June 30, 2025 • 19 mins
Are you interested in franchising your business, but wondering when the right time is to do so? Or maybe, you recently franchise and you are faced with some challenges. Our guest today is Michele Henry, and she shares with us her miss of not franchising her first business and her make of inviting the right franchisees into her system.
TODAY'S WIN-WIN:
Invite the right franchisees to join her system.
LINKS FROM THE EPISODE:
- Schedule your free franchise consultation with Big Sky Franchise Team: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/.
- You can visit our guest's website at:
- Attend our Franchise Sales Training Workshop:
- https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/franchisesalestraining/
- Connect with our guest on social:
- https://www.instagram.com/facefoundrie/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/facefoundrie/
https://www.facebook.com/facefoundrie/
- https://www.instagram.com/facefoundrie/
ABOUT OUR GUEST:
Michele Henry, grew up in a family of entrepreneurs and knew from a young age that she wanted to follow in their footsteps. Following the birth of her third child, Michele struggled to find skincare treatments that addressed the changes in her skin caused by hormonal shifts, age, pregnancies, and life’s demands. This prompted her mission to fill a void in the aesthetics market. From inception, FACE FOUNDRIÉ was designed to be a franchise concept, empowering entrepreneurs to grow + scale their businesses through FACE FOUNDRIÉ’s franchise opportunities. Michele has achieved success, multiple accolades, having been named EY Entrepreneur of the Year + profiled in Forbes. She is a member of Young President Organization (YPO) and serves on the Board of Directors. Michele was recognized on the Minnesota 40 under 40. FACE FOUNDRIÉ also ranked as the 35th fastest-growing private company in the Midwest by Inc Magazine, demonstrating its commitment to growth + innovation.
ABOUT BIG SKY FRANCHISE TEAM:
This episode is powered by Big Sky Franchise Team. If you are ready to talk about franchising your business you can schedule your free, no-obligation, franchise consultation online at: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/.
The information provided in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered financial, legal, or professional advice. Always consult with a qualified professional before making any business decisions. The views and opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host, Big Sky Franchise Team, or our affiliates. Additionally, this podcast may feature sponsors or advertisers, but any mention of products or services does not constitute an endorsement. Please do your own research before making any purchasing or business decisions.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tom DuFore (00:01):
Welcome to the Multiply your Success podcast,
where each week, we helpgrowth-minded entrepreneurs and
franchise leaders take the nextstep in their expansion journey.
I'm your host, tom DuFore, ceoof Big Sky Franchise Team, and
as we open today, I'm wonderingif you are interested in maybe
franchising your business, butwondering when the right time is
to do so.
Or maybe you recentlyfranchised and you're faced with
(00:24):
some challenges.
Well, our guest today isMichele Henry, and she shares
with us her myths of notfranchising with her first
business and her make ofinviting the right franchisees
into her system Now.
Michele grew up in a family ofentrepreneurs and knew from a
young age that she wanted tofollow in their footsteps.
Following the birth of herthird child, Michele struggled
(00:45):
to find skincare treatments thataddressed the challenges in her
skin caused by hormone shifts,age, pregnancies and life's
demands.
This prompted her mission tofill a void in the aesthetics
market.
From inception, face Foundrywas designed to be a franchise
concept empowering entrepreneursto grow and scale their
business through Faze Foundry'sfranchise opportunities.
(01:05):
Michele has received multipleaccolades, having been named
Ernst Young's Entrepreneur ofthe Year and profiled in Forbes.
She's a member of the YoungPresident Organization, ypo, and
serves on the board ofdirectors, Michele was
recognized on the Minnesota 40Under 40, and Faze Foundry is
also ranked as the 35th fastestgrowing private company in the
(01:26):
Midwest by Inc Magazine.
You're going to love thisinterview, so let's go ahead and
jump right into it.
Michele Henry (01:32):
Happy to be here.
Thank you, tom.
My name is Michele Henry.
I am the founder and CEO ofFace Foundry and we are a
focused facial bar and thefranchisor of now 56 locations
across the country.
Tom DuFore (01:47):
Wonderful.
Well, congratulations on yourgrowth and the expansion you've
had, and we always like havingfranchise guests on to talk
about their franchise journeyand part of what they've done
and our business.
We kind of are in thisthreshold or precipice between
an entrepreneur and franchisingand kind of teeter-totter
between them.
I'd love for you to just talk alittle bit about your journey
(02:10):
to starting your business.
Michele Henry (02:12):
Yeah, absolutely.
So I'm going to take you wayback.
