Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2020 i Entrepreneur Magazine

YOU ARE NOT WHAT YOU DO. You are why you do it. This is an especially important distinction today. The what and the why are two different things—and if you confuse the two, then you are not prepared for change. You will be disoriented and rocked, unable to envision a way forward. But if you see what and why as separate, then you become more adaptable. You become less afraid. You feel more in control. That’s very abstract, so let’s talk specifics. We’ll start big. I have a general theory about why people fear change: It’s because change makes familiar things look unrecognizable. In the 1950s, for example, people connected over bowling leagues and pasta dinners. This was their definition of community. Now that 1950s generation looks at young people…

Andrew Wyatt receives 300 to 400 emails per day. Some are from investors and partners of CALA, the digital fashion branding platform he cofounded. Others are from potential customers. He doesn’t want to miss important notes but can’t spend all day searching for them. “I tried every Gmail hack trying to get to inbox zero,” he says. “No matter what, it was a big mess.” That’s why Wyatt was willing to spend a whopping $30 per month on a solution: It’s called Superhuman, a new and much-hyped email app that has raised $33 million in funding. And it’s not alone; Superhuman is joined by a crop of new email apps, all vying to be the go-to solution for entrepreneurs with untamed inboxes. “These new email apps tend to allow for…

Mark Lawrence kept hearing the same thing from investors: If he wanted their money, he’d need to expand fast. It was 2012 and Lawrence was cofounder and CEO of SpotHero, a startup that enables drivers to book parking spots in advance—say, at a lot or a garage. Competitors were spreading across the country, and investors saw a land grab. The company with the biggest footprint seemed likeliest to win. “They said they would invest if we had more scale, and if we were in more cities,” Lawrence recalls. But Lawrence had a different idea. He’d launched in Chicago and wanted to master one city at a time. “I didn’t know I was right,” he admits. But entrepreneurs must constantly make difficult, consequential decisions—weighing others’ advice against their own gut instincts,…

Q I feel like my team is always scrambling, but I have trouble knowing what’s actually working. How can I tell? —ELIZABETH, NEW ORLEANS YOU KNOW the old saying “Practice makes perfect”? It’s a great mindset but also highly flawed. Practice leads to perfection only if you’re focusing on the right things. When it comes to your business, busyness—also known as practice—can be a facade. And this becomes an even bigger problem during tough times, when it can feel impossible to keep a pulse on your business. But don’t stress. There are a few basic systems that can help turn your business into a highly efficient machine. To change the game, start by keeping score. Sports have clear winners and losers, and those outcomes are often determined long before the…

JEREMY CAI IS the son of Chinese immigrants who worked in auto part manufacturing in Chicago. That got him interested in manufacturing in general—and he was puzzled to see how slow the industry was to adapt. Even as direct-to-consumer companies disrupted retail, older companies seemed stuck on the same model they’d relied on for half a century. At 23, he decided to join the disruptors. He imagined a luxury fashion and home goods company that would sell its items in a totally new way. Most brands buy product from a factory, then mark it up for consumers. His company would act more like a partnership: He’d create a platform through which manufacturers could sell directly to consumers, therefore earning double or triple their usual profit. He’d take no cut of…

PHAT LE WAS studying aerospace engineering when he realized that college just wasn’t for him. He dropped out and tried educating himself, but he was underwhelmed by the options—just online courses and virtual classrooms. “At the same time,” he says, “I saw that consumers are willing to pay more for premium content, but creators are stuck duct-taping multiple products together to provide that experience.” So he knew what to do: He’d build a better product. Le already had a résumé built on self-determination—he was a self-taught UI designer and software engineer and a recipient of the $100,000 Thiel Fellowship in 2017, as well as an entrepreneur in residence at Jaguar Land Rover. Now he’s created Blest: The ad-free platform hosts courses, memberships, and other products to serve online communities. “We…

