S4 Ep6: Blo Blow Dry Bar: How to Open 100+ Units Sustainably
What’s the sweet spot of rapid growth and long-term sustainability?
Meet Vanessa Melman Yakobson, the franchise owner with the secret sauce to success.
Vanessa is the CEO and Partner of Blo Blow Dry. Bar. This North American franchise has already opened 100 units and is set to open 50 more in the next couple of years.
The Wolf and Vanessa get into how growing responsibly means longevity, especially during turbulent economic times, the recipe book that sets franchisees up for success, and how outside backing is helping grow Blo’s sister beauty brands.
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-melman-yakobson-34b7343/
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Episode Transcription
Vanessa Yakobson:
That’s really been our philosophy, to engage in what I like to call responsible growth. There’s so many examples of businesses in the world across industries that grew too quickly and then weren’t able to sustain and support that growth. So it was very important to me to make sure that as we were growing, we will simultaneously putting in place the infrastructure, the resources, the tools to deliver that excellent service to our franchisees and set them up for success in their own entrepreneurial ventures.
The Wolf of Franchises:
Welcome to Franchise Empires. We’re aspiring entrepreneurs learn exactly what it takes to become a successful franchise owner from one location to 10 and beyond. I’m the Wolf of franchises.
Hey everyone, it’s The Wolf. Today on the show we have Vanessa Jacobson. Vanessa’s had experience with three brands in the franchise world as well as a private equity transaction. Her and her husband founded a kid’s beauty chain in Canada which they then began franchising and had that acquired Following that they invested in Blow Dry Bar, which as you can tell, is a blow dry bar based out of Canada. They’ve since been growing that to over a hundred units since 2009, and they’ve also now acquired a new franchise, which they’re going to be introducing to the United States very soon here. They have a ton of experience in the beauty space in particular, but also in just acquiring brands, franchising them, as well as a recent private equity transaction that’s helped them expand their operations. I think you’re going to enjoy this one.
Narrator:
The Wolf of Franchises is the CEO of Wolf Pack Franchising, as well as a creator at Workweek Media. All opinions expressed by the Wolf and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Pack Franchising or workweek. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. The Wolf Work Week and Wolf Pack Franchising may maintain positions in the franchises discussed on this podcast.
The Wolf of Franchises:
Obviously, you’ve had tons of experience with different brands. Sounds like the journey really started when you and your husband founded the Children’s Salon franchise. So do you want to maybe just give us an idea of how you guys had the idea for that and when you started that business?
Vanessa Yakobson:
Sure. So back in 2000, towards the end of that year, our oldest son, who was one at the time, went for his first haircut to a place in Toronto that was supposed to be the best place to take your kid for a haircut. And my husband, who grew up in furniture retailing, so really had a sense for retail and that whole customer experience, looked around this place and said to me, this place is a dump. I bet we could do something better. And in my fuzzy memory, I feel like a few days later, he came home and said, okay, I’m going to start a kid’s hair salon. And our friend Rob, well his brother Paul, is going to come and run it for us. And long story short, that’s how that brand was born, and we launched this kid’s hair salon chain. I was not involved in the day-to-day operations. I was a mere shareholder offering, often unsolicited advice in the background, but we grew that into a chain of about 20 locations across Canada, combination of corporate and franchise stores before we sold it.
The Wolf of Franchises:
So when you guys sold that, I know Blow, blow Dry Bar was the next endeavor, was there, did that flow directly into Blow Dry Bar or was there kind of a period of time where you guys were looking for your kind of next initiative and next company to work with?
