us. Um, it's a higher ticket item. Our margins are much higher, and it's a whole. It didn't cannibalize our waxing market. It opened up a whole new door of a new customer.

Speaker E: Customer.

Speaker F: Because they've got a little bit more money. Laser is more expensive than waxing, so it opened up a whole new demographic that we didn't have access to before. So, I mean, that was a game changer for our business model. We saw our sales spike after we brought on Laser.

Speaker C: Yeah. And today, 40% of your business is laser.

Speaker F: 40% of our revenue is Ethereum.

Speaker C: You know, it's like, you must be one of the first few to have gone down that path because. Exactly the same reason. As you said, most waxing businesses worry that they'll cannibalize their business if they do go down the path of Laser. Uh, the. That they're two different customers likely is also an interesting insight.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker C: If you're enjoying the show, we'd really appreciate it if you left us a review on Apple Podcasts. It only takes a minute, and it helps others find the podcast. You can also follow along on YouTube and Spotify, so you never miss an episode. So you obviously, you know, while growing this business, you've also been bringing up three kids, three girls. I didn't know that.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker C: So how have you navigated that journey? Because. Because it is hard for women in particular in terms of, you know, I

Speaker B: have questioned whether or Not. I have been the kind of mother that they wanted. I mean, I could tell you I've had so many conversations with my girls about, I'm sorry I wasn't the mom that was waiting at home for you when you got off the bus with the plate of cookies, you know, and sort of the guilt. But I'll never forget a conversation I had with Casey. She's my oldest, and it was right when she went off to college. She went to Baylor, and I was talking on the phone with her. I'd never forget exactly where I was in the conversation. And I just said kind uh, of that same thing. I'm so sorry that I wasn't just at home. And I respect moms like that. Believe me, I did that for a while. It was hard being a mom, driving kids around to practice. To practice, to practice. That is a hard job. It was actually easier for me to go to work. But, you know, I never. I'll back it up a little bit. I never missed the important things. It was a lot of this, the day to day, you know, where I was late in the. Getting ready for our next set of franchisees to come in for training. I'm working late hours and I'm going through legal documents. I'm sitting on volleyball courts with binders this big, like highlighting things on a computer. And, you know, all of that, but present when the time was, you know, necessary. And I'm sure I could always improve. But I remember saying that to her, you know, I'm so sorry. And she said, mom, I would not be who I am today if you were not that. You know, and I love that and I respect that. And I just hope that I'm showing them that they can be whatever they want. They can put. If they put their minds to something. And they, you know, they just dream. If you have a dream, you can create a plan, right, to make that thing come true. And I just hope that I inspire them to do that. But, yeah, it's hard. It takes a village. It took family members, neighbors, brothers, sisters, you know, fathers, you know, all the things. It doesn't. It's not easy. It is not easy. And I do think that as women, you know, we question a lot more than men probably do whether or not we have been the best mom because we want to have this amazing career. And, you know, I think you can have it all, but I think you have to be intentional about each bit of what it is that you want.

Speaker C: I love your analogies and, uh, the four vectors you shared, because I think it's very important for entrepreneurs. A lot of people burn out working very hard with an obsession towards business results. Because I also believe what you're saying, which is it's important that we are in a state of well being. A state of well being is a space, I personally believe, where, you know, we are operating to our full potential, whatever our potential is. And to achieve that, the balance along the four vectors, you're saying, is important. If you don't have that balance, you're not going anywhere in a hurry because you can keep fighting the things that are going wrong around you. But when you have that balance, I also feel magic does happen in the universe. Stuff happens and comes together for us.

Speaker D: Absolutely, absolutely. And knowing how to prioritize those things is really, really important. And it isn't the amount of time you put into something, it's the quality of time that you put into it, you know, and it's being intentional in everything that you do. You know, there's. You know, my wife is my partner in life. She's my best friend. She's my partner in life. And we really do a good job of working together as a team and talking about those things of that matter in our life and working together and supporting one another. But that doesn't mean that she's spending 90% of her time with me. She's spending 90% of her time in her business right now. And then we spend the rest of the time in our families and everything else. But being able to balance that is important.

Speaker H: I mean, you have to be okay failing, you know, one of the owners on a panel said it, and it's funny, at our conference, I had my little pep talk to the owners, and I said it was. We had a conversation with another, a now new owner, but it was around Mother's Day, I said, the one thing my mom did is she let me fail. Like, I failed and failed, and, mom, what should I do? And she's, molly, I can't. I can't tell you what to do. I can't. You know, you gotta make that decision. And so I would. And it would be the wrong one. And then I'd figure it out. I'm like, okay, that didn't work. Um, but I was never scared. So people thought Oasis Face Bar just kind of came out of thin air one day. But it was 20 years of failure. You know, I tried my hand at, like, vlogging and different things, and like, anything that was popping up, I tried it. It wasn't until I 100% committed to skincare. I quit my job. I learned it. There was no plan B, you know, and. And that's. That's how I was able to get to where I am.

Speaker C: If somebody was starting off today in, let's say, in the skincare space, as an entrepreneur, what advice would you have for them?

Speaker H: M. I think so. I jokingly say, when I write my first book, it's going to be called what will you sacrifice? Everything's a sacrifice. And people. People don't want that, you know? You know, I mean, they just want everything all at once. And if you are leaving corporate America and you're going to go start up your own, you're going to be giving up money and you're going to be giving up time. If you're joining a franchise system and you're leaving the corporate America, you're probably going to be. Be giving up money and time and things, at least initially. And my son, who's now 8, I call him my business partner, but when I opened up Oasis Face Bar, he came with me everywhere, absolutely everywhere. I would just throw him in the car. I'd have to run Dermaplane Blades down to Cincinnati. You know, they'd be like, oh, by the way, we're out. And I'm like, and we got 10 services today. I'm like, oh, shoot. So I'd throw them in the car. And so I think you have to be, you know, you have to be willing to, like, give up some time or you have to be willing to give up money and time and all of that, but you have to make a sacrifice. There's always going to be a sacrifice.

Speaker B: Growth Diaries is brought to you by Zenoti.