What do I mean by you need to manage your way to the top?  What I mean is you must plan, strategize and practice.  You must have a plan for what you want to achieve, strategize and think hard about what you need to do to get there, and then put your well-thought out strategy, your plan, into practice.   As I’m sitting here in Toronto Pearson International airport, reflecting on the most successful Mother’s Day week, the most successful week ever by the way, in Edible Arrangements history, I would like to tell you about one of our franchisees who in just over two short years turned around one of our stores and took it all the way to number one –number one in sales – in the Edible Arrangements system.

Before I tell you about brothers Ibrahim and Hashim, I must first give a huge thank you to all of Edible Arrangements amazing franchisees.   Together, they fulfilled over 700,000 orders in one week, making countless mothers and loved ones happy this past holiday.  Every single franchisee managed this holiday perfectly, following a plan they worked out months, and in some cases, years in advance.  Such is the case of Ibrahim and Hashim, who had a goal from the day they bought their first store in Claremont, California in 2009 to be #1 in the entire Edible Arrangements system.

Hashim and Ibrahim

Shortly after opening their Claremont store, Ibrahim and Hashim decided to purchase their second store in nearby Moreno Valley.   Up to this point, Moreno Valley was a store that had not yet lived up to its potential but the two brothers had a plan and were convinced with proper management they could take this store to the top –quickly.   With laser like focus, they implemented their strategy, one that they created in turning their first store into a success, that in short, details how to not only better manage their business during busy holiday times, but manage their team members and the overall business throughout the entire year.   It didn’t happen the first week, month or year, and they knew nothing would happen instantaneously, but in just over two short years they reached their goal of having the highest sales in the Edible Arrangements system during the Mother’s Day holiday week. Ibrahim and Hashim had a goal from the very beginning to be at the top, and it wasn’t luck that took them there in such short time, but proper management and planning. Today,  three years after opening their first store, Ibrahim and Hashim have four very successful stores in California:  Claremont, Moreno Valley, Rancho Palos Verdes and Laguna Hills.

So, what does it take to get to the top?  Managing –managing your destiny!  What you do not manage will not happen. Leave the luck to the unprepared!

Every day I’m awed by the passion and hard work demonstrated by our hundreds of franchisees who operate over 1,000 Edible Arrangements locations in the United States and around the world.  They inspire me to keep improving, and I hope their success and stories inspire you to maybe take the first steps of fulfilling your dreams, whether that dream is becoming an entrepreneur and opening your own business, learning a new language, going back to school, or getting involved in public service.  Nothing pleases more than speaking with a new franchisee, or any business owner who stops me to talk or person I meet in my everyday life (I meet the most amazing people when I’m ordering my favorite drink at Starbucks), and learning about their background and what inspires them.

We all need inspiration and it’s available to anyone who simply takes a moment out of their busy life to look for it, listen and learn from others.  I love every night, after I spend time with my young children before they go to bed, to simply read a biography of someone who has accomplished their goal, watch an informed news show such as Piers Morgan on CNN who always delves deep into the issues when interviewing a guest and always focusses on the American Dream, or read about what make people tick in reputable newspapers, such as the Wall Street Journal, NY Times or USA Today.  Learning about what others are doing, what obstacles they are overcoming, recharges me every night. 

So, I was humbled yesterday when a story on Edible Arrangements was featured in  USA Today  as it perfectly reflected my belief that the dream is alive and well in America, and that anyone can do what my brother Kamran and I did.  If my story –the Edible Arrangements story –can inspire just one person to go for their goal then it will have served its purpose. It also gave me much pleasure to see that our very first franchisee, Chris Dellamarggio, who now has multiple locations, was quoted in the article, and another one of our very best multi-unit owners, Tom Stratford (you look marevlous, Tom), was pictured in the story.  Why was I so pleased?  Because they both took a chance in the very beginning on a new concept to open their very first Edible Arrangements store.  They both took the time to listen to their hearts and take that first step in living their dreams, knowing very well that the path before them was not yet clear or guaranteed.  They were driven by the belief that they can succeed no matter what and live their dreams so long as they worked hard and were passionate about what they are doing.   They found their inspiration –they and all our franchisees give me mine –and I hope you one day find yours and take that first step in living your dreams.