Vanessa Yakobson:
I don’t know that it was necessarily an explicit search at the time. My husband was never day to day in the business, so he was always involved in lots of different things. And I was actually working in the nonprofit sector. So our business partner, Paul Spindler, was running the show with a small team. And it happened that a friend of ours came to us and said, there’s this amazing concept out of Vancouver. It’s called Blow, blow Dry Bar. It’s a hair salon, but they don’t cut our color hair. They’re only offering wash and styling services, and it’s just taken off. And at that time, blow was two years old and had actually grown to have three corporate locations. So we took a close look at it. And from a consumer perspective, I absolutely loved the concept. I was in the habit as were many of my friends, of going to a salon and getting my hair blown out for a Saturday night out. So as a consumer, I understood the value proposition and from the business perspective, we saw the power of this model. So we ended up acquiring Blow, bringing it into the fold, and the team that was running the Kids Salon concept was running Blow, blow Dry Bar as well and transforming it into a franchise. And then, as I said, we sold the kids concept, which was really to give us the fire power to be able to focus on Growing Blow instead.
The Wolf of Franchises:
Well, so what’s been the, let’s call it Ramp Up from acquisition to where you guys are today with Blow Dry Bar? How many locations do you have, I guess? Yeah, maybe that’s a good starting point is kind of the growth rate that you guys have.
Vanessa Yakobson:
So we bought those three corporate locations of Blow back in 2009. We moved the head office from Vancouver to Toronto because that’s where we are. And because with the Kids Salon concept, we had that combination of corporate owned and franchise owned. The team decided that we wanted to pick one path forward. We didn’t like that hybrid because then you’ve got conflict of interest at the head office. And so we decided that franchising was how we were going to grow with the blow concept. So we started franchising first into Toronto in 2009. Then we entered the US market in 2010, and it was around the time that we had just over 40 locations that I joined the team and said, okay, we’ve had this amazing organic growth, but now it’s time to really kick it up a notch because we know that there’s enormous potential in this brand and we need to grow the infrastructure at the corporate level so that we can prepare ourselves to support this growth.
And really transformed ourselves into a business that was there to deliver excellent customer service to our franchisees. That’s really been our philosophy and engage in what I like to call responsible growth. There’s so many examples of businesses in the world across industries that grew too quickly and then weren’t able to sustain and support that growth. So it was very important to me to make sure that as we were growing, we were simultaneously putting in place the infrastructure, the resources, the tools to deliver that excellent service to our franchisees and set them up for success in their own entrepreneurial ventures. So 40 or so locations, I joined the team. We grew to about a hundred locations by the end of 2019. Unfortunately, we lost a couple during the pandemic or at the tail end of that, but now we are back up over the hundred marks. So we’ve got a hundred doors open and another 50 locations sold and underdevelopment to open in the next couple of years.
The Wolf of Franchises:
Congratulations. I mean, yeah, most brands don’t the large majority of franchises don’t ever cross the 100 unit mark, so that’s a fantastic accomplishment in itself.
Vanessa Yakobson:
Thank you. Yeah, we’re pretty proud of it.
The Wolf of Franchises:
Yeah. Well, I like what you said too about the responsible growth because obviously, and I’ve worked in franchise development, you want to be a successful franchisor, you need to sell locations and bring in franchisees and all that. And also even just it gets difficult if you say you have a down year where maybe you didn’t bring it on any new franchisees because then every other prospect you talk to, that’s one of the key questions is how is the growth going? And it’s almost like leading indicator of the vibe of the brand at the moment. If you say, oh, we haven’t really brought in anyone new in a while, then every new prospect, that’s like a hurdle. You have to get them over. So I think the nature of franchising can sometimes cause franchisors to oversell cause they’re just, you’re like, Hey, let’s take it while we can get it. And it’s a good narrative, but obviously the flip side is you can get yourself into trouble with not being able to support franchisees. So what kind of things are you doing or do you employ to have that balance of we need to sell units, that’s our job, or bring in franchise partners, but also keeping things from getting ahead of itself?
Vanessa Yakobson:
Well, look, at the end of the day, we are only successful if our franchisees are successful. So we want to ensure that every franchisee that comes into our system is set up for success. And what we’ve really made a concerted effort to do and continue to do is to engage very closely with our franchisees. So we always have a very good understanding of where the opportunities and challenges are in the business. We gather up best practices from across our franchise system. If something’s working from one of our franchisee is whether it’s something around staff management or something around marketing or operations, whatever it is, if we see a best practice that’s working well for them, we kind of gather it up and make efforts to share that information either by updating manuals, updating training resources, sharing information through different communication opportunities that we have with our franchisees.
