DOUBLING UP
One business isn’t enough for these multi-unit franchisees who see a bright future
ahead with their chosen brands.
Rfrom multiple outlets as the way forward. Sandrine and Rizwan are experienced business owners, starting up the Zubias Threading concept 13 years ago. The idea was franchised, and there are three franchisees remaining in the chain of 13. But 2020 forced a business pivot, as it did for so many, and Sandrine and Rizwan moved away from the franchise model to pitch the concept as a higher-end premium business they could operate themselves.
For Simpy, coming into franchising has provided a sense of ownership, and a real change from her earlier career as an accountant – although her skills have proved invaluable.
WHY DID YOU BUY A SPEEDFIT BUSINESS IN 2020? Sandrine:
I think 2020 allowed us to slow down and reflect a lot. We have another business, Zubias Threading, which we started in the middle of the GFC in 2007. It was our first business venture and our friends thought us crazy. But our ignorance turned out to be a blessing: competition was quite weak, and we did well. What we want in our life now is work–life balance and SpeedFit ticked all the boxes.
Rizwan:
We want to be doing something closer to our values and vision in life. We’ve watched this franchisor grow. We know they are doing it for the right reasons, they value people and fairness. It’s not about spinning the dial and getting as much money as possible. They are very open, very approachable, and that helped us to pick the right franchisor.
Every member gives us a financial return directly on our time – we have returning customers. It makes financial sense.
And on a personal note, as a franchisor at Zubias we’ve had responsibility for the whole brand. We want a business we can truly enjoy for the sake of the business.
WHY ARE YOU TAKING ON A SECOND OUTLET SO SOON?
Sandrine:
With Zubias, we’ve had 13 locations, we are used to managing multiple locations. If we enjoy it long term our goal is to have several SpeedFit studios. It only took us two to three months to decide we love being part of the team. We want to be part of the growth.
WHAT'S THE KEY TO MANAGING A SECOND STUDIO?
Sandrine:
A great team. A lot of business owners settle for average because they think they won’t find the right person.
We don’t settle for mediocrity, we keep recruiting and training, and let go of people who don’t fit. To recruit the first person, we had to train and let go of four people.
Building a great team is rewarding. We enjoy sharing knowledge and get satisfaction from building great team members.
HOW DO YOU SPLIT ROLES AT SPEEDFIT? Rizwan:
It’s the best person for the job. Sandrine is passionate about marketing, so she’s the boss there. I deal with teams, conflict, contractors, people management. It was pretty automatic because we’re both driven to do the right thing. There’s no ego.
HOW DO YOU JUGGLE THIS WITH ZUBIAS? Rizwan:
It was quite challenging initially as the team was my responsibility so I was doing double shifts until we could build an awesome team. Now we can just meet, discuss what are the KPIs, the team is really driving the business.
At Zubias we have an absolute hands-down brilliant team. We’re there to help coach and guide but each person is driven to succeed.
WHAT HAS BEING A FRANCHISOR TAUGHT YOU ABOUT BEING A FRANCHISEE?
Sandrine:
We created our own brand. We know what it takes to build, protect and grow from scratch. It was a rollercoaster. We truly understand what’s behind the system and the brand. We know as a franchisee we don’t have to worry about so many things. We can focus our time on local business.
We learned at SpeedFit we can better understand our Zubia franchisees.
Rizwan:
Being a franchisee, it’s a little like having tunnel vision. There is a whole brand and business that exists and franchise and franchisee problems are part of it. But for a franchisee this is the biggest question on the planet.
It was an immense lesson for us, because we could understand what the franchisees would see. We were able to tune our conversations to have a bit more connection, it really helped.
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE AS SPEEDFIT FRANCHISEES?
Rizwan:
We’re good at building a studio, client base and a business asset. We could keep to two or three studios close to our house (we learned with Zubias that if locations were spread out we couldn’t visit easily).
Or if we take another location a bit further away, we can build it up in a few months, build asset value, then pass it on. We could become experts in studio start-ups. It’s a promising way to sell to a franchisee who wants a ready-made business and will pay a bit more – that’s our profit margin.