It’s a beautiful time to be alive. That’s not how most people talk about 2020, but beauty doesn’t just apply to easy, tranquil moments of peace and happiness. Beauty also lives in the dismantling of falsehoods, the disruption of fallacies, and the destruction of systems. The three pandemics of 2020—COVID-19, an economic downturn, and police brutality and injustice toward African Americans—have been the perfect chain of events to wake up our world. I have been impacted by the ugliness. But I insist on seeing beauty. Before it became clear that this would be a year of powerful change for all of us, we knew it would bring powerful change for my company, The Honey Pot. Our plant-based feminine care products are carried in Target, and in late 2019, the retailer…

Years ago, when Jennifer Tribble took her 2-year-old son to get a haircut in Orlando, she experienced some dreadful customer service. “Two stylists got in an argument about who ‘had’ to cut the kid’s hair,” she recalls. “[I thought], This is your pride and joy, not a burden! In the land of Disney, why is there no great place for kids to get a haircut?” That bad haircut gave her an idea—and in 2013, she opened her first Pigtails & Crewcuts salon, a space that caters exclusively to kids, with 66 locations across the country. “My stylists are saints, and we give parents peace of mind,” she says. “The kids love it. We play movies, and we have a Nintendo Switch, themed chairs, snacks, prizes—we’ve thought of everything.” Tribble opened…

1 Guidant Financial 401(k) business financing, SBA loans, unsecured business loans, business valuations and appraisals, and other business services 2 FranFund Funding solutions including 401(k) business financing, SBA loans, unsecured business loans, and equipment leasing 3 Benetrends Financial 401(k) rollover funding, SBA loans, and equipment leasing 4 Chase for Business Deposit accounts, loans, credit cards, cash management, and payment processing 5 ApplePie Capital Franchise financing 6 BoeFly Franchise financing 7 Wells Fargo Banking, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance 8 KeyBank SBA and conventional financing, merchant and treasury solutions, deposits 9 Live Oak Bank Small-business banking 10 First Financial SBA financing for franchise startups, working capital, construction, and acquisitions; equipment leasing 11 Tenet Financial Group Business rollover funding, SBA loans, unsecured lines of credit 12 U.S. Bank Business banking,…

1 FisherZucker LLC Full-service law firm focusing on franchising and licensing matters 2 Spadea Lignana, Franchise Attorneys Full-service franchise law firm 3 Internicola Law Firm Legal services for emerging franchise brands 4 Lathrop GPM Full-service law firm with franchise and distribution practice team 5 DLA Piper Legal services including franchise law compliance, mergers and acquisitions, and dispute resolution 6 Lanard and Associates, P.C. Legal services for franchisees, business law, and commercial tenant representation 7 FranchiseSmith LLC Nationwide and international practice specializing in franchise law 8 Warshawsky Seltzer, PLLC Boutique franchise law firm 9 Franchise.Law Legal services for franchisors 10 Plave Koch PLC Franchise legal services, including dispute resolution, transactions, and trademarks 11 Drumm Law LLC Full-service franchise law firm 12 Shipe Dosik Law Legal services for franchisors and business owners…

Salesforce “Decorating Den Interiors celebrated our 50th year in the interior design business in 2019 by rolling out a new proprietary back office support system (BOSS) for our interior design franchise partners. Salesforce was the foundation for developing that new resource. Salesforce plays a key role in giving our designers a competitive edge in managing their business, building fabulous client experiences, having a one-stop shop for marketing, creating design proposals, and more.”—JAMES S. BUGG JR., president and CEO, Decorating Den Interiors 1 Salesforce CRM, cloud computing, sales, service, marketing, commerce, and analytics apps 2 FranConnect Franchise management software 3 FranFunnel Automated messaging software connecting franchisors with customers and leads 4 Zoho Cloud software suite and SaaS applications for business 5 MINDBODY Technology platform for the wellness industry 6 HubSpot CRM,…