So that continual improvement is really important to us. And when I talk about delivering that excellent customer service to our franchisees, that really is what we focus on. So we are continually developing new tools and resources for our franchisees so that they’ve got these amazing, I’d like to think of it as a recipe book. They’ve got the recipe book, they’ve got the ingredients for success what flair they might bring or the kind of spice that they might bring to the recipe is up to them. And we know ultimately the rubber hits the road with the franchisees. We can only do so much for them and then they have to be the ones implementing. But really making sure that we’ve got solid systems and practices in place. So what’s been so rewarding over the last couple of years is seeing what we call enfranchising, the a v, the average unit volume, which is really a sales metric, seeing that average unit sales number grow in our system.
And as we emerge from the pandemic, which really was an opportunity for us to reflect and refocus our strategy and really think about the tools that we needed to deliver to help our franchisees emerge stronger than ever. And we’ve been able to realize that. So we’ve seen average ticket grow, we’ve seen overall unit sales grow. We’ve been hitting records as a brand in terms of our sales and our franchisees are hitting records in their own businesses in terms of their sales results. So that has certainly helped perpetuate the cycle of being able to bring in new franchisees because when candidates come to us, they want to know that they’re partnering with a business that is going to enable them to find their own success. And it’s common as you well know, in franchising for prospects to talk to other franchisees and understand about their experience. So to me, the greatest satisfaction is knowing that candidates go through that process of talking tolo franchisees, learn what it’s like to be a business owner, learn about the support they get from the corporate team, learn about the financial success they have, and then they’re like, yep, sign me up by, I want to become a franchisee too. And that’s the greatest reward.
The Wolf of Franchises:
I completely agree. I tell folks, just people who reach out that your greatest resource, if you’re buying a franchise, it’s not me. It’s not anyone on the internet who says there’s some franchise expert, it’s franchisees who are already bought into that specific brand. They are always going to know more about the brand than anyone else. Or they also will have less of an agenda than anyone else because they’re already bought in. They have skin in the game, they’re more likely to tell you how they feel and how things are going right at that moment. But as you said, right, it also from the franchisor perspective, if you are doing the right things, then it’s just an incredibly useful tool for you to validate your concept. And I mean there’s no better salesperson than a happy franchisee, I guess is the bottom line.
Vanessa Yakobson:
Absolutely. And the other piece of it, that business piece, we want our franchisees to be successful so they can be happy, so they can expand their unit counts so that they do validate well to other prospects who become franchisees. But it’s also this privilege and responsibility that my team and I take very seriously, recognizing that people are making big commitments when they become franchisees. These are individuals who have families, they have financial responsibilities. They’re making this leap often for the first time to become entrepreneurs themselves. And when they become blow franchisees, we take that responsibility very seriously. We privilege that they’ve chosen us to realize their entrepreneurial dreams and goals, and we want to make sure that we’re delivering the support and service that they need to be successful.
The Wolf of Franchises:
That’s honestly really refreshing to hear. Cause I get the sense sometimes with franchisors they’re not always necessarily recognizing that from their franchisee perspective that they have a family and that this is a big decision and it’s not just another unit sale to throw under their belt. It’s a franchisor, right? I mean, someone’s making a serious life decision and it is absolutely anyone, this is what I tell emerging franchisors, right? Anyone or anyone who’s thinking of franchising their concept that it’s a privilege, but it’s a big responsibility because you’re effectively turning your business into an investment of sorts. And yeah, it’s just something that does need to be taken seriously and it’s not something that should just be thought about lightly. So it’s really good to hear that’s kind of how you guys think about it and obviously it’s showing in the growth that you’re having.
So thanks. And I want to ask too mean from and with, I’m not asking for any secret sauce or anything, but as far as how you think about making things efficient for your franchisees, but also working with them at scale as a system, do you guys do anything from a technological perspective, say to just streamline their operations? Or even, for instance, I had the founder of Crumble cookies on the show and they went very deep into technology and built their own proprietary system so that they have quick access to franchisee metrics and all these different things, and that’s helped them just as they have more data, they can make better decisions and quicker decisions. So do you guys do anything similar or how do you even think about just using technology to make the system as a whole a lot stronger?
