[00:00:06] Speaker A: Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of All Things Considered Franchising, powered by Scott Milosfranchisecoach.com. I am your host, Scotty Milos, and at All Things Considered Franchising, we are a podcast dedicated to the entrepreneur, people who are seeking to become business owners or business owners looking to diversify, providing a wealth of information and guidance and education. Scottmylasfranchisecoach.com is a consulting organization I started many, many years ago, which helps people build the business model and introducing them to potential opportunities and helping them through the process, making sure that they're asking the right questions so they can eventually become a business owner and make a validated business decision, not an emotional one. The services and guidance and education that we
[email protected] is absolutely at no cost to my clients. We work, like I said, with beginning new entrepreneurs and people who are existing multi unit, multi brand operators looking to diversify. And today I have a very unique guest.
I'm real happy for him because I think he retired. Although he's still dabbling in the industry. He's laughing because when you're in the food industry, I don't think you could ever retire. I mean, it's in your blood. I'd like to welcome Ron Taylor, who is a former multi unit operator owner with an iconic brand, Fruit on a Stick Edible Arrangements. Ron, welcome to the show.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: Thanks for having me, appreciate it.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: I knew the brand, its previous ownership group, when it was starting to develop, and there was something about this organization and the concept Fruit on a Stick, that really people had to take a step back and kind of scratch their heads. But it ended up and still is an iconic brand both internationally and domestically.
Tell us your story. I mean, you were with them, you had got up to nine units, 17 years. Have a similar background to me. Started out in the food industry with dad and the family. So talk to us how this really kind of got why Edible Arrangements?
Because it was a family adventure for you and wife Lori was involved. How this all got started and why Edible Arrangements?
[00:02:29] Speaker B: Well, I had, like you said, a lengthy background in food service industry. Right. Worked for family owned businesses. We own catering business, restaurants. I worked as a manager for Cracker Barrel. I worked for a convenience store chain where I oversaw all of their branded food service concepts. So that exposed me my first time to Franchising because I was running like Subway, Arby's, taco Bell, Steak, Escape, baskin Robbins. All these Godfather's pizzas, all these inside of these Sea stores. So I kind of got a feel for it. Took a hiatus to work in the pharmaceutical industry and my wife was a stay at home mom at that time. We got relocated to Northeast Ohio and she came to me and said, I'm ready to get back into the workforce, but I need a flexible schedule. What are we going to do? And I'm like, well, we're going to have to start our own business, so let's start thinking about what we're going to do. I'm working with a sales rep, and he pulls out an edible arrangements that he's going to take into this office that we're going in to visit because I'm his manager. And I mean, immediately I saw it. I picked up the brochure. Next thing you know, I'm on the highway headed to Connecticut to Discovery Day, and we're off and running right in our first location here in Youngstown, Ohio.
Really, to the chagrin of a lot of friends and family. They're like, you're going to sell what? And you're what? Right? You're going to open a business in Youngstown, Ohio. And oddly enough, fast forward the last four years in a row, the Youngstown, Ohio store has been the number one sales store in the system for the franchise for the last four years running.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: Wow. That is awesome. Well, congratulations on that. That's no easy task with a family history.
Your family having a history in food restaurants. I'm not quite sure if it was an independent or a franchise, but was it a franchise that the family was independent? Franchise, independent.
[00:04:27] Speaker B: My dad's old school raised like, why am I going to give somebody 5% of my money?
[00:04:30] Speaker A: Right?
Yeah, that's a common question. We get, why can't I do this on my own? But there's a lot more to franchising. And that's where I'm kind of leading the question on this, is that edible Arrangements, at that point, when you got into it was booming. I mean, from what I remember, there was a waiting list to get in. It's like, if you don't sign today after the discovery process, chances are that what you want isn't going to be around because there's somebody right behind you kind of that waiting list. But being part of a franchise and being part of an independent business, your family, where do you see the strengths and the weaknesses? Being part of a franchise and in an independent obviously you had some experiences that you brought to the table, but what benefits or strengths did Franchising for you and your wife help you to become a multi unit operator?
