Pet Franchise

Four Disruptive Franchise Models that Revolutionized Industries

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In the 90’s it was called “re-engineering,” when consumers were using Windows 95 and the necessity for a pager was still palpable. Now we refer to this entrepreneurial zeitgeist as “disrupting.” It is the scaffolding of entrepreneurialism.  When a tech innovation, new product, or business concept pivots the way things are done, turning tradition on its head, this is disruption.  Market disruption is providing something so innovative consumers didn’t even know they needed or wanted that thing. Think of OrangeTheory Fitness. The gym franchise reformed how people exercise and the means of working out.

The Baby Boomers are largely credited with initiating big-box gym franchising into the wellness industry. This expanded revenue and opened markets that previously didn’t exist. OrangeTheory and other disruptive innovations have expanded on this premise.

Four pioneers in their respective industries have revolutionized business concepts and consumer standards. These companies changed the way consumers purchase. They changed the way businesses could operate.

The Coffee Monolith, Starbucks

Starbucks began in Seattle’s Pike Place Market in 1971. The company took Coffee, an ordinary commodity, and made it extraordinary—worth $4.

Since the first store, Starbucks has obviously seen rapid growth. The shops are a ubiquitous presence with over 24,000 locations in 69 countries. Iconic CEO, Howard Schultz, signed on with the company in 1987. Shultz vowed to “disrupt the coffee industry.” Schultz has also worked for Nike and Lego, honing both companies’ pioneering vision.

The company provides keystones in the coffee segment like espresso, specialty roasts, ground coffee, and premium teas, but as the years went on, expanded into food items. Selected evening stores also carry beer and wine.

What makes Starbucks such a model of disruption is the company’s pursuit in marketing. Strategic partnerships with companies like Lyft and Spotify have interwoven marketing with loyalty programs. Customers can earn stars through purchases in these third party platforms. This drives customer loyalty and retention. These tech innovations also make being a Starbucks customer more convenient than ever.

Starbucks holds the leading position in digital, card, loyalty, and mobile marketing.

First of its Kind, Massage Envy

The most prevalent franchise in the massage therapy sector is incontestably, Massage Envy. Beginning in 2002, the founder’s vision was to offer affordable massage therapy at convenient mini-spas that would stay open nights and weekends. Before Massage Envy, many sought out massage therapy at expensive luxury-spas, medical offices, or in the spare bedroom of therapists.

The franchise is unique on many levels. Nothing like this existed before. The membership and revenue model are new concept to massage therapy. Massage Envy made a recurring revenue stream for the franchise. This gave the membership affordability. The franchise then opened locations in strip malls giving them the convenience factor.

The company boasts a 99.1% success rate with only 9 stores closing. They also have a 1.64 million national member base.

Since Massage Envy was so unique they control the largest share of the market. Many similar business concepts in massage therapy franchising have gained similar momentum like Hand and Stone, and Elements Massage, but Massage Envy was the precursor to these. Massage Envy cleared an unseen market gap.

Tech Innovator, OrangeTheory Fitness

This gym franchise is credited with the ‘uberization’ of the health and wellness economy, as the “the new science of fitness.”

In the wake of Planet Fitness, Kosama, and dozens of other gym franchises all saturating the marketplace, OrangeTheory did something no other franchise thought to do. They developed the consumer relationship between the data of health science with an exercise studio.

The concept behind OrangeTheory is leading participants into a heart-rate zone known as “excess post-exercise oxygen consumption,” or EPOC. When customers go to a studio for a workout, they are fitted with heart-rate monitors. This tracks clients through five heart-rate zones organized into a color spectrum. The heart-rates are displayed on screens in the studio.

The goal is for clients to spend at least 12-20 mins in the orange EPOC. The franchise makes the claim that this is how clients can burn 900 calories in a workout. Clients can also maintain excessive calorie burning for up to 36 hours after they visit an OrangeTheory Fitness.

What makes this gym franchise a disruptor is a harmonization between software apps and brick-and-mortar. Founders knew that the fitness industry was opening into data mining. OrangeTheory knew clients wanted to track their progress as they worked out via their smartphones. This was the first instance where all the convenience of a gym met all the convenience of a smartphone app.

Splash and Dash Groomerie & Boutique

In 2009, founder and CEO, Dan J, Barton recognized huge growth in the pet industry as a sector that is recession-proof. Barton revolutionized pet grooming. With industry growth at 269% since 1994, and big-box industrial pet stores dominating the now $62.75 billion dollar market, a more intimate up-scale pet franchise was needed.

Splash and Dash has been featured on major media platforms like Fox News and ABC. The company has also been widely awarded.

  • Pet Retailer of the Year, Pet Product News
  • Readers’ Choice Best Grooming in Hudson Valley
  • 3rd in Top Ten Franchises to Sweep the Nation, INC Magazine
  • Fastest Growing Companies 500 List, INC and Forbes Magazine
  • Ranked 17 In Tampa Bay FL, Company,  INC Magazine

How is the company pioneering the pet grooming industry?

The company uses business models adapted from OrangeTheory, Starbucks, and Massage Envy and translated them into the dog grooming industry.

Marketing techniques Starbucks uses like loyalty programs aimed at customers’ convenience is one of the staples of Splash and Dash business concepts. Seasonal company-wide marketing campaigns use these concepts to retain customers and continuously bring in new clientele base.