There are many challenges and decisions that businesses, both new and established, face every single day.  Whether it is identifying your target market (yes, your ‘customer’ will evolve), staying ahead of the competition, continuously analyzing your company’s strengths and weaknesses, improving customer service, cutting costs without sacrificing quality and service, increasing productivity, figuring out what new markets to enter and when, and how to grow your brand, to name just a few.  First, I have to just say that challenges should be welcomed and embraced, not feared. As an entrepreneur you should look forward to what the challenge will be that day –then set out to conquer it. Second and more importantly, make sure you don’t go too far outside your mission, outside your company’s DNA, too soon and introduce new products or services just to grow your market share and increase sales.

Cathy’s pictures in her e-mail of her latest store’s grand opening showcasing Edible To Go Products reminded me of this and sent back some searing memories of a new product Edible Arrangements was considering introducing a few years ago.  It was a time when we were contemplating menu options in addition to our world-famous arrangements to drive traffic to our now 1,000+ stores –a precursor to our Edible To Go, grab and go product line we now have.  I will not get into all the products and details we were considering but one item we came close to finalizing was fruit sandwiches.  Yes, I said it –sandwiches made mainly from fruit, and a few other ingredients.  I know most of you are saying to yourselves what on earth were we thinking, but those of you in business know that sometimes an idea takes on a life of its own and grows.   Luckily, a mentor to my brother Kamran and I (the importance of having a mentor will be one of my blog entries soon) woke us up to the fact that no customer would buy such a concoction.

The valuable lesson we learned is do not step too far too soon outside what you do and know just to drive sales and reach a goal.   A business must look inside itself, perfect what it does and what it is known for, master it and become experts.  At Edible Arrangements, we are the fruit experts.  We know fruit.   We learned from this near mistake and created our Edible To Go extended product line –products made simply from fresh fruit – for customers to come into one of our stores for a healthy, pick-me-up snack such as our fresh fruit smoothies, fruit salads, fruit sundaes, many kinds of chocolate dipped fruit, pineapple pops in many of our signature pineapple shapes dipped in chocolate, and much more.  This is all in addition to our signature bouquets.  Not all Edible Arrangements stores carry the Edible to Go extended product line -yet, but all stores carry our grab and go items like salads, smoothies and dipped fruit.  Yes, we are expanding our menu options, but we are staying true to our roots and our expertise, and the product we know best –fresh fruit and nothing else.

Now that I digressed a little bit, I wanted to showcase Cathy not only because she is one of our most successful and passionate franchisees, but because she is also really good at marketing and staging an event.  Case in point, she recently held her grand opening celebration for her new store in Elkridge on April 14.  The community turned out in droves.  Why?  Because she planned, drafted a personal, localized press release, created eye-catching invites, and executed the event perfectly.  I couldn’t be more pleased by her professionalism, commitment to her community, customer service skills, and hard-work.  Cathy never does anything half-hazardly, nor should you.  In business, a customer can see right through imposters and those who simply are not prepared.  Lose their trust and you may never get it back.   Show them you are prepared, professional and engaging, you will have a customer for life.

Cathy at her Elkridge, MD store

These are weighty questions and are not easily answered.  It takes a lot of effort and time to build a company’s brand personality, but it’s time that every business needs to spend in order to grow and be successful.   At Edible Arrangements, building a brand that emotionally resonates with the public has been a slow, purposely so, yet steady progression as we didn’t want to move to fast and leave the customer confused.  The big question facing us –as it does every company –is how to go about doing this.  In addition to its internal culture and social footprint, topics I will discuss in future blog posts, a company’s marketing, advertising and promotional campaign has a tremendous impact and affect in building a brand personality that consumers can quickly identify and connect with.