[00:05:26] Speaker B: I think the key there is self awareness, right? Like, really understanding yourself. And I'm an operator.
That's what I do. Right? I operate, and I believe that.
I'm a kid of the I'm very much cold trickle. I didn't want to get beat by other cars. I only wanted to get beat by other drivers.
[00:05:48] Speaker A: Right.
[00:05:49] Speaker B: Franchising is like a stock car, right? Everybody gets the same playbook. Everybody gets the same products to sell. Can you do it better than the next guy? Can you drive that car better than we can or they can? So I understood. I knew how to create culture. I knew how to coach people. I knew how to execute a game plan. Like, I knew that's what I was good at. So what I wasn't good at was sourcing material, figuring out training manuals like marketing from scratch. Those were things that I didn't feel I was good at. So why not just be a franchisee and let them give you this playbook and then go execute said playbook? And obviously 17 years later, it worked out very well for us. We were very comfortable. But I think it speaks to anybody that's looking at doing it, like, how well do you know yourself? And if you know that you're an operator and that you need that help, then franchising is probably the good fit for know.
[00:06:46] Speaker A: That's a great point. We're talking to Ron Taylor, who has recently sold his multi unit stores with Edible Arrangements.
His history here. And I'm your host, Scotty Milas. Of all things considered. Franchising. But we're talking about people getting into and the advantages of looking at a you know, you keyed in on a couple of major points. So speaking to the audience for people who are contemplating getting into business first time now food is you obviously came from a background of food. I came from a background of food.
I have an old saying that food isn't hard work, it's just long work. And you got to have a lot of patience, thick skin.
But in general, in the franchising industry, if somebody's considering investing in a franchise and if you were starting from scratch again and looking at a brand, what are some of the things that you're looking for in a franchise? What questions people say, well, the item 19 this or the item seven that. I always try to steer people towards the validation, talk to the franchisees within the system.
Anything else you can share? What questions should be asking?
[00:08:06] Speaker B: There's not a lot of data in a lot of people's FDDs, right? I mean, you're talking like less than 11% really share any significant data in item 19 as to how profitable you'll be. And I understand why that is, right? Because they don't know you. They don't know how hard you're going to work or what kind of effort you're going to put in or anything like that. So I think the questions that you have to ask is what I'm looking for. If I'm looking at a new brand, I'm like, how do you innovate? That's what I want to know at this juncture right now. I can talk to the other franchisees and understand what are the unit level economics. I can get that information from the franchise. Or though I want to know, how do you innovate? Where do you see yourself five years from now? How are you going to bridge that gap? Right? Because the market is ever changing, right, and COVID changed it. Something else is going to come along that's going to change it again. So how effectively can a brand innovate and how able are they to adapt and overcome in different situations that are going to allow them to move forward in the future because it's adapt or die. Right. I think you see brands that are not brands that are booming and killing it are brands that are innovating and innovating in a good way.
[00:09:26] Speaker A: That's interesting. So it's taking a look at all the significant bullet points of the brand. It's operations, it's marketing. When I was on the franchise or side, we used to tell people that, look, you don't necessarily have to agree with us all the time, but we got to be able to work things out and have a discussion. Organizations, brands that have advisory councils, people that are in marketing committees, operation Edible had that. A lot of good brands have that. So it's asking the detailed questions. That's really what you're pointing to for our listening office audience. Just really take a deep dive into the minutiae a little bit and talk about the operational, making sure that you can delegate it and are comfortable with it and can be successful with it.
[00:10:15] Speaker B: Right.
[00:10:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:16] Speaker B: The franchise has got to be able to give you more than just kind of your top line RA.
Hey, we've added this many stores. Hey, this is our total gross revenue per volume. This is what our top 25 stores do. Like, that information is readily available. Right.
When I'm asking questions now, as a more seasoned franchisee and operator, I'm really wanting to know the brass tax. Like, where is this innovation going to come from? Are we spinning off different products? Are we staying really exclusively inside our product realm with a new marketing message to get that product out to more people? Like, are we looking to increase transactions or are we looking to increase the overall customer base?