I actually grew up in a familybusiness and it was the best
education I could have ever had,because I learned a lot about
entrepreneurship and what ittook and my parents worked super
hard.
My dad actually still owns thatbusiness and I lived it.
(02:33):
I breathed it.
I worked for him for almost 13years.
It's an in-ground pool company,so learned a ton Fast forward.
I ended up starting a clothingcompany and we grew organically.
We ended up servicing about amillion women over our tenure
and grew it to about 25 millionin sales.
The day I sold that company, Igave myself five minutes.
(02:57):
So I signed the purchaseagreement for that company and I
had five minutes.
I walked downstairs, I signedthe lease for the Galleria Face
Foundry, which was our flagshiplocation, and I knew whatever I
did next, it had to be afranchise, because I absolutely
love that model.
I love being able to meetreally inspired, excited
(03:20):
individuals that want to beentrepreneurs, that want that
roadmap to success, and that wasreally important.
So I really charted out a pathto make sure that we could
franchise FaceFoundry from dayone.
So we wrote down all of ouroperations.
We made sure that we had areally nice roadmap and, oddly
(03:42):
enough, we went to go franchise,we had a year's worth of data
and it was March 1st 2020.
So you can probably guess thetiming was impeccable.
I'm kidding, that's a joke.
Tom DuFore (03:53):
COVID hit.
Oh my goodness gracious, wow.
Talk about, like you said,timing for your business model.
That's incredible.
So what'd you do then when youhit the crossroads?
Michele Henry (04:04):
Yeah, we had two corporate locations open.
The whole idea was to have aproof of concept, so I ideally
wanted three locations indifferent various trade areas.
We had to pause.
We actually were mandated bythe state of Minnesota, like
many others, to close down andit ended up being, you know,
several months before we couldopen back up and it was such a
(04:27):
guessing game when are we gonnabe able to open?
In hindsight it was such ablessing in disguise because we
kind of reestablished all of ouroperating manuals, all of our
training to be online, so itreally was able to catapult us
and we were able to jumpstart.
When we did launch franchisingagain, it was very fast and
(04:48):
furious.
We sold the state out in 30days.
We ended up selling 34 unitsvery quickly in that first year.
So blessing in disguise, buthindsight's everything right.
Tom DuFore (05:01):
Absolutely, and that's really really rapid
growth that you share and with34 units coming on in one year.
One question I'm always curiousabout is how you manage that,
especially as a brand newfranchisor.
That kind of growth I've seenactually crush franchise systems
and obviously that did nothappen with you all.
So how did you respond to thatgrowth to make sure you could
(05:24):
support the franchisees thatwere coming on board?
Michele Henry (05:27):
I think it's with any business, you have to have
a really strong team and astrong team that can understand
what their role andresponsibility is, and that was
just very important.
We are very fortunate.
I think our team is world class.
They are such hard workers,they have that kind of small
(05:48):
business mentality, they feel asense of ownership.
So I would bring it back to ourteam is phenomenal, and they
understand what growing painsmight look like and they help
work through as a team to makeour system better.
Tom DuFore (06:02):
As you launched this business, the plan was to
franchise right from the get-go.
So I know you mentioned youknew you wanted to franchise,
but how did you decide that, orwhat led you to be so certain
that was what you wanted to do?
Michele Henry (06:15):
That's a great question, tom.
So I touched on this myprevious business.
It was a women's clothing chain.
We grew it debt-free.
It was very bootstrapped and weexplored franchising with that
business model very early on andthere was a lot of long
conversations Is this theconcept to franchise?
What are the nuances?
(06:35):
And I learned a lot aboutfranchising through that process
and understanding.
You know, actually this isn'tthe right concept to franchise.
In turn, I think then I reallyfell in love with the
franchising model in general.
So I love that I could readFDDs and I started to become
obsessed.
If there was a franchiseconcept that caught my eye, I
(06:55):
was paging through, you know,nighttime reading 200 pages.
Later I'm reading these FDDsand learning what makes a strong
concept and what doesn't, andhow could I apply this in the
future for future businesses.
So I think I learned a lot inthat process that we eventually
didn't pull the trigger on withthat model, but it was a
(07:18):
learning process for sure.
Tom DuFore (07:20):
You definitely are the exception to the rule.
It's rare to find entrepreneurs, especially entrepreneurs that
are willing to and interested inreading the FDDs and many of
them it is not light reading, sokudos to you on making that
commitment to do that.
That's wonderful.