Alos, a huge deficit in the dog grooming industry was the lack of technological innovation. Mom and pop dog grooming shops were still using antiquated methods like card appointment books. Before opening as a Splash and Dash, many shop owners’ stores didn’t even own a computer.

The terminal software that Splash and Dash uses is similar to OrangeTheory. It allows customers to track their dog’s wellness and appointments. The software also alerts customers to various promotions and sales. This inspires repeat business and retail opportunity. The proprietary software also handles POS, inventory, regulates employee functions and much more.

One of the strongest business concepts Splash and Dash integrates is recurring revenue through memberships. This company is the only franchise to offer customers a monthly unlimited membership. Now, a dog can be groomed as often as needed. What makes this an opportunity for revenue is repeated retail engagement. Like Massage Envy, clients can come in for a service and also purchase any products they would need.

Splash and Dash is a true original disruptor as  the company explored a glaring market gap. Pet parents were aggravated by traditional means of pet grooming. Pet parents were forced to use big-box industrial pet grooming locations or overly expensive grooming shops. The industry needed a technologically innovative revamp. Splash and Dash caters to customers who need to groom their dogs often and want to take them to a place they can trust.

Splash and Dash Groomerie & Boutique fills this role with passion and excellence.

 

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Start a Franchise: 7 Skills You Want Your Management Team to Have

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Polls have shown that companies hire the wrong management team a whopping 82 percent of the time, according to a Gallup Study. The statistic is compelling when compared with engagement rates being equally as low. 72 percent of “U.S. workers are less engaged or actively disengaged in the workplace.” Patterns of workplace contempt like these are why many left corporate America to start a franchise.

50 percent of American workers leave companies because of a disdainful relationship with a direct manager costing businesses $450 billion annually. The freedom of owning a franchise is void when the same unfortunate tropes of corporate America show back up.

To avoid the drawbacks of wrongly promoting or hiring, after you start a franchise, be aware of these five characteristics of strong management. Whether you are currently managing your staff, or have hired a manager, identifying these skills is important for franchise owners.

Great Communication Skills

Managers and leaders need to communicate often to staff, groomers, and customers. Communicating needs to happen frequently, clearly, and effectively.

Shop owners are the face of the company, but when this role is delegated to a manager, they become the face of the company when owners are not behind the counter. Make sure you are confident this person is able to be a representative of yourself.

After you start a franchise, your shop should be moving toward becoming self-sufficient. Recognizing a manager that is great with relaying information, educating customers, and motivating staff is something you will want to keep an eye out for.

Excellent Coaching Skills

There is a big distinction between being able to do something, and being able to teach someone to do it. The hard part is being enthusiastic and motivating while you teach this person. A person with a natural ease for encouragement makes a great professional coach.

Just as with sports, coaches will need to ‘push’ people. Leaders need to be able to share their expertise, techniques, and goals. Productivity and sales goals are important in the pet care franchise and a manager that is able to maintain a positive shop morale while producing great sales figures is a strong asset.

Fortunately for those who decided to start a franchise as a Splash and Dash Groomerie & Boutique shop owner, the tools coaching-leaders will need are readily available.

Considerable Nurturing Skills

If you’re considering the move to start a franchise in the pet industry please know that nurturing is a huge factor in day-to-day operations. Shop owners and managers will need to have a nurturing mentality and skill-set. Customer’s pets, customers themselves, and your staff all need some form of nurturing.

Leadership requires professional nurturing. Assuming the role of a mentor helps groom employees toward self-sufficiency. Good management systems also require managers and owners to recognize employees work and triumphs.

A person can have proficient technical skills, but if they can’t have a nurturing attitude it might be a disservice to have them lead your shop.

Strong Networking Ability

The role of managing a pet franchise is a very fluid system of tasks. Part of these tasks is being able to network. Networking for Splash and Dash shop owners and managers means networking within the company to other shops, partnering with animal rescue organizations, and becoming versed with local small business owners.

Mark Levy, a shop owner in La Vern California, is part of his local chamber of commerce. Levy is a known figure within the community with strong influence and support. Splash and Dash Groomerie & Boutique owners like Mark are personable and have strong contacts achieved through their networking abilities. Good candidates for managers should mirror this capability.

Empathy

Without the strength of empathizing, becoming a small business owner and being successful as you start a franchise will be difficult.

Leadership requires seeing viewpoints from multiple perspectives. Attending to customer’s demands that managers be able to be open-minded recognizing a person’s interests, budget, and needs. Without empathy, a leader is lost without direction.

If an employee approaches you with a grievance and a manager doesn’t take the time to understand, this employee will be less trusting and endeared to this manager—loss of engagement. It seems simple, but managers disregard employees every day. Make sure your manager can empathize with employees and customers for a happy and productive shop.

Splash and Dash Groomerie & Boutique

When you decide to start a franchise it can be the most exhilarating and life-changing decision you make in life. All of a sudden, you have a career in which you explore your passion. The freedom you have dreamed about is a reality. Success is achieved based on your own merits, and you answer only to yourself.

Honestly, it is not easy. It is not for everyone. But what is discernible is that takes a person who can rise to leadership to be able to be successful once they decide to start a franchise.

 

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