Vanessa Yakobson:
Well, there are a few points that you’re touching on that really resonates. So I started out saying that we wanted to make sure that as we grew, we were growing responsibly, which really is about scale and creating replicable streamlined systems. And the kind of challenge for us, I guess has been how do you create that ability to scale? How do you create those systems but at the same time balance that with wanting to deliver high-touch service to your franchisees? So we do still a lot of one-on-one coaching, a lot of one-on-one support on both the operations and the marketing side. But we do employ technology because data is everything. You’re right in referencing that you need good data to be able to make good decisions about what support your franchisees need in terms of resources and training, what to coach them to focus on that’s going to give them the biggest bang for their buck and not just their buck, but their effort.
So we happen to have booking software third party, it’s from a company called Mind Body. It’s their booker platform, and that’s the nervous centered lifeblood, whatever analogy you wish to use of our franchise businesses. So everybody sets up their staff schedules in their customer appointments are made in their inventories, managed through the Booker platform, and it’s connected to their point of sales system. So all sales are tracked. So we have always had very ready insight into our franchisees businesses. We know minute by minute what they’re selling and there are all sorts of reports built into Booker that we can use to analyze the results. We also have a third party company that uses the platform called Tableau where we’re able to extract data from and create custom reports so we have ready access into the particular KPIs that we track. So another level of analysis and insight into our business through that technology. We also had a few years ago started using a learning management software platform to start to share training resources with our franchisees and their staff. But then about coming up to two years ago, we started using the Friend Connect platform. So we stopped using the L m S platform and started using Friend Connect to provide that training resource for franchisees and their staff and also use it as a communication platform to engage directly with our franchisees that way.
The Wolf of Franchises:
Yeah, I just think it’s so important to have those systems in place, especially as you mentioned, just as the brand scales. It’s super critical. And yeah, I’ve heard kind of horror stories from founders who maybe they didn’t have it in place as they were scaling, and then you get to a point and it’s can be done, but it sounds very painful to have to build it after you’re at that scale versus having it setting that foundation early on so that you can just manage things as you grow.
Vanessa Yakobson:
Yeah, and I mean to that point, it, it’s painful anytime you’re onboarding new technology, but more than that, anytime you’re asking your franchisees to give up old habits and ways of doing things and adopt new habits and ways of doing things. So yeah, we don’t always get it right. The other platform we’ve started to use is profit keepers so that franchisees can upload their financial statements using a standard chart of accounts that we’ve set up that reflects the business so that we can get greater insight into the profitability of their businesses. So getting our franchisees in the habit of doing that and recognizing that it’s a fantastic platform. So Plug for Profit Keeper and super easy to use, that has taken a heck of a lot of convincing and my operations team for their persistence in following up with our franchisees and holding their hands to get them on board. Because from our perspective, again, it’s that data. It’s one thing to know what our franchisees are selling, but we also want to know what they’re making at the bottom of that pnl. So we want that level of insight so that we can find the opportunities to coach them on what they should be focusing on and what they should not be focusing on.
The Wolf of Franchises:
Well, so you guys have had some success beyond Dry Bar, so I’d love to kind of learn more about that. I think for one, I believe at some point you said this is when we were talking off camera, you had some type of private equity transaction. Did they invest in Blow Dry Bar or what’s the overview
Vanessa Yakobson:
There? So yes, in 2020 we started talking to New Spring franchise. NewSpring is a private equity firm with a couple of different investment strategies. And at the beginning of 2020, right before the pandemic started, they had launched their new strategy in franchising. And so they had reached out to us early in the year and we kept talking and ultimately brought them on as equity partners at the beginning of 2021. So we were not looking for outside capital, we were a small group of friends and family investors and we’re doing just fine and were prepared to weather the Covid storm just fine. But we recognized that by bringing on these wonderful partners, we had the opportunity to grow bigger, faster, stronger, and come out of the pandemic period with great strength. And that’s exactly what’s happened. We would not have taken on the kind of private equity partners that come in and tell you how to run your business.
