• Edible Arrangements
  • Edible Veteran's Day
  • employment
  • entrepreneurs
  • franchisee
  • Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association (IAVA).
  • Military veterans
  • Tariq Farid Veterans
  • VA
  • Veterans Day. VetFran

As I wrote about earlier this week, Edible Arrangements has forged a partnership with an amazing and esteemed organization that provides support and services to the 2.8 million veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan — the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association (IAVA).

The organization’s founder and Executive Director, Paul Rieckhoff, is a veteran (and an all-around amazing person) who has built an organization that works tirelessly to improve the lives of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families.

Edible Arrangements’ partnership with the IAVA will allow us to significantly expand our efforts to recruit and employ veterans. At the same time, we want to raise awareness from coast to coast about how veterans make ideal employees, small business owners and franchisees, and show how businesses like Edible Arrangements can help.

Additionally, we have donated $15,000 to IAVA and have a goal to raise an additional $50,000 through sales of our Edible Pops™.

On Thursday, employees from the Edible Arrangements corporate office visited VA hospitals at locations across the nation. We handed out Edible Pops and spent time chatting with the veterans and having a good time. It was out way of showing we care and we appreciate the sacrifices they made for all of us.

Many of the veterans we visited were from earlier wars and were older. Many had health problems. Yet, they were so happy to have visitors and an opportunity to chat. They appreciated our time and, of course, the Edible Pops! These veterans really touched my heart, and the hearts of all employees who took part in these visits.

Veteran’s Day is Tuesday and I hope you will join us in doing something nice for these men and women who have given so much — for they are true our heroes. As you can see from these photos of our visits, everyone comes out a winner!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  • Edible Arrangements
  • Edible Veteran's Day
  • employment
  • entrepreneurs
  • franchisee
  • Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association (IAVA).
  • Military veterans
  • Tariq Farid Veterans
  • Veterans Day. VetFran

As we approach Veterans Day, we are reminded once again of the sacrifices veterans have made and the many obstacles they now, unfortunately, face.

Whether it‘s health problems and painfully long waits to receive treatment, reduced financial support and benefits, or a higher unemployment rate than that of the general population, our veterans return from defending our country only to face more challenges here at home.

While I realize that one individual — or company — cannot solve all of these problems, it is important that we all do what we can to help our men and women of the military, especially in areas where we can have an impact. For Edible Arrangements, that area of impact is unemployment.

It is disheartening to know that unemployment among veterans is 9 percent, almost double that of the general population. There are a number of reasons for this, but the one I have trouble understanding is that some employers are simply hesitant to hire veterans. In my experience, veterans have the exact qualities that make them amazing team members.

They are organized and disciplined. They are persistent and not afraid to take on challenges. They are committed and operate successfully alone or with a team.

In addition, these qualities also make them successful franchisees and small business owners.

At Edible Arrangements, we want to have more employees and franchisees who are veterans! That’s why we provide discounts on our franchise fee and last year launched the Hero’s Welcome program aimed at increasing the number of veterans in our system.

That’s why we donated $125,000 to the International Franchise Association’s VetFran program which assists veterans in becoming small business owners through franchising.

However, we realized that there was even more we could do — not just reaching out to veterans in our business, but spreading the word about how veterans are not just good, but tend to be ideal small business owners, entrepreneurs and team members.

To accomplish this, we have forged a partnership with an amazing and esteemed organization that provides support and services to the 2.8 million veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan — the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association (IAVA). The founder and Executive Director, Paul Rieckhoff, is a veteran (and an all-around amazing person) who has built an organization that works tirelessly to improve the lives of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families.

Edible Arrangements’ partnership with the IAVA will allow us to significantly expand our efforts to recruit and employ veterans while also spreading the word that veterans have qualities that make them ideal employees and small business owners.

Our goal is to help raise awareness from coast to coast about how veterans make ideal employees, small business owners and franchisees, and provide an example of how businesses like Edible Arrangements can help.

If you are a hiring manager or a small business owner, I urge you to be open to hiring vets and to actively reach out to them.

If you are a franchising company, know that veterans make amazing franchisees and small business owners — I speak from experience!

More than anything, I hope that everyone will take the time to remember the sacrifices these brave men and women have made on our behalf and will make it your goal over the next year to do what you can to support them as they make the transition from the military back to civilian life. You will not regret that you did.

 

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  • entrepreneurs
  • Expansion
  • franchising
  • growth
  • risk
  • technology

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Reva Enzminger, one of the most successful franchisees in the Edible Arrangements system. Reva is a former “Franchisee of the Year” who operates four stores in the Austin, Texas, area and another in Corpus Christi. In that first blog, she shared her insight into securing financing as a new business owner.

Now she shares more insight, this time on how she expanded her businesses and continues to grow them.

The key, she says, is getting out of the store.

“I’m a much better owner when I’m not in the store,” she said with a laugh. “I learned very quickly that if you are working 10 to 12 hours a day in your store, it’s going to be impossible to get out and network and promote your business. And that is one of the most critical functions of a small business owner.”

The secret to freeing yourself, she discovered, is having the right infrastructure in place.

“You have to have systems and processes that work,” she said. “You have to be confident that your team is consistently producing quality products. It all comes back to making sure employees are trained.”

Anyone who has ever owned a small business knows that is often easier said than done. And Reva found that out first hand.

When Edible Arrangements introduced a computerized training program to replace the old manual system a few years ago, Reva was not on board.