As you've talked about growingyour over 50 units and
(07:42):
continuing to expand, and youtalked about your great team
that's in place, will you sharea little bit about, maybe some
of the types of roles and thingsthat you have your team doing
to support the growth of yourfranchise system, to make sure
that those franchisees are notjust opening but the goal is
that they open and they sustainand hopefully thrive long-term.
(08:05):
So talk through that if youwouldn't mind.
Michele Henry (08:08):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think that our system and theway we operate, we take our
franchisees through every singleprocess and meet them where
they're at, so I think that'ssomething that's really unique
and our ability to go in andwork with a franchisee.
If they have a marketingbackground, great, we can build
off of that.
If they don't, wonderful, let'stake a few steps back and let's
(08:30):
start the process from you know, square one.
Same with build outs.
I think it's so important Ourhead of development actually
built out.
He worked for SEB brands for along time, so self-esteem brands
, wax in the City.
He also built out a lot ofcaribous.
He knows, start to finish, whatit takes to open a face foundry
(08:51):
and having that person in yourcorner, especially as a new
franchisee, especially if you'venever ever built out a retail
store before that's a huge asset.
And he breaks it down step bystep, and so that project
management is crucial and Ithink it just starts you out on
(09:13):
the right foot so you can reallyfocus then on your operations.
Most people think, okay, theyhear face foundry, they hear
we're a facial bar.
They might assume, okay, I haveto be an esthetician or have
some sort of skincare background.
That's actually not the case.
I would say very few of ourfranchisees come from the
aesthetics world, and what'swonderful is we have a great
team that teaches ourfranchisees what to look for
(09:35):
when they are hiring, when theyare training, when they are
doing test outs.
All of that is spelled out forthem, so you really do leave and
feel like you have an honorarydegree in aesthetics and you can
then jumpstart your businessfrom there.
On top of that, I would saywhat's really unique is we have
quarterly coaching conversationswhere we can come in and help
(09:58):
develop your team if they needrefreshers on, say, membership,
sales or how to approachproducts.
We are trying to touch on everysingle level, and so marketing
is always going that's always inthe background.
Development is always goingthat's in the forefront but
making sure that, no matterwhere our franchisees are at, we
(10:19):
are able to fill those gaps orareas of opportunities.
Tom DuFore (10:24):
You mentioned a word that stood out to me in terms
of being unique, and I alwayslike to ask, in terms of your
business model, what are some ofthe things that differentiate
your business or make yourcompany unique?
Michele Henry (10:38):
Oh, so many, Tom.
I would say, first of all,what's really attractive is our
price point.
I think we surprise and delightclients with the level of
service that we offer, knowingthat it is an approachable price
point.
Most people think of going tothe spa or getting a facial and
they think of that kind ofspecial birthday celebration or
(11:01):
once a year celebration andtruly, what we've been able to
do is disrupt that industry andoffer monthly memberships that
are very, very price consciousand make sure that we're
awarding and really surprisingpeople with our level of
services, with our estheticians.
So I think that's first andforemost.
(11:21):
We offer consistency too.
I think that's very important.
What we found in our competitorset is that you can go to
different spas or facial barsand it's an inconsistent
experience, and we've reallytaken our client journey and
broken it down to make sure thatif you get a service in Sioux
Falls or Sarasota, it's theexact same thing and you know
(11:44):
exactly what to expect as aclient.
Tom DuFore (11:48):
One question I always like to ask every
franchisor that comes on theshow at this stage is what
advice you would give to anemerging franchisor that's
launching, that's maybe tryingto sell their first 5, 10, 20
franchises.
You saw some rapid growth asyou first launched.
What advice would you give tosomeone?
I?
Michele Henry (12:08):
always love this question right, because I think
that, looking back you, you canpull so much information as to
what you wish you would havedone.
One thing I feel like I wasfortunate to have, from the jump
, a fantastic franchise attorneythat understands what growth
would look like.
So having an FDD, that'ssomething that you can
(12:31):
understand and that you cananswer all of the questions,
because you're going to get alot of them right From potential
franchisees.
So having amazing counsel is,first and foremost, goes back to
that team mentality.
Make sure your team isfantastic.
On that same note, making surethat you know your numbers,
understand your business, andthat goes hand in hand.
(12:54):
If you are an entrepreneur andyou understand your business,
you have to know your numbers.
That goes hand in hand.
If you are an entrepreneur andyou understand your business,
you have to know your numbers,because the FDD is an open book
right, and everybody gets to seeyour numbers and see where
sales come from and see,obviously, at the end of the day
, what your net income is.
So knowing those numbers arecrucial.
