Season 4.5 Episode 3 | Achieving Franchise Success Amid COVID-19 by Canadian Franchise Association

In this episode, our new guest host Angela Coté of Angela Coté Inc. sits down to chat with three franchisees to celebrate and share their stories as women in the franchising industry.

Angela Rollins is a Great Clips franchisee located in the Vancouver area, who operates salons in British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. As the world's largest and fastest growing salon, Great Clips operates nearly 4,500 salons across North America.

Shauna Browne is a MOLLY MAID franchisee with locations in Langley and East Surrey, British Columbia. MOLLY MAID has been the number one maid service company in Canada since 1979.

Dr. Mahsa Shekari is a Pearle Vision franchisee with two locations in Toronto, Ontario, and is a sublease optometrist for two Target Optical locations in New Jersey. Pearle Vision is a one-stop, total eye care clinic and was founded by Dr. Stanley Pearle in 1961.

Season 4.5 Episode 1 | Franchisees in the Children's Products and Services Industry by Canadian Franchise Association

In this episode, we talk to Steve Buors, CEO of Reshift Media, a Toronto-based digital marketing company.

The Canadian Franchise Association and Reshift Media have designed a three-part webinar series, Creating a Post-Pandemic Digital Growth Plan. The webinar explores how franchise systems have been impacted by the pandemic, what they’ve done to adapt, and what they can do to emerge with a strong plan for growth.

Each part of the webinar series highlights a unique and crucial part of the COVID-19 pandemic:

Day 1: How the Pandemic Changed Consumer Buying

Day 2: How to Create a Winning Post-Pandemic Growth Plan

Day 3: How to Find the Right Franchisees to Fuel Growth.

You can register to attend the sessions that are taking place on June 8th, 9th, and 10th, from 2pm-3pm EST. For those listening after these dates, the webinars will be available to listen to at your leisure at CFA.ca.

In this episode, we talk to Piinpoint’s chief product officer, Sarah Steiner, and location specialist, Adrian Polidoro. Piinpoint uses location intelligence powered by AI to help businesses and retailers find the best locations for expansion.

Here, Sarah and Adrian share:

• How the company uses a variety of useful and unique data collection techniques to help business owners find prospective retail locations

• The many brands that Piinpoint has successfully worked with (including some fellow CFA members!)

• And the new Piinpoint Grant Program that Adrian introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the value it brings to business owners and franchisees looking to expand in their communities, among much more.

In this episode, we talk to d3h Hotels chief strategist, Carolyn Genest. d3h Hotels operate under the Realstar Hospitality brand, which is a property management company based out of Toronto, Ontario.

Carolyn explains how all 13 hotels in the chain have remained open during the COVID-19 pandemic and are still being reserved by guests.

Here, Carolyn shares:

• How Realstar Hospitality has supported d3h Hotels through regular calls for franchisees to normalize what’s happening during the pandemic

• How the brand has worked to help guests find places to visit in the vicinity of hotels that stayed open over the past year

• And the five key lessons she’s learned as a franchisor that can help franchisees find success within their business endeavours, among much more.

In this episode, we talk to Mad Science Group president and CEO Shafik Mina, and franchisee Kyle Upton, who has more than 20 years of experience in franchising as he owns two locations in St. Catharines and London, Ontario.

Mad Science Group is a science enrichment program for children that has 165 franchise locations in more than 20 countries worldwide.

Here, Shafik and Kyle share:

• Why franchisees having passion for the industry they join is so vital to their success and overall happiness as business owners

• The new Crayola Imagine Arts Academy franchising opportunity that Mad Science Group created to reach children with an interest in the arts

• And how the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the brand to transition from an in person and hands-on learning approach to an entirely virtual process that’s been implemented for the past year, among much more.

In this episode, we talk to Katelyn, Carly, and Paige Fulton, a trio of sisters who own a Century 21 franchise in Scarborough, Ontario. Century 21 is a Canadian owned and operated real estate company with more than 400 offices across the country.

The sisters explain how their family has been in franchising for decades with the Percy Fulton Century 21 franchise that’s been operating for more than 40 years.

Here, Katelyn, Carly, and Paige share:

• Why they each made the switch from corporate careers into the increasingly popular real estate industry, and how their father’s franchising experience helped support that career change

• The benefits of franchising with your family members, such as knowing each other’s strong suits and how to motivate each other

• And the best thing they did for their business before starting off, including conducting personality tests to learn their strengths and weaknesses as business owners, and much more.

In this episode, we talk to Clark Harrop, a partner at Dale & Lessmann LLP. The business law firm is a franchise support service/supplier that represents franchisors and franchisees in the franchise agreement and disclosure document process.

Clark has been in the franchising space since the year 2000, and has worked with brands including Tim Hortons and McDonald’s, where he says he learned how good franchise systems work and adapt to changes as necessary.

Here, Clark shares:

• Why he decided to take his decades of franchise experience to a private practice to work more closely with franchisors and franchisees

• How to best implement system change within a franchise system, including the challenges this poses for franchisors

• And the importance of communication between franchisors and their franchisees, especially as we continue to face the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, among much more.

In this episode, we talk to Spiritleaf franchisee, Cara Rose-Brown, who opened a franchise in Stitsville, Ontario with her husband Tim in July 2020. The couple have been franchising together for more than 20 years.

Spiritleaf is a Canadian cannabis brand that currently has 68 franchise units across Canada. They operate with the goal of being the most knowledgeable and trusted retailer of recreational cannabis.

Here, Cara shares:

• Why she and Tim decided to open a Spiritleaf franchise to help bring cannabis to their small community in Ottawa

• How she and Tim won Spiritleaf’s Franchise Partners of the Year award in December 2020, just five months after opening their franchise

• And how the entrepreneurial spirit runs in the family, as the couple also introduced their son Mitch to franchising and hope to leave a legacy for him with their Spiritleaf franchise, and much more.