One local franchise of Louisville, Kentucky-based FranNet has kept it all in the family regarding their business. As such, they are one of the most successful franchise consulting firms in the country.
The local franchise, FranNet of Atlanta, located in Sandy Springs, has been in business for 30 years and, for most of those years, was led by Phil Kuban.
However, since 1999, his daughter, Leslie, has been his partner. Last year, with her father going into semi-retirement but remaining with the company as a consultant, she became CEO of FranNet of Atlanta and wants its success to continue.
“Most of our clients are in Georgia, but we do have clients in Florida and throughout the country, and I am excited about our future,” said Leslie, 44.
Said Phil, “The key to our success as business partners is we have complete trust in one another's decisions. Leslie has a number of good business skills, as do I, and Leslie and I complement (each other) on other skills.”
FranNet is a matching service for individuals who have never owned their business but, as she said, “have an entrepreneurial spirit and would like to be their own boss, but do not have any idea how to start their own business.”
These people usually come from corporate America and, as a result, tend to be somewhat more adverse to loss and are looking to buy into the right franchise business, Leslie said.
“This would a great bridge for the person who never owned a business but wants to be successful as a franchisee while minimizing the risk factor,” she said. “So we are a matching service designed to help people determine which of the available franchise businesses would align best with that person’s skills and talents.”
One of its clients, Sam Tuttle, said he had no idea where to look for franchise opportunities before coming to FranNet and now he is a franchisee with Encinitas, California-based Phenix Salon Suites.
As he explained, his franchise business builds out retail space into individual small suites for hair stylists, manicurists and related beauty industry professionals to have their own salons in these rebuilt locations.
Tuttle signed on with Phenix Salon Suites in August 2016 and opened his first unit the following April, with a second about to start construction later this month and a third one beginning construction in the next few months.
“FranNet’s support was critical for my wife and I, who are partners in this franchise business. Leslie worked with us to find out what our skills were, what I and my wife’s desires were and what our budget was,” he said. “Leslie did the research and narrowed down the enormous list of franchise opportunities to just a handful, which matched our skills, interests and budget for us to select from.”
FranNet of Atlanta has excelled with an entrepreneurial success rate of 90 percent, compared to the national average of 50 percent. Also, in April the local franchise was honored with the Top Enterprise Office award and Leslie was named the Top Consultant by FranNet at its spring conference in Tampa.
As she said, those are the examples of a successful succession of leadership with her taking over for her father.
“It took two years of planning and work to make that succession successful, as many family businesses do not have a successful succession of leadership,” Leslie said.
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