Skip to content

What Makes a Good Franchisee?

So “what makes a good franchisee” you ask?

Watch this quick video featuring our VP of Franchising, Jim Wollman, and find out some of the key characteristics that NTY Franchise Company looks for when partnering with franchisees to grow one or more of our successful resale businesses.

Video: What does it take to own an NTY Franchise?

Do you have the skills and traits mentioned in this video? If so, you would make a fabulous franchisee with any of our five resale brands: Children’s Orchard, Clothes Mentor, Device Pitstop, New Uses and NTY Clothing Exchange!

Still don’t know if you have what it takes, or curious which of our resale brands is the best fit for you? Take our successful franchise owner quiz!

What Makes a Good Franchisee Video Transcription

Do you prefer a text version of the video or want to follow along while you watch? Then check out the full transcription below! 

There is no “best age” to start a business

Jim: We attract people of all ages- from people in their twenties to their sixties and everything in between. People come from all kinds of backgrounds and work experiences too.

Most importantly, we are looking for people with energy and personality. That’s what makes a good franchisee. We can’t teach you how to be a cool person to work for so you need to come to the table with those things that will really help you be successful in these businesses.

Some characteristics of successful franchise owners

Also important are transferable skills. If you had previous successes in your career, then you have transferable skills and that’s good.

What I’m talking about here are previous management experience, staff oversight, budgeting, and communication skills. Those are important because we are going to teach you how to maximize your business and you are going to use those skills to execute and make yourself a successful franchise owner.

NTY Franchise Company’s Proprietary Point of Sale System (POS)

We also need people that appreciate what computers and technology can do because we use it heavily to measure and manage and improve our businesses to the maximum potential. We have proprietary point of sale systems that will help you with inventory turn rates, cash flow management and with employee efficiency.

Our Franchise Loyalty Programs

We have trigger based customer loyalty programs, just like the big business out there. We are using technology to attract, retain, and bring in more customers, and more customers more often. So an embrace of the use of technology is very important. You don’t have to be an IT professional, but you do have to be comfortable with computers.

We are also looking for people who are smart enough to realize that you don’t know what you don’t know and you can really benefit from a shortening of the learning curve. This not only helps you to avoid costly financial mistakes, that one is easy to understand, but what a lot of people don’t think about is that mistakes cost time.

We teach you how to run a successful franchise

We know People want to get going and get moving, become more successful more quickly, and we can help you with that. We are not looking for people who are so entrepreneurial that they want to just change everything coming right out of the gate.

We have a very proven pathway. We have all of the knowledge, training and support that makes up our proven and well-worn operating system. So we know that if you use our tools, use our systems, and execute that you will greatly improve your chances of being successful.

Successful franchise owners “wear all the hats“

A lot of people come from corporate America to begin their business for the first time. Of course we can help you there, but your background says that you wear a big hat and are a specialist and good at what you do.

This may be more narrowly defined in Corporate America. The thing about small business America is that you have to wear all the hats. The good news is that they are really small hats. And we are going to help you in areas that you aren’t as strong in and in other disciplines that you don’t feel as comfortable with. So having this ability to realize that it’s about you and wearing all the hats is an important thing for you to be able to realize and appreciate when you get into a franchise business.

Couples make great franchisees

Now this brings up the question-what are the most common profiles that make up our franchise business? One of the most tried and true profiles for us are couples. Where one covers the household expenses, the overhead, and so on. While the other gets the business up and running and started. Often times with love, opposites attract and they usually have different skill sets, but when you mesh those together they make a very good one hundred percent.

Hands off franchise investors

Another type of profile that has worked well for us are partnerships where you have one financial backer who is a little more hands-off, and another operational partner who is going to be the face of the business and run the business on a day to day basis. An example of this could be an adult with an adult child. Now in our soft line brands, apparel, we do have men who do these businesses and usually what they will do is hire a female manager who has prior retail experience. Conversely in our tech businesses, we have very successful women running our device pit stop. We really do get people of all walks of life and who are given a proven business operating system to follow.

Going solo: solo franchise ownership

Now, the one exception to what I just said is for those who are coming into the business solo. The one other thing that you have to think about is that if this is going to be your new business you may decide to run the business yourself and maybe take that managers salary for yourself in the early stages until you build the business out. But just to be safe, we would encourage you to at least have one year of household expenses tucked away in reserve as working capital above and beyond the initial investment of opening up the business which is covered on our website as well.