Keyser “I have been working with the team at Keyser for over 10 years, and they have become an integral part of our sales team. They have gone above and beyond time and again to ensure that each franchisee has a seamless process. From helping us with sites that are not yet available to getting our franchisees through the difficult negotiation process, they are there with selfless service every step of the way.”—TIM MCCARTHY, VP of franchise development, Rosati’s Pizza 1 Keyser Commercial real estate tenant representation 2 JLL Commercial real estate and property investment services 3 Morrow Hill Real estate technology and services for corporate and franchise organizations 4 RESOLUT RE Analytics and brokerage services for tenants 5 Colliers International Global real estate services and investment management company 6…

After working 20-hour days for years, living on the cheap while bootstrapping a company in San Francisco, Sam Udotong discovered something about his body. “I had trained myself to stop really enjoying food,” he says. That meant he could subsist entirely on Domino’s pizza and the meal replacement drink Soylent, and maintain focus. “It let me work more hours every day.” That was 2016. By now, years later, he expected life to be different—or, at least, to come with better food. He and his cofounder, Krish Ramineni, have raised nearly $5 million in venture funding for that once bootstrapped company, Fireflies.ai, which is rapidly expanding across the globe. But Udotong is still drinking Soylent regularly, because COVID-19 put the founders back into 20-hour-a-day crunch mode. Fireflies.ai takes and organizes notes…

LANI LAZZARI WAS desperate to clear her eczema. Nothing she tried helped. Then one day, after a lot of experimenting, she mashed up a sugar scrub in her kitchen—and it worked! But when she decided to turn her homemade solution into an all-natural skin care company, no one thought it would last, much less go on to make $5 million in profits. Why? Because Lazzari was 11. Age, it turns out, would be just one of many hurdles she’d face in business—but many years later, the setbacks would prepare her to thrive during COVID-19. Lazzari formed her company, Simple Sugars, in middle school, and it grew slowly. In high school, she drove 10,000 miles around the country promoting it in her great-grandmother’s 1999 white Chevy Prizm—earning her a lot of…

WHEN ANN MAKOSINSKI was a kid, her parents didn’t shower her with toys or electronics. She’s grateful. “If I wanted more toys, I was given a glue gun and told to make my own,” she says. “If I wanted a toy house, I made it out of cardboard. If I had grown up owning a smartphone, I would be a very, very different person.” Today she’s an inventor—one who, at 15, won the top prize for her age category at the Google Science Fair for her flashlight powered by the energy from a human hand. Makosinski is now repurposing that patented technology to create eco-conscious toys. “For me, an inventor is someone who has an idea and turns it into something tangible, and an entrepreneur takes that invention and turns…

Loren Goodridge is no stranger to hard work. After joining the Navy in 1984, he was recruited for the nuclear power program and underwent two years of intense training (which has a very high attrition rate). He spent the next six years on fast-attack and ballistic-missile submarines. He loved the work, but when his military career ended, issues of Entrepreneur inspired him to start a new adventure—in franchising. (Thanks for reading, Loren!) He became a Subway franchisee and eventually went on to help launch the coffee franchise Aroma Joe’s, where he now serves as CEO. By fusing his military training with his on-the-ground franchisee experience, he has helped grow the New England–based chain from 17 locations to 69 across five states and expects to hit 400 locations nationwide by 2028.…

Eric Danver has never owned just one franchise location—and that’s by design. “Mom-and-pop operators are just married to their location,” he says. “I wanted a different quality of life.” Danver learned the ropes of franchising in the ’90s, when he got involved with the Papa John’s brand and eventually operated 53 stores across New Jersey and Pennsylvania. (He still owns 18.) There, he quickly came to understand the value of building an empowered team that could handle daily operations and allow him to focus on the growth of the business. Two decades later, when he opened two Virginia locations of Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa, he thought he could just run the same game plan—but was startled by the differences in running the two brands. “The pizza delivery…