Tom DuFore (13:13):
I think those are two call-outs how can someone
get in touch with you or learn alittle bit more about what
you're doing, or if they mightlisten to this say hey, I'm
interested.
Michele Henry (13:23):
Absolutely so.
If you go on the Face Foundrywebsite, foundry is spelled with
an I-E at the end, sofacefoundrycom there is a
franchising tab.
You'll be able to flip throughour franchising book.
You'll be able to see our sites, different locations, we have
all of the benefits of being anowner and you will also see a
(13:43):
contact page.
That's probably the best way todo it.
Tom DuFore (13:47):
Well, this is a great time in the show, Michele,
and we make a transition and weask every guest the same four
questions before they go.
Michele Henry (13:54):
And the first question we ask is have you had
a miss or two on your journeyand something you learned from
it?
Yeah, I.
Okay, let me I'll touch on amiss that I had very early on.
I committed to a new productthat I really wanted to push.
It was this beautiful Gua Shastone set and we had to commit
to a huge number of them, soflying them over it was very
(14:19):
costly and we ended up reallymissing on that and that product
launch just did not take, and Ithink that was a miss that I
learned very early in thatprocess that over committing to
too high of a quantity ofproducts can really drown you
(14:40):
and it's a capital suck and atime suck.
And so beta testing, somethingon a smaller scale, aim small,
miss small.
I think that's crucial.
And so, keeping that mindsetit's hard because, of course, as
a entrepreneur and as a dreamerand as a visionary, you want to
just, you know take comfort inthis idea is going to blow it
out of the water, and I thinktaking a step back, as a
entrepreneur and as a dreamerand as a visionary, you want to,
just, you know take comfort inthis idea is going to blow it
(15:00):
out of the water.
And I think taking a step backand understanding that you know
there's real capital constraintsif you, if you aim too big and
ultimately time constraints.
Tom DuFore (15:12):
Well, let's look at the flip side of this.
Let's talk about a highlight, awin or a make that you'd like
to share.
Michele Henry (15:20):
I would say the make has been inviting brilliant
franchisees into our system.
I can't give enough credit tothe franchisees that have come
in and they've come in fromother brands or they've owned
their own businesses.
Either way, they have beeninstrumental in building
FaceFoundry into what it istoday.
(15:41):
So I definitely think that themake would be the franchisees
that we have in FaceFoundry.
Tom DuFore (15:49):
Well and you used a really interesting word there
the franchisees that you invitedinto your system and I love
that is keeping this focused onan award you're granting or
awarding, or allowing folks tocome into the system.
I think that's the rightmindset.
Well, let's talk about amultiplier.
The name of the show isMultiply your Success.
(16:09):
Have you used a multiplier togrow yourself personally,
professionally or any of theorganizations you've run?
Michele Henry (16:15):
You know what?
Actually, the multiplier thatcomes to mind, truthfully, is a
group that I'm a part of and Ihave gained so many mentors
through this group, and it's aleadership group that has really
challenged me to continue togrow and change my thought
process around business ingeneral.
So it's called YPO, and I don'tknow if you've heard of it
(16:40):
before, but it's truly changedmy life, and the people you
surround yourself with and theirmentality really does get
absorbed into who you become,and I think that's so important
to surround yourself withlike-minded, positive people,
and YPO has done just that forme.
So I'm very, very gracious andgrateful.
Tom DuFore (17:01):
Networking groups, mastermind groups, these
leadership groups that like aYPO and there are others out
there, and finding the right fitis so critical.
I think that's great.
Well, Michele, the finalquestion we ask every guest is
what does success mean to you?
Michele Henry (17:20):
question we ask every guest is what does success
mean to you?
I would say success to me ishow my kids view me.
As a mother, as a businessowner, as a parent.
I think about success and to meit's a synonym for legacy, and
the legacy I want to leavebehind is, hopefully, inspiring
confidence through, obviously,our facial bars, through Face
(17:41):
Foundry, being able to buildlegacies with our franchisees
and our staff members, butultimately being able to build a
legacy that my kids are proudof.
So I would say they're verymuch intertwined.
Tom DuFore (17:56):
Michele, thank you so much for a fantastic
interview and let's go ahead andjump into today's three key
takeaways.
So takeaway number one is whenshe talked about when she knew
she wanted to franchise and shesaid she knew she had missed the
opportunity with her firstcompany that she started.
So when she launched her secondbusiness, she came into it with
(18:17):
the mindset of franchisingright from the get-go.