So we were very careful in making sure that we had the right folks at the table. And what’s wonderful about NewSpring is that they really have great respect for our brand, our franchisees, our team, and everything that we’ve achieved. And their attitude is we’re here to put some extra capital in your bank and give some strategic guidance and insight and support and connections and all of that to support you in growing the business. And so it’s happened that we are in a fortunate position of being able to consider other avenues for growth. So as Blow, blow Dry Bar continues to grow and be financially strong in and of itself as its own entity, we recognized that we had the opportunity to grow corporately through some other acquisitions. And the idea of building out a portfolio of brands as kind of sister companies to blow was very attractive because we really felt that we had reached a point as a franchise system where we had all our systems in place, we had a good understanding of what it takes to make a franchise system work and at the unit level what it takes to be a successful franchisee and oversimplifying.
But we kind of had this notion that we could now take our system and manuals and cross out Blow Dry Bar and write in the name of another similar business. So we started looking for brands in the beauty and wellness space where we felt the expertise that our team had developed over the years could be applied for the success of this other business. So we’ve made our first acquisition and do intend to make others. So we do continue to look for emerging brands in the beauty and wellness space. But the first one that we found, we actually found in our own Backyard, and it was a brand I was familiar with as a consumer. The company’s name is Mink, M Y N C, and Mink is in the lash and brow styling service space. So we do lash extensions, lash lifts, brow shaping, brow lamination.
It’s a really wonderful business culturally very similar to Blow. It happened that its Toronto locations were located often near or even next to blow locations. So we acquired Mink a few months ago and it has six corporate locations and we are selling those locations, two new franchisees as we develop the franchise system mirroring the successful system that we’ve created for Blow. And we will be entering the US market this year as well under a different brand name of which I can’t share right now, but watch this space because we will be launching soon. And I’m thrilled to report that as we were looking for new franchisees in Toronto to take over those six corporate mink locations. The first one who emerged happens to be my son. And he has proven great success as our first mink franchisee, and we’re learning a lot from observing him in that role as Mink’s first franchisee.
The Wolf of Franchises:
That’s super exciting. I love that you guys are spreading the wealth in the family, so it’s cool to hear. And I also just think it’s a good sign that he’s willing to kind of risk his own capital there. It shows the belief in the brand, definitely.
Vanessa Yakobson:
Absolutely.
The Wolf of Franchises:
So on the private equity side, can you speak to for folks who, if there’s founders or executives listening to this, I know you mentioned that, right? Definitely didn’t want to partner with anyone who was going to come in there and tell you how to run your business better than you guys and all that. But what generally was the thought for, because obviously you said right, you gave up equity, and oftentimes I feel like the exchanges, most people who do deals, and I’ve had plenty on this podcast, whether they’re a multi-unit franchisee or a franchisor, it’s usually willing to give up equity in exchange for speed, the speed you can grow. Is that effectively what you felt was the value in partnering with PE or is there more to it from your guys’ end?
Vanessa Yakobson:
Yes, I would say that’s generally what it comes down to. It. It was a really difficult decision to be frank because like I said, we were not looking for outside partners. We didn’t need any extra capital. We would’ve been just fine. But we did see this opportunity to bring in partners who could help us, as you say, with that speed to grow. And because responsible growth is the mantra, it was about having the extra capital to invest in the additional individuals on the corporate team. Those technology resources like Frank Connect, et cetera, that would enable us to grow in that way. But the reason we move forward with the particular partners we did is because their approach at NewSpring is to have partners running their different strategies, including those who have industry experience. So the partner at NewSpring, pat Segre, who I engage most directly with, including on a standing weekly call, happens to have franchise industry experience. He’s been in the C-suite of other franchise systems like Honey Baked Ham and Salad Works. So when I’m engaging with him, it’s sort of like having a built-in industry mentor, someone who’s been there and who can provide strategic guidance beyond what your typical individual could do.
