Eyes on the future

When Jessica Linnell of Mt Maunganui was summoned to lunch by her employers in the middle of the summer holidays, she had no idea why. It turned out to be great news: David and Karen Dovey, the founders of the Exceed window and door maintenance company, told her that she had been selected as one of just 50 people worldwide to have won a place in the Young Entrepreneurs in Franchising competition sponsored by the US-based International Franchise Association Education Foundation.

Her prize was a trip to Las Vegas to attend the IFA’s annual conference in February and meet the other winners. Now she’s back and brimming with ideas picked up at the world’s largest meeting of franchise brains.

‘I must admit it was a bit daunting to walk into a room full of 5,000 people which was advertised as a “mixer”,’ she laughs. ‘You just had to go up to people and start a conversation. But people were really friendly and having a Kiwi accent helped. When people found out my parents live really close to Hobbiton, they were blown away!’

On a more serious note, she says people were more impressed to learn about the size and sophistication of the New Zealand franchise sector. ‘They had no idea we’re the most franchised country in the world, and when I told them Exceed was launching into Australia they were keen to know how we’d built such a strong system with only 20 franchisees at home. People got excited about meeting a 21-year-old social media marketer from New Zealand – it was crazy!’

Making A Difference

Jess’s entry had outlined her social media and personalised business apps for Exceed based on research which identified the need for Exceed to appear helpful and insightful to a predominantly female target market. It won her a place in an intense three-day workshop with 49 other bright young entrepreneurs from all around the world ­– the UK, Holland, India, Croatia, Brazil.

‘One young woman was creating a franchise to clean baby car seats while mum’s at the shops – that’s pretty smart,’ Jess says. ‘Another guy was developing what’s called ‘social franchising’ in Uganda. His business model provides a turnkey franchise package that enables local entrepreneurs to purify fresh drinking water to sell to local villages. It also functions as a fair lending bank, providing affordable down-payment and monthly pay-back terms. Apparently, 50 percent of water projects fail after 2-3 years due to a lack of local ownership, so this stands to make a real difference. Look it up, it’s called Jibu.’

Encourage And Empower

Jess and her fellow winners also had the chance to meet many of the top names in the US-based International Franchise Association. ‘We were welcomed by many members of the IFA council and they all took the time to talk to us and congratulate us individually. Throughout the conference there was an underlying theme of encouraging young people to step-up and the change that needs to happen within franchising to empower young entrepreneurs, instead of discouraging them because of their age.

‘Personally, I don’t see my age as a factor in my ability to bring growth to a business. Karen and David have been great in encouraging this. They employ two young executives and have given us some fairly heavy responsibilities as they expand into Australia, and they offer us full support to feel confident in our roles and the decisions we make in these roles. We couldn’t ask for more than that.

‘I’ve always been a business-oriented person. When I started with Exceed 18 months ago I had a Business Certificate and now I’m studying part-time for a full degree, but the conference was a real eye-opener in seeing just how big franchising is and how many people are passionate about what they do every day.’

Inspirational

‘One of the presentations to the Young Entrepreneurs group was from Tariq Farid. His immigrant family started a flower shop when he was just 17, still at school, and he developed a company called Edible Arrangements which does food bouquets. He now has over 1000 outlets around the US and is just launching into the UK, and he still hand-picks every franchisee himself. His story, and his passion and drive, were an inspiration to us all.

‘And I was lucky enough to attend a seminar in the full conference all about Social Media Marketing. The topics and ideas that each of the three panellists talked about were right on the money, so I have a note pad filled with ideas and strategies that I’m currently working to integrate into my marketing calendar.’

The IFA’s Young Entrepreneur initiative looks set to take off. ‘There’s talk of an alumni class and of taking the concept to other countries around the world. I loved learning all about franchising: where the idea came from, how people turned it into a functioning business model, how they worked through the problems they faced and developed strategies for the future.

‘It was incredibly exciting to see people my age bring to life franchise ideas that will surely change the world of franchising as we know it. I think it’s fantastic and I’d love to be involved in a New Zealand version,’ Jess says.