Family comes initially at Cousins Maine Lobster — wherever the workforce in fact is household, or just wishes everyone to come to feel like household.
Courtesy of Cousins Maine Lobster
The model started a 10 years back, when Jim Tselikis, who was dwelling in Boston, went to stop by his cousin Sabin Lomac in Los Angeles to catch up. “When we had been reminiscing,” Tselikis states, “we realized that each and every time we have been with our family members, we would have lobster — are living lobster, lobster rolls, lobster mac and cheese.” Tselikis was in profits and had no prior foodstuff or cafe experience. Lomac experienced worked in far more than 20 eating places but was in genuine estate at the time. However, they commenced to imagine a business in which they’d provide their cherished experience to individuals across the nation.
Related: The Key to Doing the job Properly With Your Franchisees
Out of that, Cousins Maine Lobster was born. The brand name was started in 2012, landed on Shark Tank (in which they scored a deal with Barbara Corcoran), and now serves seafood out of extra than 30 vans and almost 10 dining places across 18 states. But as Tselikis says, family members however drives this brand.
You guys experienced never operate your individual business. How did you start?
It was about obtaining a person foodstuff truck off the ground. A significant detail was running money, figuring out what to place into the company to give it a serious prospect to do well. It is also how considerably you might be heading to do the job for it. In its place of likely out on a Friday night time to consume beers, it can be dedicating that time to make sure that every piece of your enterprise is fantastic-tuned, buttoned up, and shielded.
As we started off franchising, we did every little thing we could to have an understanding of how to succeed below. We were learning an overall new enterprise on leading of our food stuff truck small business, and that would not take place right away. You happen to be not an pro in yr a single, but you study so a great deal in excess of time. Which is the biggest piece in all of this. You need to use understanding activities and transform them into opportunity for the long term. That way, when the up coming spherical will come, you say, “What did I study? How am I modifying?” It truly is ongoing.
Connected: How Franchisees and Franchisors Can Master Their Partnership
How has becoming family-centered impacted the small business?
We failed to go to organization faculty. We just wished to make a organization that would be pleasurable and meaningful. Our principle is, “If we mature with individuals that we belief that are blood, or as near to blood as probable, they won’t let us down and we won’t let them down, mainly because we are all in on this mission with each other.”
When it will come to franchising especially, we experienced 2,000 requests following Shark Tank, but we only awarded 10. We wanted to make confident we chose the suitable people today, and we definitely do contact them household customers. We selected persons that we knew would operate a terrific organization, but also men and women whose lives we would want to learn about. Our relationship with the franchisees is like, “Your son just graduated from superior faculty? Your daughter just received married? Let us grab a consume and talk about it.” To me, that’s how you develop a actually powerful foundation — when every person is just invested in just about every other.
Owning now worked with so quite a few franchisees, what guidance do you have for other people who are contemplating about shopping for a franchise?
To be a franchisee of a brand, you need to invest in in — not just literally with your dollars, but also into the point that this franchisor has carried out this. They have this design and toolbox and the guidance to make you thriving, and it is purchasing into that route compared to undertaking it on your possess.
It can be also about owning an open mind. We listen to our franchisees. It really is not us compared to them. It can be extremely harmonious. We know we are not excellent, so if they have an thought, or if they see a thing out in the subject and want to carry it to us, we’re all ears, due to the fact we know we can constantly boost. So if a franchisee will come in and states they you should not know every little thing, but they’re prepared to study and we can teach them, they are going to be effective.
Linked: 5 Vital Features Franchisees Will need to Know about Their Franchise Agreement