In franchising, people understand the value of support. After all, that’s the industry’s foundation. Franchisors can’t grow without great franchisees, and franchisees know they can rely on their corporate office and collaborate with other franchisees for support. But there’s another element that often goes overlooked: Franchising can’t succeed without great third-party suppliers. Franchisors rely on franchise brokers to help source new franchisees. They turn to law firms for help navigating the industry’s many legal requirements. They need technology providers to enable smooth operations across multiple locations. And there’s more. That’s why, every September, we dedicate space to highlight the industry’s more celebrated behind-the-scenes supporters. This is our third annual top franchise suppliers ranking. This ranking is based on a survey of more than 700 franchisors, from new brands just launching…

1 IFPG Membership-based franchise broker organization 2 FranChoice Free consulting service to individuals considering franchise ownership 3 FCC, The Franchise Consulting Company Free consulting service to prospective franchise buyers 4 FranNet Franchise consultants that match clients to business opportunities 5 FranServe Consulting service to prospective franchise buyers 6 BAI Business Alliance Inc. Brokerage services for franchise companies and prospective franchise buyers 7 Franchise Brokers Association Franchise broker training and membership organization 8 The You Network Franchise consulting and education for senior level executives seeking franchise opportunities IFPG “Professional—this is the word that best describes the IFPG firm. They have consistently vetted and prepared their clients for the discovery process, as I’ve seen time and again in my experience with their brokers.”—DAVID M. CUTILLO, CEO, BeBalanced Hormone Weight Loss Centers Service…

1 SOCi Centralized digital marketing platform for multi-location brands 2 Integrated Digital Strategies Digital marketing company specializing in franchise development and franchisee marketing 3 Hot Dish Advertising Full-service strategic marketing agency specializing in franchising 4 ClickTecs Websites and digital marketing for franchisors and franchisees 5 Scorpion Digital marketing and technology solutions 6 TopFire Media Full-service digital marketing and PR agency specializing in franchise lead generation 7 Rallio Social media technology and local agency services for franchises and small businesses 8 Curious Jane Full-service advertising agency offering franchise-development and consumer marketing 9 Location3 Franchise marketing agency 10 Lead PPC Franchise-development pay-per-click lead generation 11 Wheat Creative Franchise lead generation, local consumer marketing, websites, digital and sales collateral 12 Qiigo Digital marketing for multi-location brands SOCi “SOCi is a perfect match for…

1/ Provide expertise. “We have a mission to help people through guidance, which goes beyond just product. With [our cookware brand] Equal Parts, we offer a texting service that allows customers to have a conversation with a professional cook. Customers can ask for a fresh grocery list, recipe recommendations, or even how to make simple scrambled eggs. This type of interaction creates a deeper relationship, and the customer feels like they’re gaining value beyond a tangible product.”—NICK LING, CEO, Pattern Brands 2/ Create incentives. “We have an ambassador program, where we provide our most loyal customers with a platform to create content that is shared on our social media channels. It transforms them from customers to brand advocates. We are strong believers in the power of community and use our…

Coral Chung and Wendy Wen had built successful careers in business consulting and investment banking, respectively. When they both ended up doing some work with storied luxury fashion brands (Chung with Prada, and Wen with Chanel), the Stanford business school grads identified the same big problem: Nobody was taking a digital-first approach to serving professional millennial women—so they decided to try. Chung and Wen created Senreve, a direct-to-consumer luxury fashion brand, and launched their first product in 2016. (It’s called Maestra, a bag that can be worn as a tote, a crossbody, or a backpack and has enough space for the many tools of a busy executive.) Since then, Senreve has exploded, being embraced by celebrities like Selma Blair and Priyanka Chopra, and raising $23 million. How’d they do it?…

Every entrepreneur has had some burst of creativity—the aha moment that set them on their path. But sustaining that creativity can often be the most challenging part of the process. We’re continuously bombarded with new information and demands that can cause good ideas to get lost in the rush of our everyday lives. That’s why I carry a sketchbook everywhere I go. It’s the key ingredient in a super simple practice that helps me develop new products, brands, and business strategies. No matter what industry they are in, I recommend this to other entrepreneurs as a tool to fuel their own creativity—and the best part is that drawing skills are not required. I’ve never considered myself an illustrator by any means. In fact, I started sketching in an environment most…