The Wolf of Franchises:
Did you guys bring up the multi-brand approach that you wanted to do and was that kind of enticing to them? Or was it originally just all around blow dry bar and then the multi-brand approach? Maybe it was just kind of the icing on the cake.
Vanessa Yakobson:
That’s a good question. You’d have to ask them that. I certainly brought it up to them. I had flown down to New York to meet them in person after we’d been talking for a couple of months and presented them with an outline of my kind of top level strategic plan or vision for the business. And it definitely included multiple brands. They are acquiring other brands in the franchise industry, mostly in the food space, also in the pet care space. And I guess from their perspective, maybe it was enticing, maybe it was a pie in the sky idea. At the end of the day, having the capital on our corporate balance sheet at the blow blow dry bar ink level was a unique opportunity. I think other brands in different financial positions or at different stages of growth might have needed the capital to continue to invest in their own brand. And it’s not that we haven’t done that, but we certainly had the dry powder to be able to move forward with another brand acquisition and more to come.
The Wolf of Franchises:
I mean, I could just see it, it’s like a double-edged sword maybe from an investment perspective. But I guess assuming that, which it sounds like you guys absolutely do kind of have that foundation set and are steady with one brand that you can expand in into another brand. I am curious about a couple things. Is there a reason you guys seem to have focused on the beauty space? Is that, I mean, maybe because you’re the first franchise that you and your husband founded was kind of in that realm. Is that why you just stuck with it? Cause you got experience there and you know it at that point? Or is there anything about the sector that you particularly,
Vanessa Yakobson:
I think it’s probably a bit of a lot of that. Yes, we started in the beauty space with the Kids’ Salon concept, and so Blow Dry Bar felt like a natural fit in that mix, same as how Mink has felt like a natural fit in this mix. I feel like the way our corporate team is oriented, the resources and approaches that we’ve established can probably most easily be replicated in the beauty and wellness space. My husband and I have other interests and other investments in different industries. So it’s not that beauty and wellness is the only sector that we personally as entrepreneurs are interested in. But I’ll also say that what we really like about the space from an investor perspective, talking about it from the perspective of franchisees, is that it is not capital intensive. You’re not having to invest in equipment. You need to in other business models.
People love service businesses More and more today we’re finding that people prioritize experiences over purchasing actual physical items. So we know people are willing to invest in the services that make them feel good. And so we recognize that as a beauty brand first and foremost. We’re also a wellness brand because people really do seek out our services because they make them feel wonderful, they feel great when they’re experiencing the service in our chairs and they feel great when they leave our stores with their beautiful hair and makeup. And this is not a trend, Blow’s been around since 2007. So we know that this category is not a sort of fly by night. It’s not that latest food fad that’s on every street corner and then gone. So we really do believe in the beauty space for that low capital investment and in the longevity of the concept from a customer demand perspective.
The Wolf of Franchises:
Wow. Yeah, that’s very well said. It makes sense to me definitely from the investment perspective, I guess I suppose as a male, I don’t know, it’s the one arena, I don’t know if I’d love to operate it just because I’m not a customer of like a blow dry bar <laugh> or lash extensions, but it does, it’s obviously still a massive industry and there’s countless, there’s some really big brands in this space that have become successful. So it’s certainly a good space from that perspective.
Vanessa Yakobson:
Well, and it’s interesting you say that. So admittedly I would say the majority of our franchisees are female, but some of our top franchisees are also men who’ve bought into the brand, including my son in the mink concept. So you don’t necessarily have to be a consumer of the business to recognize the value proposition, even if you’re not recognizing it from through the lens of a customer. Many of the men who we talk to will say, I had no idea what a blow dry bar was, but my wife or daughter or female friend told me, oh my God, that’s the best thing since sliced bread. So you don’t have to understand the value proposition as a customer, and you don’t have to be a customer to be able to be effective at following the recipe book that we hand you and the tools that you have at your disposal as a blow or now as a mink franchisee because it really is just about a business concept with high customer demand and being able to execute with excellence.