-end- 

So there you have it, now you know what makes a good franchisee. Think you have what it takes? Then contact us now to schedule your free consultation!

Ronald G. Olson

President

Ron Olson has been President and a Director of NTY Franchise Company since October 2006. Ron’s background included starting his career at Dayton’s Department Store, where he held many management positions. In 1977 he opened his own furniture store in Minnesota, which was a Drexel Heritage prototype store. In 1988 he co-founded Grow Biz International, now called Winmark. The first franchise rights that Olson purchased and started marketing was Play It Again Sports. Olson continued buying the Franchise rights for Once Upon A Child, Plato’s Closet, and Music Go Round. Today there over 1,000 Franchise locations.

Under NTY Franchise Company, the franchise rights were bought for Clothes Mentor and New Uses. In 2013 Olson bought Laptop Exchange and changed the name to Device Pitstop. In 2014 the company opened NTY Clothing Exchange and NTY Kids, now Children’s Orchard. There are currently 204 stores sold and 133 stores opened under the NTY Franchise umbrella.

Chad Olson

Chief Operations Officer

Chad Olson has been Chief Operations Officer of NTY Franchise Company since January 2007. From May 1994 to December 2006, he held various positions for Winmark Corporation (f/k/a Grow Biz International, Inc.), including Field Operations Manager for the Once Upon a Child concept from 1999 to 2002, and Regional Operations Manager for the Plato’s Closet concept from 2002 to 2006.

Sarah Primmer

Vice President of Finance & Human Resources

Sarah Primmer is the Vice President of Finance and Human Resources for NTY Franchise Company. She joined the company in January 2014. Prior to joining NTY, Sarah spent over 25 years as the controller and business manager of a local sales and marketing firm calling on Target stores.

Michael D. Smith

Vice President of Strategic Planning

Michael D. Smith is the Vice President of Strategic Planning. From December 2000 to July 2010, Michael held the position of Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of the franchise company Laptop Xchange. From June 1994 to December 2000, Michael held numerous roles within the Grow Biz International brands of Play It Again Sports and Computer Renaissance. These roles included Corporate Store Management, Field Operation Specialist, and Franchisee.

Jenny Mann

Vice President of Operations | Executive Director of IT

Jenny Mann is the Senior Vice President Clothes Mentor and Children’s Orchard. In February of 2024, Jenny took on her current role overseeing IT, Marketing and the e-commerce platforms for both brands. Prior to this, Jenny was the Director of Marketing for NTY Franchise Company since January 2013. Jenny started with the NTY Franchise Company in 2008 with Clothes Mentor and has held many roles, including; Store Manager, New Store Opener, and Regional Operations Manager. Before joining NTY Franchise Company, Jenny worked for Old Navy (Gap, Inc.) and Target in management roles.

Michelle Vaudrin

Senior Director of Operations

Michelle Vaudrin is the Senior Director of Operations for Clothes Mentor and Children’s Orchard. Prior to joining NTY Franchise Company in March 2016, she worked in leadership roles for Burlington, American Eagle and Macy’s. Michelle attended University of Wisconsin-Stout with a degree in Retail Merchandising and Business Administration. She brings extensive background in training of strategies, merchandising, customer service and multi-unit store operations to the team.

Ashley Huebner

Director of Marketing

Ashley Huebner oversees NTY Franchise Company’s marketing and advertising efforts to drive sales, build brand awareness and lead the planning on how to effectively market both brands. She leads creative initiatives for NTY Franchise Company, driving the brands’ vision in aesthetics, tone, and trends to elevate our brand position as a leader in the resale category. Ashley joined the Clothes Mentor team in March of 2015. Ashley has 8+ years of Graphic Design experience. Ashley holds a strong background in design, user experience, and a passion for creativity. She holds a BA degree in Advertising and Art.

Jessica Fix

Franchise Contract and Office Administrator

Jessica Fix is the Franchise Contracts and Office Administrator for NTY Franchise Company. She started with the company in January of 2018. Jessica works alongside the Franchise Development Team and provides office support to the headquarter office. She has 20 years in the franchise industry, previously working for Carlson Leisure Group/Travel Leaders Franchise Group in a variety of roles, such as Database Coordinator, Legal Contract Administrator, and Executive Assistant to the Franchise Sales Team.