FLO RECRUIT WAS designed to help companies secure top talent at recruiting events. “We had a road map of where we would be at the end of 2020,” says cofounder Atreya Misra. But of course, COVID-19 put a halt to all events—job fairs included. “We basically had to start from scratch.” It’s a position most entrepreneurs were in this year, forcing them to refocus on the value they offer—and then to rebuild for how to be valuable now. That came naturally to Flo Recruit because it had gone through the reinvention process once before. The concept began five years ago, when cofounder Katherine Allen was in the basement of her sorority house at the University of Texas, sorting through stacks of pledges’ résumés. “You’re trying to put together groups of…

MATTHEW ROODA grew up in southeast Iowa, where his parents and grandfather were pork producers. But his family encouraged him to go to college to try something new, so he entered the University of Iowa on a premed track. While he was there, he took a part-time job at a farrowing house, where sows give birth, and got an up-close look at the problem of piglet crushing, which kills one in every 10 piglets. “One morning I went up to one of the moms, and she had lain on, like, eight of her babies,” Rooda says. “They were dead. Fifteen minutes later, she lay on another one. I was so frustrated. I was just like, I have to figure out a way to solve this problem.” In 2015, Rooda and…

IN 2017, when Jamie Marshall and Kevin Tan were students at Yale, they thought the same thing generations of students had thought before: Waiting in line for food is annoying. But unlike others, they decided to solve the problem. They created Snackpass, an app that lets users order ahead for fast and easy pickup, all the while earning rewards points that can be shared with friends. At launch, 80 percent of Yale students started using the app, and restaurants were quick to partner with it. (It charges about 10 percent or less per order, which is much lower than most delivery apps.) “Other food apps need to burn money to acquire and incentivize drivers,” Tan says. “We’ve removed that line item from our equation.” Today, the app is used across…

YOU PROBABLY DON’T think much about those little stickers that come on produce, but they represent a potentially big problem. “Our journey began when one of our team members accidentally swallowed a plastic product sticker,” says Arya Mathew, CEO of Nature’s Label. “We determined that while relatively safe to consume, these stickers have a much more concerning impact on the environment.” In fact, each year, avocados, oranges, and bananas sold in the U.S. are labeled with enough plastic stickers to wrap around the Earth 1.6 times—and their presence forces nearly 15 percent of compost to be thrown into landfills. Now Mathew, along with cofounders Sophie Ye, 20, Khoi Ha, 21, Alyssa Mell, 21, and Siddhant Jain, 21, are creating a solution called Nature’s Label: eco-friendly stickers made of rice paper,…

During my last full-time job as an executive leader, my colleagues and I were asked to stand in front of the entire company and talk about which of the organization’s corporate values resonated with us the most. Our choices: self-awareness, positive energy, judgment, intellectual honesty, and empathy. These values, along with others like integrity, courage, passion, and fun, might look familiar. They’re the list of company values taped up in corner offices and corridors around the world, even if most employees never know they exist. “Empathy,” said the woman two seats down from me. “Because people say I’m good at connecting with other people.” Several nods from the crowd of supportive employees. “Empathy,” said the guy next to her, one seat down from me. “I care about other people, and…

Shirin Kanji works for his family’s business. But it’s a far cry from a mom-and-pop operation. Kanji serves as president of Impact RTO Holdings, a subsidiary of Impact Properties, a company his father started 35 years ago that’s focused on multi-unit franchising within hotels, restaurants, and retail. Kanji and his team focus primarily on the organization’s retail arm, specifically the 75 Rent-A-Centers they operate across eight states in the Southeast. “I created our retail division in 2015 with the acquisition of 40 Rent-A-Center stores, and now we have almost doubled that count, which is fast,” Kanji says. “This business for us has always been about people, and how we treat our customers and our employees. We want the presence and culture of our family to be felt, even as we…

