• Colorado
  • Edible Arrangements
  • family business
  • franchise renewal
  • franchisees
  • franchising
  • Tariq Farid Entrepreneur
  • teamwork

In franchising, nothing is more important than the success of the franchisees. If our franchisees are growing and are prospering, it means that all the hard work that has gone into building Edible Arrangements has been worthwhile. It means that our products and services are delivering on their promise and making everyone’s life a little sweeter.

That’s why I am always excited to learn about franchisees renewing their franchise agreement, such as Richard, who recently renewed his agreement for the Centennial, Colorado, location.

Richard originally discovered Edible Arrangements in January of 2005 while relocating one of his Curves franchises to a much larger space. He received a postcard in the mail promoting the Edible Arrangements franchise opportunity. His wife, Stacey, tossed it in the trash. The more she thought about it, however, she decided to pull the postcard out of the trash and show it to Richard.

Richard took one look and said, “We could sell these bouquets to everybody!”

A few weeks later Richard was on his way to Connecticut for discovery day. A few months later he was back in Connecticut training with me at one of our corporate stores. By June, he was open for business.

Like many of our franchisees, the success of Richard’s Edible Arrangements franchise is a husband-wife cooperative supported by an amazing team.

Stacey, his wife of 32 years, manages the store.

“She is an AMAZING woman,” Richard said. “All I can say is that the luckiest day of my life was when I saw her for the first time. I’m very proud to be her husband.”

Then there is Hilario “Speedy” Gonzalez. “Our production ‘Superhero’ has been with us since day one,” Richard said. “He is incredibly fast! He can create seven daisy bouquets in five minutes and he is always saying, ‘No problem, piece of Kale!’”

There is Leslie Farley, who has been a part of the team for nine years. “She is our ‘go-to girl’ in the store,” Richard told me. “She can handle any situation with professionalism and grace.”

There is “driver extraordinaire” Lisa Snyder who has been with the store for six years and coordinates all aspects of deliveries from a normal day to Valentine’s Day. “I never have to lift a finger,” Richard said.

Then there are relative newcomers such as Alex Velarde and Mark Sexton.

Alex has been taking care of customer service for a year but, even more importantly, is engaged to Richard’s daughter, Stephanie.

Mark recently joined them as VP Sales of Marketing. “He has a great ‘go, go, go’ attitude and we expect him to be very successful increasing store sales,” Richard said.

Do you want to be a success? Then you can’t go wrong by following Richard’s example, whether it’s family or business.

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