Which one is it? How do we plan on growing? Is it with the existing customer base or is it with a new customer base? So those are things where you can kind of at least gear your questions more specifically so you can get more specific answers to help you in the decision making process.
[00:11:11] Speaker A: That's great advice. One of the other things that you mentioned is that you knew your skill sets going into this, that you weren't necessarily the guy with the sales aptitude. You weren't going to go out and you weren't the guy that was the networking, the marketing guru.
That wasn't you. You wanted to focus on the operational side, making sure that the store was operating correctly to the guidelines of Edible Arrangements and what they put together.
When you look at skill sets and when people are looking at franchises and taking a look at this, because we take a real deep dive into
[email protected] skill sets and we talk about sales aptitude, not everybody is a networker, but everybody there are people that have strong delegation skill sets like you do. How does one evaluate their own skill sets to get into a business? I know that's kind of a loaded question for you, but how should somebody take that direction about themselves and put it into a business?
[00:12:24] Speaker B: Well, I mean, first of all, you got to be honest with yourself, right? You got to be real comfortable with what you're good at and real comfortable with what you're not good at, right? So one of our core values in our organization is be humble, right? So don't get me wrong. I'm a business owner. All of us have an edge. We're all a little bit arrogant. That comes with the territory. But I'm also super humble, right? Like, there are a lot of things that I don't know about. I don't profess to know them. I hire people that know them, or I find people fill the gaps on the things that I don't know. The other thing that you do is find a brand or a concept that can align with maybe what your skills are. Right? It's why edible was a perfect fit for me, because edible was an operational like, your customer acquisition was built into your operations because 99% of your orders were going to people who weren't the person that purchased the product.
So if you're an outstanding operator and you've got people financing your customer acquisition through purchases, if you execute flawlessly, then that person who receives the arrangement is potentially your next customer. You don't have to go solicit them. You don't have to go network to find them. Your customer base is financing your next guest. Right. It's why I love the brand so much, because I was like, wait a minute. You're telling me I'm making money on transactions, and I get to acquire my next customer through that transaction? This is 100% great point. Right? Get aligned with what? If you love being out and you love shaking hands and going to every chamber event and don't get me wrong, we do all that, right? But where it's like, I'm buying it and I'm consuming it, then that's a different thing that you're going to have to undertake. Right? So as long as you're honest with yourself and you know where your skills lie and comfortable filling the gaps, right? Like, my wife is I'm a more strategic, high level thinker, and my wife is the minutiae details woman. That's why we're a perfect pair, right? Because I'm looking at it globally, and she's looking at it right down at the microscopic level. There's not much that we missed.
[00:14:42] Speaker A: All right, we're talking to Ron Taylor, former multi unit operator with edible arrangements. And, Ron, one of the things that people the pushback when someone's getting into a franchise or finds a franchise is that and you touched on this a little bit earlier one of the things that people say is that it's a saturated market.
There are too many burger places, there are too many pizza places, chicken subs. You know, edible has this niche in the market. There aren't too many, although there's some brands now, or businesses that can offer something like what Edible has, but not to the extent. But one of the things that I always tell people is, and correct me if I'm wrong here, is that, look, there's a reason why there are a lot of burger, pizza, chicken and subplaces. It's because it pleases the masses, it pleases the population. You just have to be a better operator, which seems to be your philosophy on how you got to be number one, taking advantage of the tools and the best practices and the systems that they're handing you in this playbook, so to speak. What are your thoughts on that? When somebody says that, I don't want to get into this because there's just too many?
[00:15:53] Speaker B: Yeah, that's crazy. I mean, why do you think there's Restaurant Row in Myrtle Beach, right? And there's all those restaurants within one? Because that's where everybody goes to eat, right? I don't subscribe to that at all. I've heard people say, oh, there's a new business coming. I'm going to lose my business. No new business means there's just more customers. They're just proving the market for you. Right. So if there's several burger chains in your area and they're all thriving, all they've done is prove the market that there's demand for burger chains. If you want to start a burger chain, go find a product that you're in love with a franchise, or if you've got your own, more than likely it's going to be a franchise. Just out execute those people, right? Give them better service, be in the dining room, touch all your guests, do those types of things. Make sure people have a reason to come back.