1 BDO USA, LLP Professional services firm serving franchises worldwide 2 Deloitte Audit and assurance, tax, legal, risk and financial advisory, and consulting services 3 Grant Thornton Professional services firm offering audit, tax, and advisory services 4 PwC Audit, assurance, consulting, and tax services 5 Andrew Gianiodis, CPA Audit, tax, and business consulting 6 Plante Moran Audit, tax, wealth management, and business consulting services 7 KPMG LLP Professional services firm 8 RSM US LLP Audit, tax, and business consulting 9 Citrin Cooperman Accounting, tax, and advisory services 10 Kezos & Dunlavy Full-service CPA firm specializing in real estate tax and accounting, franchise audits, and related issues 11 EY Advisory, assurance, tax, and transaction services 12 The Franchise CPA Financial statement audits, royalty audits, and part-time CFO services 13 St. Clair…

1 iFranchise Group Franchise Franchise consulting and development for startup and existing franchisors 2 SMB Franchise Advisors Franchise consulting services for emerging brands 3 Big Sky Franchise Team Franchise consulting, development, and marketing 4 Franchise FastLane Franchise sales organization 5 Franchise Performance Group Franchise consulting firm specializing in franchise development 6 Better Way Franchise Group Franchise development planning, training, and outsourcing 7 Franchise Creator Franchise consulting, development, sales, and marketing for startup and existing franchisors 8 Zee Sprout Franchise development for emerging brands 9 Pinnacle Franchise Development Franchise development services, including sales, strategy, and consulting 10 BrandONE Franchise development services 11 MSA Worldwide Domestic and international design, development, and expansion for emerging franchisors 12 Brand Journalists Franchise development and lead generation marketing 13 Fransmart Franchise development company working with emerging…

SECURE PAYMENT PROCESSING services are more important than ever to franchises and other businesses. Franchisors and franchisees have lots of options to choose from here, with many of these suppliers offering complementary services such as analytics, loyalty programs, and consulting. 1 Square Payment processing, reporting and analytics, POS software, and business services 2 Franchise Payments Network Payment processing for franchise chains 3 Fiserv Payments and financial technology 4 Toast Cloud-based restaurant point-of-sale and management system 5 Elavon Payment processing solutions 6 Paypal Payment technology and software solutions 7 Wells Fargo Merchant Services Payment acceptance and processing 8 Chase Merchant Services Payment processing 9 Stripe Payments infrastructure and business applications 10 Worldpay from FIS Payment processing, software solutions, analytics, fraud protection, card solutions, consulting 11 PNC Merchant Services Merchant credit and…

Fishman PR “In our first year of national public relations efforts with Fishman, we saw a 158 percent increase in media exposure. In addition, they have shown up and shown true expertise with crisis communication support. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they were instrumental in our communication strategies and in developing best practices for our franchisees, our team members, and the communities we serve. During a time when we had to lean on our partners, Fishman PR showed how absolutely essential they are.”—SHANA KRISAN, VP of marketing, Goldfish Swim School 1 Fishman PR PR and content marketing for franchise lead generation and brand awareness 2 Fish Consulting Full-service national communications firm specializing in franchise PR and marketing 3 All Points Public Relations PR, social media, content marketing, digital and lead generation…

I started my career in 1987 as a new member of the New York City–based U.S. marketing and sales division of IBM. I was just a kid, so a team of senior reps took me under their wings and showed me the ropes. The lead rep was a man named Frank. He kept a small hourglass on his desk, and the first time I asked him what it was for, he said it was “to time the five minutes of stupidity I can tolerate before telling someone to leave.” I didn’t know him well enough at the time to understand whether he was kidding or serious, but I’d been told to listen to whatever Frank said. So I did. Over the next year, I learned that Frank was tough but…