This week, as we celebrate National Small Business Week, we reflect on the big brands we’ve represented over the years that have achieved greatness because of the small business owners who make up their organizations. Specifically, we’re talking about franchise networks.
We’re looking at you Dwyer Group, Red Mango, Edible Arrangements, Huddle House, Pinot’s Palette, Wingstop, Corner Bakery, Pie Five Pizza, etc., etc., etc.
BizCom has enjoyed a long history of working with some of the most well-known franchise brands around the world over the years. But these organizations didn’t become household names overnight. They grew as a result of franchise owners – the men and women on the front lines of business in their own grassroots locations championing these brands. Those franchisees will be the first to tell you that they are running a small business, plain and simple. But unlike an independent mom-and-pop operation, they chose to invest in a proven concept that offered training, marketing support, a peer network of like-minded business owners, collective buying power with preferred vendors and more.
Does that make them a big business? No. But when you get enough of these small-business owners together, you’ve got an incredible operation on your hands.
The American Dream is alive and well.
Tariq Farid, Founder and CEO of Edible Arrangements, is a perfect example. He immigrated to America with his family when he was a child and still remembers the time he went to the grocery store and wanted to buy a mango. His family couldn’t afford it. But that didn’t stop anyone from dreaming about the future. After investing in a flower shop in Connecticut, Tariq grew that to several locations when another kind of business idea blossomed: making fruit bouquets. When business experts told him they didn’t think it could work, he decided to turn to his “focus group of one.” He took one home and showed his mom. She loved it on the spot and told him he had to go for it.
Fast-forward, and today Edible Arrangements is a $500+ million franchise organization, with 1,300+ locations around the world. Tariq and Edible Arrangements are viewed as big business success stories. But Tariq is the first one to explain that his road to achieving the American Dream was only made possible by helping others to achieve theirs. He turned his idea into a franchise, and Edible Arrangements quickly expanded with hundreds of happy franchise owners. Each runs their own small business, or multiple locations. And coincidentally, Edible Arrangements now calls Mother’s Day the busiest weekend of the year for the system.
“Franchising is an incredible vehicle for taking a small idea and sharing it with others.” — Dina Dwyer-Owens.
In her own salute to National Small Business Week, our client Dina Dwyer-Owens, co-chair of The Dwyer Group, reminded us why we love these franchise visionaries. You can read her full blog HERE.
Like Tariq, Dina said that great founders of franchise organizations “never had some gigantic vision to venture out into the world and create these chains all on their own. Instead, they embraced a program to share their ideas and bring others along with them — other small business owners…. The capacity they had to share a good thing, using franchising as the format to replicate it, is why those brands exist on a monumental scale today.”
Small business is big job creation.
Since 1963, the President of the United States has issued a proclamation honoring National Small Business Week and recognizing the contributions of America’s small business owners.
According to the Small Business Administration, more than half of Americans either own or work for a small business, and they create about two out of every three new jobs in the U.S. each year.
As a small business, ourselves, and the PR agency that represents some of the most amazing franchise brands – we couldn’t be happier to flex some of that small business muscle.
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