I don't really agree with that at all.
I don't worry about what everybody else is doing. I worry about what we're doing. Right. I worry about what we're doing.
We had good friends of ours move into the youngstown market and open a concept that many people thought would compete with Edible Arrangements. And it was like two and a half years ago, and we continued to be the number one store in the franchise system year over year. And they were very successful, too.
They're not mutually exclusive just because one comes in.
They're not necessarily competitive. If you operate and execute the right way and stay true to what your vision is and what your mission is, and you service people the right way, they'll respond. They'll come to you.
[00:17:30] Speaker A: Yeah. I think people also have to understand that a franchise or a particular brand is not going to go into a specific area to set you up to fail. No, they've done their market research. Yes, they know that there are some competitors, but they feel that getting a good operator, they could take a bigger piece of the population, the clientele that requires that service or product. Is that your feeling?
[00:17:57] Speaker B: For sure. I mean, closing stores for a franchise is almost a worse look for the brand than it is for the because, you know, everybody's comfortable know Joe Schmo in the neighborhood. Like having a business that opens and then has to close. Unfortunately, that happens every single day. It's a much worse look for the franchise. They don't want to open in areas and you can see some of the best brands. They don't close stores because they're meticulous about who they pick as their operators. Right. They're interviewing you, maybe even more so than you're interviewing them to make sure that you write operator. And for us personally, I want that process to be uberly difficult with a franchise. Or I don't want them to just say, yeah, we're going to sign you up. Because if they're just signing anybody up overall, it's not good for the long term health of the brand.
[00:18:46] Speaker A: Yeah. No, I mean, people sometimes forget that franchises are awarded. They're not based on financial means that you can got your financing, can get financing or have the cash to pay for it. Ron, you spent 17 years in the industry. You've built a credible business.
You obviously had an exit strategy going in as you were building it and started to develop. One of the things that we talk
[email protected] is what is the exit strategy? Are you looking to build something that you eventually want to either pass on to family, sell, maybe hold on to the real estate and sell the business, but just to close out here, how critical or how important should somebody focus in on exit strategy when they're looking at a brand?
[00:19:39] Speaker B: Unfortunately, a lot more than I did when I first started. Right.
If I were coaching somebody today, it's a very delicate balance. Right. I don't want to steal their exuberance and enthusiasm of starting something new, but I definitely want them to begin with the end in mind. Right. You really have to understand what it's going to look like in ten years when it's time for that first renewal of that franchise agreement. And if you're going after that, what it's going to look like in 20 years in between those times are you going to exit? What are you going to think about? You at least have to spend some time thinking about what that's going to look like. Like you said, is it going to possibly go to a family member? If so, is that son or daughter going to get involved in the business early so that they understand it from the ground up, which I think is critically important?
I started working for my dad, washing dishes. I didn't start running his business.
[00:20:34] Speaker A: Right.
[00:20:36] Speaker B: I started edible the same way. Right. I mean, I started out making the baskets and dipping the chocolate and doing everything like that. So if you want to bequeath it to somebody like that, if they want the respect of the people that are going to stay with the organization, they need to kind of start at the ground up, but you definitely have to give it some thought. It doesn't need to permeate your planning process because, again, you're excited about starting this, but you need to give a little bit of time to thinking about like, okay, what's this going to look like in 1015 and 20 years?
[00:21:06] Speaker A: That's interesting. Ron, one last question for you, because this comes up all the time, and I think it's something that couples, spouses, even partnerships, working together, especially in your case, you were looking to create a work life balance for raising a family. Lori, how important is it, do you think, to have your significant other spouse agreed or agreeable to the brand or the business model that you want to invest in? I always tell my clients, look, if one wants it and the other doesn't, walk away from it and find something that you both agree to. I mean, what can you share about working with a spouse? I mean, obviously your wife put a lot of time, effort and energy into this as well, and you raised a family, so share a little thoughts on that.
[00:21:59] Speaker B: Well, the business is one of those family members, right. It's essentially adopting a child, in my opinion. Right.
[00:22:06] Speaker A: Great way of putting it.