Takeaway number two is when shegave some advice to emerging
franchisors and she said find aquality franchise attorney and
know your numbers.
I thought that was great and,by the way, part of what we do
with our company is make sure werefer you and get you connected
with some great franchiseattorneys as part of the process
(18:39):
.
Takeaway number three is whatshe defined as success and I
loved her view of it.
She said success is how herkids view her and building a
legacy her kids are proud of.
And now it's time for today'swin-win.
So today's win-win is when shesaid she made sure and this was
(19:01):
her make that she made sure sheinvited the right franchisees to
join her system, and I lovedhow she chose that word invited
the right franchisees to joinher system.
That's a win for her, it's awin for the franchisees as well,
because it's the right matchfor both of them to be pairing
up together, and so that's a winfor her.
It's a win for the franchiseesas well, because it's the right
match for both of them to bepairing up together, and so
(19:21):
that's the episode today.
Folks, please make sure yousubscribe to the podcast and
give us a review, and rememberif you or anyone you know might
be ready to franchise theirbusiness or take their franchise
company to the next level.
Please connect with us atbigskyfranchiseteamcom.
Thanks for tuning in and welook forward to having you back
next week.
Welcome to the Multiply your Success podcast,
where each week, we helpgrowth-minded entrepreneurs and
franchise leaders take the nextstep in their expansion journey.
I'm your host, tom DuFore, ceoof Big Sky Franchise Team, and
as we open today, I'm wonderingif you are interested in maybe
franchising your business, butwondering when the right time is
to do so.
Or maybe you recentlyfranchised and you're faced with
(00:24):
some challenges.
Well, our guest today isMichele Henry, and she shares
with us her myths of notfranchising with her first
business and her make ofinviting the right franchisees
into her system Now.
Michele grew up in a family ofentrepreneurs and knew from a
young age that she wanted tofollow in their footsteps.
Following the birth of herthird child, Michele struggled
(00:45):
to find skincare treatments thataddressed the challenges in her
skin caused by hormone shifts,age, pregnancies and life's
demands.
This prompted her mission tofill a void in the aesthetics
market.
From inception, face Foundrywas designed to be a franchise
concept empowering entrepreneursto grow and scale their
business through Faze Foundry'sfranchise opportunities.
(01:05):
Michele has received multipleaccolades, having been named
Ernst Young's Entrepreneur ofthe Year and profiled in Forbes.
She's a member of the YoungPresident Organization, ypo, and
serves on the board ofdirectors, Michele was
recognized on the Minnesota 40Under 40, and Faze Foundry is
also ranked as the 35th fastestgrowing private company in the
(01:26):
Midwest by Inc Magazine.
You're going to love thisinterview, so let's go ahead and
jump right into it.
Michele Henry (01:32):
Happy to be here.
Thank you, tom.
My name is Michele Henry.
I am the founder and CEO ofFace Foundry and we are a
focused facial bar and thefranchisor of now 56 locations
across the country.
Tom DuFore (01:47):
Wonderful.
Well, congratulations on yourgrowth and the expansion you've
had, and we always like havingfranchise guests on to talk
about their franchise journeyand part of what they've done
and our business.
We kind of are in thisthreshold or precipice between
an entrepreneur and franchisingand kind of teeter-totter
between them.
I'd love for you to just talk alittle bit about your journey
(02:10):
to starting your business.
Michele Henry (02:12):
Yeah, absolutely.
So I'm going to take you wayback.
I actually grew up in a familybusiness and it was the best
education I could have ever had,because I learned a lot about
entrepreneurship and what ittook and my parents worked super
hard.
My dad actually still owns thatbusiness and I lived it.
(02:33):
I breathed it.
I worked for him for almost 13years.
It's an in-ground pool company,so learned a ton Fast forward.
I ended up starting a clothingcompany and we grew organically.
We ended up servicing about amillion women over our tenure
and grew it to about 25 millionin sales.
The day I sold that company, Igave myself five minutes.
(02:57):
So I signed the purchaseagreement for that company and I
had five minutes.
I walked downstairs, I signedthe lease for the Galleria Face
Foundry, which was our flagshiplocation, and I knew whatever I
did next, it had to be afranchise, because I absolutely
love that model.
I love being able to meetreally inspired, excited
(03:20):
individuals that want to beentrepreneurs, that want that
roadmap to success, and that wasreally important.
So I really charted out a pathto make sure that we could
franchise FaceFoundry from dayone.
So we wrote down all of ouroperations.
We made sure that we had areally nice roadmap and, oddly
(03:42):
enough, we went to go franchise,we had a year's worth of data
and it was March 1st 2020.
