Franchise Canada Chats

In this episode, we talk to Nina Choma, a Molly Maid franchisee who owns a location in North Mississauga, Ontario. Molly Maid is a Canadian maid service company that’s been cleaning homes since 1979, and Nina has been a franchisee with the brand for 17 years.

Nina says she was attracted to franchising for the generous support that comes from the business model. Plus, she keeps motivated and inspired with the continuous encouragement from her family, friends, and fellow franchisees.

During this episode, Nina shares:

- Her advice to prospective and existing franchisees about the often-unexpected task of hiring and staffing for your franchise

- How COVID-19 has changed the structure of her small business

- And the new Healthy Home Cleaning System that was introduced by Molly Maid to protect staff, franchisees, and clients which has helped the brand stay above the curve during the pandemic, and much more.

In this episode, we feature Greg Nathan, a registered psychologist and founder of Franchise Relationships Institute. He explores how franchisors can maintain their franchisees’ confidence as they work together to battle the challenges and changes of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here, Greg shares his expertise as a leading global expert on the psychology of the franchise relationship to explore a variety of tips and tools that franchisors can use to lead their teams.

This episode was adapted from Greg’s keynote presentation titled “Getting Franchisee Buy-In to Change” as part of the Canadian Franchise Association’s Business Recovery Summit Series. The month-long series of webinar presentations took place throughout October. You can learn more at CFA.ca.

In this episode, we feature Catherine Monson, CEO & president of FASTSIGNS International. She explores how franchises across the country have been put to the test throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here, Catherine shares:

- How to confront crisis as an opportunity for change, to refocus, and to capitalize on what’s coming in the future

- Franchising best practices

- How being an inspirational and effective leader involves learning how to develop a positive mental attitude with your team using goal directed behaviour.

This episode was adapted from Catherine’s keynote presentation titled “Leading Through Challenging Times” as part of the Canadian Franchise Association’s Business Recovery Summit Series. The month-long series of webinar presentations took place throughout October. You can learn more at cfa.ca.

In this episode, we feature Demetre Eliopoulos, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Public Affairs at Angus Reid Group. He shares advice as a public opinion expert about how Canadians have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and how they’ve changed their lives and the ways they would like to be communicated with.

Here, Demetre shares:

- How Canadians’ jobs and finances have been impacted by the pandemic

- What businesses they’re interacting with most

- How they feel about advertising today, and much more.

This episode was adapted from Demetre’s keynote presentation titled “Consumer Insights Today: Understanding the Perceptions and Needs of Canadians in a COVID-19 Environment” as part of the Canadian Franchise Association’s Business Recovery Summit Series. The month-long series of webinar presentations took place throughout October. You can learn more at cfa.ca.

This episode features keynote speaker and author, Todd Cohen, who shares how to crush the negative stereotype of sales in order to cultivate a team that is dedicated to the process of getting a customer to say “yes!”

Here, Todd shares:

- How every interaction with a customer is a selling moment

- How to empower your staff to embrace their unique talents

- How to redefine our culture and go beyond business recovery into business acceleration, among much more.  

This episode was adapted from Todd’s keynote presentation titled “Everyone’s in Sales in YOUR Franchise Store” as part of the Canadian Franchise Association’s Business Recovery Summit Series. The month-long series of webinar presentations took place throughout October. You can learn more at cfa.ca.

In this episode, we talk to Angela Coté, an international Franchise Growth Catalyst with both franchisor and franchisee experience who uses her knowledge to help growing companies get their start as they join the franchising community.

Having grown up the daughter of M&M Food Market’s founder, Angela joined the franchising industry at just 18-years-old and has developed an abundance of wisdom in her 25 years in the field. Now, she runs Angela Coté Inc. as a franchise business coach who guides brands through all the stages of franchising.

During this episode, Angela shares:

- The top traits of the ideal franchisee

- The “5 Rockstar questions” that franchisees should ask prospective franchisors (spoiler alert: having passion is a key to franchising!)

- How the COVID-19 pandemic has created an increase in collaboration for franchising, and much more.

In this episode, we talk to Robert Bruski, CFO of Ctrl V, a virtual reality arcade franchise. Robert teamed up with his long-time friend and CEO, Ryan Brooks, and Ryan’s cousin and COO, James Elligson, to come up with a compelling and unique way of incorporating technology and virtual reality into their everyday lives.

Since their launch in 2016, Robert and his team have expanded Ctrl V to over a dozen locations across Canada, the US, and Costa Rica, and are the world’s largest virtual reality arcade franchise.

During this episode, Robert shares:

- Why franchising with Ctrl V is a great opportunity for Generation Z members

- Key learnings he’s picked up about owning a business

- How business was affected by COVID-19

- His proudest accomplishment with the brand (spoiler alert: Ctrl V has tons of achievements!), and much more.

In this episode, we talk to Jamie Berube, president and CEO of WP Creations, who joined the head office team in 2013 and eventually became sole franchisor after their founder retired.

Originally called the Wee Piggies foundation, Jamie used her experience in sales and training to build her team of home-based franchisees by offering extensive training and an ongoing support system. Now, WP Creations is thriving with more than 30 locations spread coast to coast while keeping the company’s original traditions.

During this episode, Jamie shares:

- The perks of running a home-based business

- How she supports her female-led team of entrepreneurs

- How to keep franchisees connected through the long distance (including a newly introduced buddy system!)

- What she adores most about running WP Creations, and much more.

In this episode, we talk to Dawn Mucci, CEO and founder of Lice Squad.com, the leading head lice removal franchise system with a mission to stop the stigma around head lice.

Dawn founded Lice Squad.com in 2001 after she discovered head lice on her son and found that she had very few options to get rid of the pesky problem. Since then, the franchise has expanded to 36 franchise and corporate locations with over 250 service providers spread across Canada.

During this episode, Dawn shares:

- The benefits of being a Lice Squad.com franchisee

- How COVID-19 has impacted the business (including some surprisingly severe lice cases!)

- Her biggest learnings over the past difficult year

- What keeps her smiling and motivated as she runs the Lice Squad.com brand, and so much more.

In this episode, we talk to Rosemarie Reid-Julien, a Beyond the Classroom franchisee who owns a location in North Brampton. Beyond the Classroom has been in business since 1998 and there are currently a dozen locations around Ontario. They offer online and in-home tutoring for students in grades JK to 12 for subjects including math, English, reading, writing, and French.

Rosemarie recently celebrated her first anniversary with Beyond the Classroom. She joined the tutoring industry with 16 years of experience as a high school teacher and decided to become a franchisee to combine her love for teaching with a desire to become an entrepreneur.

During this episode, Rosemarie shares:

- How she uses an online tutoring platform to follow the social distancing protocols of COVID-19

- What she enjoys most as a Beyond the Classroom franchisee (including working on her public speaking skills!)

- Her biggest inspiration and motivation, and much more.