[00:22:07] Speaker B: A child without your spouse's. 100% buy in on adopting a child. Right. So it's going to take up a lot of your time. I mean, Edible Arrangements was very holiday driven. This will be the first Christmas Eve in 17 years that I will not be at work until three or 04:00 in the afternoon, rushing home to get Christmas Eve dinner together and things of that nature. But it's not like I used to come home at that time and my wife's like, where have you been?
Because she was there too. She was getting home at the same time I was. Right.
[00:22:40] Speaker A: That's interesting.
[00:22:42] Speaker B: My wife and I haven't gone out on a date on Valentine's Day in 17 years. Right.
[00:22:47] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:22:47] Speaker B: There's no way. It's the busiest day of the year at Edible. Right. We don't go anywhere, so we do 22% of our annual revenue in seven days. So you have to be in lockstep of what that is or you're going to be miserable and your business will suffer. Because if you're not happy now, don't get me wrong, you're not going to be sunshine and rainbows every minute that you're in your business. That's not right. There's going to be ups and downs. But you have to have that strong bond between your family. And to me, it's like the whole family kind of has to really understand what the undertaking is there so that everybody can be reasonable and understand. Like, the business is part of the family and it has to get the same attention that the rest of the family gets. To a certain degree. To a certain degree. And if you can do that, then everybody will understand. And I've been very blessed in that respect that my wife and I are in lockstep on that kind of thing and so are our kids.
[00:23:43] Speaker A: Interesting.
[00:23:43] Speaker B: They understand it really well and they help. Are they there all the time? No, but they help. And it's a family business. Even though it's a franchise, it's a family affair.
[00:23:52] Speaker A: Right.
A lot of experience, a lot of bumps in the road. I can imagine it wasn't all roses. I imagine anything good has its bumps. I mean, let's face it, I've been down that road too. But a lot of
[email protected] we get people who are exiting businesses and thinking about getting into another business.
What's next for you? I know there's a part of you now that's offering some consulting services to small business owners in the food industry who potentially need some operational support or maybe thinking about franchising their business. But do you think the Itch is going to spread a little bit? I mean, do you see yourself getting back into a business again?
[00:24:42] Speaker B: I do. My wife and I are already working on a charcuterie concept we think that's kind of under serviced in the franchise field. We feel like we understand gifting, we feel like we understand food, we feel like we understand, you know, we're putting the blueprint together for that.
Some I'd like to do some speaking. I've done some speaking at my alma mater. I'm a graduate of West Virginia University. So I've had the fortunate opportunity to speak to some of their entrepreneurial classes a couple times. So I enjoy that opportunity to teach and coach younger people. The youngstown business incubator. I've done some work with them and they've got some up and coming people who want to start a business here and try to hopefully help them.
The perfect scenario for me would be to continue to work and help. Right. Not just work in an industry where it's only revenue generated, but where it has the possibility of generating revenue, but it also has the opportunity of helping others. So if I can combine earning and helping, then that's pretty much going to be a dream come true for me as I move into the latter half of my career.
[00:25:53] Speaker A: That's great. Well Ron, we've enjoyed the time. We've been speaking to Ron Taylor who is recently exited and spent 17 years with Edible Arrangements as a multi unit operator. I'm your host, Scotty Milos. All things considered, franchising powered by Scottmilosfranchisecoach.com.
You can check me
[email protected] or Scottmilosfranchisecoach.com as well. If you want to connect with Ron, best place is LinkedIn. Ron Taylor. Taylor out of Ohio. I'm sure if you message him he had any specific questions, he can probably share some guidance and insight.
Ron, thank you again for your time. I know you're a busy guy and trying to kind of kick back and getting ready for the holidays, as you mentioned, for the first time in 17 years. So we've enjoyed the time and we look forward to potentially having you back in the next six months and hear what you're up to.
[00:26:51] Speaker B: Thanks, Scotty. I appreciate that.
[00:26:53] Speaker A: Thank you very much. And this is Scotty Milas. Thanks for joining me on Allthingsconredfranchising.com. And until next time.
[00:27:04] Speaker B: You bum. Bum.