The Wolf of Franchises:
I completely agree that you definitely don’t need to be a customer to be a franchisee, and that really goes for any franchise because of the reasons you said. I suppose it’s just a personal thing. Maybe I’m less excited about a brand that I’m, I think the ultimate goal for most is it’s great when you are a passionate customer and it turns out that the business is also fantastic. I definitely have seen the opposite where people are a customer and they buy a franchise solely off that, and that can sometimes go really poorly because you’re just making an emotional decision. But yeah, no, I mean ultimately I’ve definitely met tons of franchisees who are really just capitalists at heart, and if the business is good and the systems are good, honestly the best multi-unit franchisees I’ve met are like that. They know how to find repeatable systems and it’s an industry agnostic approach.
Vanessa Yakobson:
And I think that right in suggesting that it has to feel like a good fit. One of my franchisees said to me that lawn care franchise was just not going to feel right for me. So I do think that there’s something about fit, but I think that has a lot to do with culture. For those of your listeners who are contemplating franchising, make sure that you do have the opportunity to engage with members of the corporate team of the franchise or that you’re considering partnering with, whether it’s through their discovery days or phone calls, and make sure you talk to other franchisees, because that’s going to be your peer group. You want to feel like you are affiliating with like-minded people who share your values, who think the way you do. But then I think it’s also about looking beyond the business model and really thinking about what it is that you’re good at and what excites you.
So you’re right, somebody might absolutely love going to blow dry bar several times a week, but if they hate managing a staff of people, if they hate knocking on doors in their community to say, Hey, we’re blow dry bar, how about setting up a cross promotion with your business? Then this is not the right franchise for them. So it is important to understand what the different components of the operation look like. What does a day in the life or a week in the life of a franchisee look like in the space or in non-franchise business that you’re considering and make sure that it does align with your areas of interest and your skill?
The Wolf of Franchises:
Completely agree. Yeah, I think it’s definitely some soul searching that folks should do before they even begin their franchise search to kind of understand not just what they’re good at from a professional perspective, but even just what they enjoy. If you are good at sales but you don’t enjoy selling, there’s business to business sales franchises effectively is what they are at heart. If that’s not what you enjoy doing, why buy a franchise? That’s what you’re doing all day every day. So yeah, that’s great advice there.
Vanessa Yakobson:
But I would also say keep an open mind about it. Go in with some ideas and assumptions, but don’t be close minded to imagine that you couldn’t be successful in a space or in a model that you wouldn’t have previously contemplated. I mean, not to keep harping on my son, but I bet if you’d asked him a few years ago, if he ever thought he’d go into the lash and brow style business, he probably would’ve, I dunno, knocked you in the nose or something. Yeah,
The Wolf of Franchises:
No, it’s a fair point. Yeah, you really never know. So yeah, I definitely agree with that. Well look, Vanessa, this has been really fun getting to know you and hear your story and all the different brands you’ve worked with. Is there anywhere online that maybe folks could follow along any of your brand journeys or you personally?
Vanessa Yakobson:
Sure. You can definitely connect with me on LinkedIn, Vanessa Melman Jacobson, and that’s Jacobson with the Y N A K and Blow Dry Bar and LinkedIn as well. And our social she’ll handles Instagram is at Blow Hearts U, and that’s B L o Harts U. And blow me dry.com is our website, B L O M E D R y.com. Come check us
The Wolf of Franchises:
Out. Amazing. And we’ll have some of those social handles in this show notes, folks, so you can check ’em out there.
Vanessa Yakobson:
Oh, and don’t forget mink beauty.com, M Y N C beauty.com. That’s our new baby.
The Wolf of Franchises:
Beautiful. Okay. Yeah, well, I’m looking forward to hearing what the new brand is, once that’s officially launched in America.
Vanessa Yakobson:
We’ll keep you posted.
The Wolf of Franchises:
Excellent. All right, folks. Well, that’s it, Vanessa. Thanks again. We’ll talk soon.
Vanessa Yakobson:
Thanks for having me.
The Wolf of Franchises:
Thanks for listening to Franchise Empires. We’re coming to you soon with actionable insights to take the next step on your franchise journey. So make sure to subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you listen.