So you can probably guess thetiming was impeccable.
I'm kidding, that's a joke.
Tom DuFore (03:53):
COVID hit.
Oh my goodness gracious, wow.
Talk about, like you said,timing for your business model.
That's incredible.
So what'd you do then when youhit the crossroads?
Michele Henry (04:04):
Yeah, we had two corporate locations open.
The whole idea was to have aproof of concept, so I ideally
wanted three locations indifferent various trade areas.
We had to pause.
We actually were mandated bythe state of Minnesota, like
many others, to close down andit ended up being, you know,
several months before we couldopen back up and it was such a
(04:27):
guessing game when are we gonnabe able to open?
In hindsight it was such ablessing in disguise because we
kind of reestablished all of ouroperating manuals, all of our
training to be online, so itreally was able to catapult us
and we were able to jumpstart.
When we did launch franchisingagain, it was very fast and
(04:48):
furious.
We sold the state out in 30days.
We ended up selling 34 unitsvery quickly in that first year.
So blessing in disguise, buthindsight's everything right.
Tom DuFore (05:01):
Absolutely, and that's really really rapid
growth that you share and with34 units coming on in one year.
One question I'm always curiousabout is how you manage that,
especially as a brand newfranchisor.
That kind of growth I've seenactually crush franchise systems
and obviously that did nothappen with you all.
So how did you respond to thatgrowth to make sure you could
(05:24):
support the franchisees thatwere coming on board?
Michele Henry (05:27):
I think it's with any business, you have to have
a really strong team and astrong team that can understand
what their role andresponsibility is, and that was
just very important.
We are very fortunate.
I think our team is world class.
They are such hard workers,they have that kind of small
(05:48):
business mentality, they feel asense of ownership.
So I would bring it back to ourteam is phenomenal, and they
understand what growing painsmight look like and they help
work through as a team to makeour system better.
Tom DuFore (06:02):
As you launched this business, the plan was to
franchise right from the get-go.
So I know you mentioned youknew you wanted to franchise,
but how did you decide that, orwhat led you to be so certain
that was what you wanted to do?
Michele Henry (06:15):
That's a great question, tom.
So I touched on this myprevious business.
It was a women's clothing chain.
We grew it debt-free.
It was very bootstrapped and weexplored franchising with that
business model very early on andthere was a lot of long
conversations Is this theconcept to franchise?
What are the nuances?
(06:35):
And I learned a lot aboutfranchising through that process
and understanding.
You know, actually this isn'tthe right concept to franchise.
In turn, I think then I reallyfell in love with the
franchising model in general.
So I love that I could readFDDs and I started to become
obsessed.
If there was a franchiseconcept that caught my eye, I
(06:55):
was paging through, you know,nighttime reading 200 pages.
Later I'm reading these FDDsand learning what makes a strong
concept and what doesn't, andhow could I apply this in the
future for future businesses.
So I think I learned a lot inthat process that we eventually
didn't pull the trigger on withthat model, but it was a
(07:18):
learning process for sure.
Tom DuFore (07:20):
You definitely are the exception to the rule.
It's rare to find entrepreneurs, especially entrepreneurs that
are willing to and interested inreading the FDDs and many of
them it is not light reading, sokudos to you on making that
commitment to do that.
That's wonderful.
As you've talked about growingyour over 50 units and
(07:42):
continuing to expand, and youtalked about your great team
that's in place, will you sharea little bit about, maybe some
of the types of roles and thingsthat you have your team doing
to support the growth of yourfranchise system, to make sure
that those franchisees are notjust opening but the goal is
that they open and they sustainand hopefully thrive long-term.
(08:05):
So talk through that if youwouldn't mind.
Michele Henry (08:08):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think that our system and theway we operate, we take our
franchisees through every singleprocess and meet them where
they're at, so I think that'ssomething that's really unique
and our ability to go in andwork with a franchisee.
If they have a marketingbackground, great, we can build
off of that.
If they don't, wonderful, let'stake a few steps back and let's
(08:30):
start the process from you know, square one.
Same with build outs.
I think it's so important Ourhead of development actually
built out.
He worked for SEB brands for along time, so self-esteem brands
, wax in the City.
He also built out a lot ofcaribous.
He knows, start to finish, whatit takes to open a face foundry
(08:51):
and having that person in yourcorner, especially as a new
franchisee, especially if you'venever ever built out a retail
store before that's a huge asset.