When my brother and I first started Edible Arrangements in 1999 and even when we sold our first franchise in 2001, we didn’t have the money to advertise.   What we were able to do, and still do as it’s the cornerstone of our success, was focus on giving the best customer service possible with the hope that positive word of mouth would create a buzz and interest.  From the start, people were “wowed” by our product and service and told their friends and family.  As the company grew, we started advertising slowly, dabbling in print and online by creating our web site.  Over the years we marketed and advertised a little more as we still didn’t have much money and in 2008 we started a national television advertising program to help introduce Edible Arrangements to everyone.

Still working with limited resources, the goal of the first few years was to educate the consumer about Edible Arrangements and our products.   A lot of people didn’t know what we did or what we sold so for television to be effective we had to inform the public first and build our brand awareness.  So for the past four years we took a very functional approach to our advertising.

We always knew that eventually we would have to change this approach, evolve our messaging and move to the next step in building our brand through marketing and advertising.   We patiently waited as our brand awareness began to increase and the consumer started becoming familiar with Edible Arrangements.  Now that consumers understand what we do, it’s time to show them who we are as a company.  We need to create a brand personality that emotionally connects with consumers.

Our first phase of communicating Edible Arrangements brand personality begins this Saturday, April 28.   On this date, we are launching a brand new television campaign –a new TV commercial for Mother’s Day – that showcases the magical world of Edible Arrangements and matches our unique products with specific occasions. For the new campaign, we enlisted an amazing ‘artist’ named Carl Warner to create visually inspiring and engaging fruitscapes –our own magical worlds of Edible Arrangements made mainly out of fruit, the same fruit we use in making our arrangements and Edible To Go products.  We also feature four of our amazing franchisees in the series of spots that bridge the fictional world with the real world where our franchisees continue the magical experience of creating our products through delivery to our customer.   We also for the first time created our own jingle, our new tagline –“Make Life a Little Sweeter with Edible Arrangements.”  My children cannot stop singing it, and I hope it has the same effect on you.   Click Here to go to Edible Arrangements consumer website to view the first TV spot beginning on Saturday, April 28^th.

This is just the first step of many in building our brand personality. I’m hopeful the public responds to our new television spot, as well as our new in-store window banners and other local promotional materials, and other forms of marketing that communicates our brand and explains who we are.  I hope I was able to give you some insight into what Edible Arrangements has done and is doing to build an effective brand that can translate to your company or give you some ideas. No company can from the very beginning be impatient and jump to the finishing line.  Rather, think ahead, set clear goals of what you want to accomplish and by taking one small step at a time take both your brand and the consumer along for a magical ride.

Screenshot from new TV Mother's Day Commercial

Please click Here to watch the video.

 I’ve always said you can obtain any goal or achieve your dream so long as you believe in yourself, work hard with intelligent passion, be honest and start small but dream big.  Edible Arrangements was my dream only 12 short years ago, and nothing thrills me more than making so many people’s dreams  of owning their own business –an Edible Arrangements franchise –and building their own enterprise come true.

Reva

In addition, I’m happy to welcome a new franchise owner to the Edible Arrangements system.  Carlman Daniel and his family are making the big move to Texas as he will be opening an Edible Arrangements store in Conroe, and a second location in Texas shortly thereafter.  Carlman and his family embody the community spirit that is prevalent in so many of our franchisees.  Carl and his wife were actively involved in their community in New York, and opened and managed several preschool and nursery schools, as well as a beauty supply store.  I’m certain the great people of Texas will welcome the Daniel family as they start building a new life in Texas, and getting heavily involved in community activities.

Carlman

Finally, I will also be in Texas in a few weeks meeting with many of our franchisees and speaking at the 3^rd Annual Open Houston Conference, a conference that provides workshops and interactive panel discussions for the small business community.  The conference is at the Westin Houston, Memorial City on April 21.  I hope to see there!

So I was thrilled to read that one of our Edible Arrangements franchisees, Lauren Little, proud owner of two Edible Arrangement’s stores in Jacksonville, Florida, was asked to offer her advice to other business owners at the Beaver Street Enterprise Center’s ‘The Sweet Taste of Success’ event in celebration of Women’s History month.  Please click here to read the story.