“I fought it hard,” she remembered. “I was still heavily involved in the day-to-day operations of the store and it was hard to see how investing in an expensive computer would make us more efficient. But my business was growing and my only other options were to hire someone to train the staff or risk sending out bad products.”

It didn’t happen right away, but it wasn’t long before Reva began to understand the value of her investment.

“It wasn’t until I began having to spend more and more time outside of the store that I really began to appreciate it,” she said. “Now I get it. It is absolutely one of the best things I ever did. It has created more consistency across all the stores than would have been possible otherwise.”

In fact, Reva says that this consistency through technology is allowing her to take the next step in her expansion plans. Those plans include moving beyond the Austin area and, perhaps, eventually outside of Texas. Reva recently purchased a franchise in Corpus Christi, which is a three-hour drive from her home base.

“Since you can get almost anywhere in three hours, either by driving or flying, I’m using this as a test case,” she says. “If I can operate a successful business three hours away in Corpus Christi, then I know I can open a franchise anywhere.”

The lesson, as Reva discovered, is that thinking like an owner often requires getting away from the day-to-day and taking a broader look at your operations.

“Sometimes embracing new things right up front is hard, especially when you have to spend your hard-earned money and you are not sure if it will be worth the investment,” she said. “But once I stepped outside the stores and looked at the results from a larger perspective, I realized this was freeing me to truly operate as an owner.”

As I have written before, one of the great advantages of operating a franchise system is that I have access to an endless wealth of business knowledge among the hundreds of Edible Arrangements franchisees such as Reva, who are willing to share their experiences. I always learn something new from them and I will share more of their ideas and experiences in upcoming blogs.

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  • entrepreneurs
  • Franchising and Franchisees
  • legislation
  • small business

One of the great rewards of creating a franchise such as Edible Arrangements® is that it has given so many people the opportunity to go into business for themselves, and chase their own version of the American Dream. In some areas of the country, however, that dream is under attack.

From the outside, a chain such as Edible Arrangements appears to be a large global operation, whose reach extends around the world. In reality, however, the Edible Arrangements franchise network is made up of hundreds of small business owners.

That’s why it was disturbing to learn about recent action by the city council in Seattle as well as legislation currently under consideration in other cities to treat individual franchisees as large, national brands and not locally-owned small businesses.

The issue has been raised as part of local laws related to increasing the minimum wage. The potential danger, however, really has nothing to do with raising the minimum wage. It’s one thing for everyone — big business and small — to be paying a higher rate, but being forced to pay a higher rate without requiring the same of non-franchised small businesses creates a lopsided playing field that could destroy franchisees. It gives other small business owners an unfair advantage. Franchisees are being punished simply because they chose to operate their small businesses as a franchise.

There are obvious benefits of purchasing a franchise rather than going it alone, of course. We provide guidance and training to help franchisees avoid making the same mistakes I made when I was starting my own small businesses. And there is the brand awareness and marketing support that comes with being a part of a national chain. For this support, however, franchisees are required to pay royalties.

The fact is that when they unlock their doors each day, our franchisees are the ones on the front line, competing against other small businesses in their market. They are the ones that ultimately determine their success.

As one Seattle franchisee told local media, “It’s insulting to suggest that I am not my own boss.”

The International Franchise Association (IFA) is trying to help Seattle franchisees convince the city council to treat franchises as small businesses. I have no doubt that if the Seattle ordinance remains unchanged and similar ordinances are implemented nationwide, it will put many franchisees out of business and could also severely damage a franchise business model that has been responsible for creating small business opportunities for millions of Americans.

It’s tough enough being a small business owner. Hopefully, leaders in Seattle and other cities considering similar legislation will not make it any tougher.

 

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  • entrepreneurs
  • financing
  • franchisees
  • perseverance
  • start-up

When I first started writing this blog, one of my primary goals was to create a forum where I could share my experiences as an entrepreneur with others. Often, when I talk to our new franchisees or other small business owners, I find that they are facing many of the same challenges that I have faced in building my businesses.

A great advantage of operating a franchise system, however, is that I also have access to a wealth of business knowledge among the hundreds of Edible Arrangements franchisees who are also willing to share their experiences.

For example, one of our most successful franchisees is Reva Enzminger. Reva is a former “Franchisee of the Year” who operates five Edible Arrangements stores Texas, with plans to add more. Like many successful business men and women, she often makes it look easy.

She will tell you, however, that it has been far from easy, especially during the early years.

Prior to purchasing two Edible Arrangements stores about eight years ago, Reva had spent much of her professional career at computer giant Dell. At Dell, she will tell you, “I did just about everything there was to do, from sales to training to supply chain to call center management.”

But Reva always knew she wanted to be her own boss and when the opportunity to purchase a couple of Edible Arrangements stores presented itself, she took the entrepreneurial leap.

Among her very first challenges — as is often the case — was financing. She remembers going from bank to bank to bank seeking a business loan and repeatedly being told, “no.”

“I quickly found out that getting a business loan is much different than getting a car loan,” she says. “You can get a car loan off your credit, but it takes more than good credit to get a business loan.”

What it takes, she will quickly tell you, is perseverance.

“Just because a bank said ‘no’ was not going to stop me,” she remembers. “I probably ended up going to a dozen banks. Most turned down my request, but I eventually found one that said ‘yes.’ I didn’t stop there, though. I kept going and eventually found several willing to give me a loan and that way I was able to negotiate a good deal. It was an early lesson that the key to building a successful business is to not take rejection personally. You have to keep driving forward.”

The results speak for themselves. Reva has much more advice for entrepreneurs who are trying to build a successful business. I will share more of her ideas in upcoming blogs.

 

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