And he breaks it down step bystep, and so that project
management is crucial and Ithink it just starts you out on
(09:13):
the right foot so you can reallyfocus then on your operations.
Most people think, okay, theyhear face foundry, they hear
we're a facial bar.
They might assume, okay, I haveto be an esthetician or have
some sort of skincare background.
That's actually not the case.
I would say very few of ourfranchisees come from the
aesthetics world, and what'swonderful is we have a great
team that teaches ourfranchisees what to look for
(09:35):
when they are hiring, when theyare training, when they are
doing test outs.
All of that is spelled out forthem, so you really do leave and
feel like you have an honorarydegree in aesthetics and you can
then jumpstart your businessfrom there.
On top of that, I would saywhat's really unique is we have
quarterly coaching conversationswhere we can come in and help
(09:58):
develop your team if they needrefreshers on, say, membership,
sales or how to approachproducts.
We are trying to touch on everysingle level, and so marketing
is always going that's always inthe background.
Development is always goingthat's in the forefront but
making sure that, no matterwhere our franchisees are at, we
(10:19):
are able to fill those gaps orareas of opportunities.
Tom DuFore (10:24):
You mentioned a word that stood out to me in terms
of being unique, and I alwayslike to ask, in terms of your
business model, what are some ofthe things that differentiate
your business or make yourcompany unique?
Michele Henry (10:38):
Oh, so many, Tom.
I would say, first of all,what's really attractive is our
price point.
I think we surprise and delightclients with the level of
service that we offer, knowingthat it is an approachable price
point.
Most people think of going tothe spa or getting a facial and
they think of that kind ofspecial birthday celebration or
(11:01):
once a year celebration andtruly, what we've been able to
do is disrupt that industry andoffer monthly memberships that
are very, very price consciousand make sure that we're
awarding and really surprisingpeople with our level of
services, with our estheticians.
So I think that's first andforemost.
(11:21):
We offer consistency too.
I think that's very important.
What we found in our competitorset is that you can go to
different spas or facial barsand it's an inconsistent
experience, and we've reallytaken our client journey and
broken it down to make sure thatif you get a service in Sioux
Falls or Sarasota, it's theexact same thing and you know
(11:44):
exactly what to expect as aclient.
Tom DuFore (11:48):
One question I always like to ask every
franchisor that comes on theshow at this stage is what
advice you would give to anemerging franchisor that's
launching, that's maybe tryingto sell their first 5, 10, 20
franchises.
You saw some rapid growth asyou first launched.
What advice would you give tosomeone?
I?
Michele Henry (12:08):
always love this question right, because I think
that, looking back you, you canpull so much information as to
what you wish you would havedone.
One thing I feel like I wasfortunate to have, from the jump
, a fantastic franchise attorneythat understands what growth
would look like.
So having an FDD, that'ssomething that you can
(12:31):
understand and that you cananswer all of the questions,
because you're going to get alot of them right From potential
franchisees.
So having amazing counsel is,first and foremost, goes back to
that team mentality.
Make sure your team isfantastic.
On that same note, making surethat you know your numbers,
understand your business, andthat goes hand in hand.
(12:54):
If you are an entrepreneur andyou understand your business,
you have to know your numbers.
That goes hand in hand.
If you are an entrepreneur andyou understand your business,
you have to know your numbers,because the FDD is an open book
right, and everybody gets to seeyour numbers and see where
sales come from and see,obviously, at the end of the day
, what your net income is.
So knowing those numbers arecrucial.
Tom DuFore (13:13):
I think those are two call-outs how can someone
get in touch with you or learn alittle bit more about what
you're doing, or if they mightlisten to this say hey, I'm
interested.
Michele Henry (13:23):
Absolutely so.
If you go on the Face Foundrywebsite, foundry is spelled with
an I-E at the end, sofacefoundrycom there is a
franchising tab.
You'll be able to flip throughour franchising book.
You'll be able to see our sites, different locations, we have
all of the benefits of being anowner and you will also see a
(13:43):
contact page.
That's probably the best way todo it.
Tom DuFore (13:47):
Well, this is a great time in the show, Michele,
and we make a transition and weask every guest the same four
questions before they go.
Michele Henry (13:54):
And the first question we ask is have you had
a miss or two on your journeyand something you learned from
it?
Yeah, I.
Okay, let me I'll touch on amiss that I had very early on.
I committed to a new productthat I really wanted to push.
It was this beautiful Gua Shastone set and we had to commit
to a huge number of them, soflying them over it was very
(14:19):
costly and we ended up reallymissing on that and that product
launch just did not take, and Ithink that was a miss that I
learned very early in thatprocess that over committing to
too high of a quantity ofproducts can really drown you
(14:40):
and it's a capital suck and atime suck.