Lauren is the perfect example of a business owner who sets goals and challenges herself to take the next step in her business, and life.   She is an amazing franchise partner as she exudes the community spirit and engagement that is so prevalent throughout the Edible Arrangements system.  On behalf of Edible Arrangements, and the approximately 799 stores that are partially or fully owned by women business leaders, we congratulate Lauren for being a role model not only for all business owners, but in particular women business owners.  Thank you Lauren and keep up the great work!

I’m pleased to announce that on March 28 two new stores opened in Italy, the 4^th and 5^th store openings in that country since 2009 under the leadership of Master Franchisee Fausto Petruzziello since 2009.

The first of the two stores is owned and operated by Paolo Conti. It’s the first store outside Rome, located in Varese, a city in the Northern region of Lombardy, in the vicinity of Milan.  Paolo said it was ‘love at first site’ when he first saw an Edible Arrangements boquet in a flyer.   I have to quote him next as his passion speaks volumes:

“I knew immediately that Edible Arrangements was going to be successful in my city due to the simplicity of the product, its innovativeness, the freshness, joyfulness and the originality.  Once I saw an Edible Arrangement basket up close and not on a flyer, my love at first sight was confirmed and my enthusiasm grew even stronger.”

I’ve always said passion –intelligent passion –is what you need to succeed in business, and Paolo has an overabundance of it.

Please click the following to view video of the Varese opening celebration:  Varese one and two

The second store that opened is owned and operated by Paola Lovaglio and Stefano Sedmok. Paola and Stefano are excited to be opening a location in downtown Rome, and we are just excited to have them as an Edible Arrangements partner.  The new location will be supported by their main store just outside the city of Rome.

Edible Arrangements now has 32 international stores located throughout the world including China, India, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and the UAE, with 12 set to open over the next several months.  I never imagined that in 11 short years we would have stores around the world and thousands of passionate customers.  It surely is a dream come true for me, and for the hundreds of franchisees in our system.  If you have dream –don’t put it off –if you work hard, work with intelligent passion, and believe in yourself, you can make your dream come true.

The excitement in the community was infectious and atmosphere for the ribbon cutting electric.  And this store is what I would like to call the model store as it showcases the evolution of the Edible Arrangements brand.   The Cranston Edible Arrangements store, owned and operated by 2011 Franchisees of the Year Ted and Deb Kostisin, two of our most talented and respected franchisee partners, combines our world famous bouquets and our Edible To Go® fresh fruit snacks and treats product line.  Ted, Deb and I couldn’t have been more thrilled to see customers and guests sampling our dipped fruit, fresh fruit smoothies, pineapple pops, fruit salads and other treats made from fresh fruit.

I never imaged that Edible Arrangements would be 1,000 stores strong and its products enjoyed throughout the world.   It is truly a dream come true for my brother, Kamran, and I.   However, it is the tenacity, hard-work and ingenuity of our franchisees, your neighbors, that built this brand that you have come to enjoy. They too had a dream, to be independent owners and operators of their very own businesses, and create a community based beloved brand that makes life a little sweeter for so many.

Chris, Tariq, Deb and Ted

Chris, Ted, Mayor Fung, Deb, Tariq

While attending Edible Arrangements University (EAU) in our Wallingford, CT headquarters today, Michael had a chance to relate that in person:

“When we looked into this franchise, my wife really was impressed. She thought it was amazing, and so unique. She said we should go for this one. She was really happy, and we looked over everything carefully and both said, ‘We should do this.’”

Michael at the Edible Arrangements HQ

A traveling computer consultant for many years, Michael welcomes the opportunity to be close to home instead of constantly on the road. He is also looking forward to the chance to share work responsibilities with his wife Tracey for the very first time:

“We were looking for something that both of us could do. My wife is partially disabled, and she wanted something she could help out with as well. This was a great opportunity for her, because she can work a few hours in the store doing day-to-day bookkeeping, and I can concentrate on running and marketing the store.”

And although they just joined the Edible Arrangements family, that hasn’t prevented Michael and Tracey from already dreaming up expansion plans. They hope to be able to grow the business and add a few more locations as soon as they can, and are excited to take on the new and convenient Edible to Go product line in the process.

I wish Michael and Tracey great success in their husband-wife venture, and trust they will find it to be a most rewarding experience.