Though it’s usually brief in this desert, spring is a season in which daydreaming is a constant threat to productivity. No matter what activity you’re engaged in, a perfect spring day can get your mind wandering about things you’d rather be doing.
Some folks picture a potential vacation, others a hobby or leisure activity they’ve been considering. And a few among us dream of having a small business of our own.
It was just such a perfect spring day when I dropped in the Nevada Franchise Business Network, holding a luncheon sponsored at Cili by the law firm of Armstrong Teasdale.
I wasn’t really daydreaming at the time, but mostly curious about those industrious sorts who had turned their own vision into reality.
There were a few franchisees on hand, but this was a meeting tilted toward the franchisors — that is, companies that grant others the right to operate a separate location of their own businesses and to use its trademarks and products in exchange for a fee.
Fast-food companies are often examples of franchising operations, although not all are, and there was no obvious representation of that industry at the event.
On the panel were locals Debbie Shwetz, CEO of Nothing Bundt Cakes, which produces irresistible baked goods; and CEO Fred Hassen and President Alfredo Rivera of Sit Means Sit, which offers a dog training technique said by many humans to be quite fast, efficient and effective. Both enterprises began in Las Vegas, and both provide an infrastructure of support to franchisees across the United States.
Along with lawyer Matthew Kreutzer, who really knows this stuff, they schooled me about franchising — something I knew little about, since my own daydreaming is usually about other things. It was also helpful to have as tablemates Vinnie Manendo and Ed Williams, co-founders of All Nevada Insurance, which started a decade earlier and for which they began granting franchises four years ago.
Manendo noted that his company provides training to help franchisees get started and licensed. But the real challenge is finding the right people to become franchisees in the first place. His philosophy is to seek people accustomed to hard work.
“Insurance is not for everybody,” he pointed out.
Sit Means Sit began franchising in 2009 and has more than 50 locations, which apparently makes it the largest U.S.-based dog training company ever.
The Las Vegas company started franchising after watching enough other people use its system without mentioning it, giving it recognition.
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