And so beta testing, somethingon a smaller scale, aim small,
miss small.
I think that's crucial.
And so, keeping that mindsetit's hard because, of course, as
a entrepreneur and as a dreamerand as a visionary, you want to
just, you know take comfort inthis idea is going to blow it
out of the water, and I thinktaking a step back, as a
entrepreneur and as a dreamerand as a visionary, you want to,
just, you know take comfort inthis idea is going to blow it
(15:00):
out of the water.
And I think taking a step backand understanding that you know
there's real capital constraintsif you, if you aim too big and
ultimately time constraints.
Tom DuFore (15:12):
Well, let's look at the flip side of this.
Let's talk about a highlight, awin or a make that you'd like
to share.
Michele Henry (15:20):
I would say the make has been inviting brilliant
franchisees into our system.
I can't give enough credit tothe franchisees that have come
in and they've come in fromother brands or they've owned
their own businesses.
Either way, they have beeninstrumental in building
FaceFoundry into what it istoday.
(15:41):
So I definitely think that themake would be the franchisees
that we have in FaceFoundry.
Tom DuFore (15:49):
Well and you used a really interesting word there
the franchisees that you invitedinto your system and I love
that is keeping this focused onan award you're granting or
awarding, or allowing folks tocome into the system.
I think that's the rightmindset.
Well, let's talk about amultiplier.
The name of the show isMultiply your Success.
(16:09):
Have you used a multiplier togrow yourself personally,
professionally or any of theorganizations you've run?
Michele Henry (16:15):
You know what?
Actually, the multiplier thatcomes to mind, truthfully, is a
group that I'm a part of and Ihave gained so many mentors
through this group, and it's aleadership group that has really
challenged me to continue togrow and change my thought
process around business ingeneral.
So it's called YPO, and I don'tknow if you've heard of it
(16:40):
before, but it's truly changedmy life, and the people you
surround yourself with and theirmentality really does get
absorbed into who you become,and I think that's so important
to surround yourself withlike-minded, positive people,
and YPO has done just that forme.
So I'm very, very gracious andgrateful.
Tom DuFore (17:01):
Networking groups, mastermind groups, these
leadership groups that like aYPO and there are others out
there, and finding the right fitis so critical.
I think that's great.
Well, Michele, the finalquestion we ask every guest is
what does success mean to you?
Michele Henry (17:20):
question we ask every guest is what does success
mean to you?
I would say success to me ishow my kids view me.
As a mother, as a businessowner, as a parent.
I think about success and to meit's a synonym for legacy, and
the legacy I want to leavebehind is, hopefully, inspiring
confidence through, obviously,our facial bars, through Face
(17:41):
Foundry, being able to buildlegacies with our franchisees
and our staff members, butultimately being able to build a
legacy that my kids are proudof.
So I would say they're verymuch intertwined.
Tom DuFore (17:56):
Michele, thank you so much for a fantastic
interview and let's go ahead andjump into today's three key
takeaways.
So takeaway number one is whenshe talked about when she knew
she wanted to franchise and shesaid she knew she had missed the
opportunity with her firstcompany that she started.
So when she launched her secondbusiness, she came into it with
(18:17):
the mindset of franchisingright from the get-go.
Takeaway number two is when shegave some advice to emerging
franchisors and she said find aquality franchise attorney and
know your numbers.
I thought that was great and,by the way, part of what we do
with our company is make sure werefer you and get you connected
with some great franchiseattorneys as part of the process
(18:39):
.
Takeaway number three is whatshe defined as success and I
loved her view of it.
She said success is how herkids view her and building a
legacy her kids are proud of.
And now it's time for today'swin-win.
So today's win-win is when shesaid she made sure and this was
(19:01):
her make that she made sure sheinvited the right franchisees to
join her system, and I lovedhow she chose that word invited
the right franchisees to joinher system.
That's a win for her, it's awin for the franchisees as well,
because it's the right matchfor both of them to be pairing
up together, and so that's a winfor her.
It's a win for the franchiseesas well, because it's the right
match for both of them to bepairing up together, and so
(19:21):
that's the episode today.
Folks, please make sure yousubscribe to the podcast and
give us a review, and rememberif you or anyone you know might
be ready to franchise theirbusiness or take their franchise
company to the next level.
Please connect with us atbigskyfranchiseteamcom.
Thanks for tuning in and welook forward to having you back
next week.
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