<p class="g_eyebrow_text">BACKSTORY</p>

Health & Wellness

I really liked the European Wax Center brand. It was already well developed but I was lucky enough to obtain one franchise license for South Florida. I was in the process of building out my first store and Corporate asked me if I was interested in acquiring two company owned stores in the same territory. Basically I opened a brand new store and took over two stores, all within a very short period.

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When I decided to move forward with Restore it was because the fitness and wellness aspects really resonated with me. I liked the way they presented the brand and the way they intended to roll it out nationally. We were the seventh group into the brand and that allowed us to obtain a territory versus just one or two unit licence. That was exciting and inspiring and why we chose to go with Restore Hyper Wellness as our next brand.

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Second Careers

After practicing law for 24 years I needed a change. I was looking for a transition out of the law and into the business world and I chose franchising because I thought that would be the smoothest transition for me.

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<p class="g_eyebrow_text">CHALLENGE</p>

A Time of Paperwork

So I came from the legal world into the franchise world and was a brand new business owner. And all of a sudden I was going from zero to owning three stores in a really short period of time. It was a real challenge to manage the forecasting because European Wax Center receivables can be funky with passes and such aspects, let alone the SBA process which is complicated, even with a good lender.  And it was complicated because we were building one and purchasing the existing units. I had a great loan officer, but the SBA is very challenging. It's fraught with paperwork and it's not an easy process, but we got through it. 

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<p class="g_eyebrow_text">SOLUTION</p>

A New Partner & Less Paperwork

I started as an SBA borrower before I was happily introduced to Travis and ApplePie by the CFO of European Wax Center. At the time I still wasn't really qualified for anything but the SBA, because I was such a new franchise owner and wasn't really making money yet. A lot of SBA lenders don’t understand franchise businesses, but ApplePie really understands. I like getting on the phone with Travis and having conversations about what our goals and expectations are. Even with a lender that kind of understands, it’s just not as easy as it is with ApplePie.

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The SBA requires personal collateral but ApplePie doesn’t. Early on we had multiple SBA loans with liens already on personal collateral, so the SBA lender took a portion of our tenant improvement dollars to pay down the loan, which really stunk, because we relied on that for operating dollars when we opened the store. We had to give a significant portion of it to the bank to reduce their exposure and meet SBA guidelines. We couldn't get those dollars back from the landlord to use for operations. ApplePie doesn’t do this and that's really nice. A lot of things happen throughout a loan process, it just does. There are unanticipated needs or emergencies, and working with Travis and ApplePie is much easier because you really understand. ApplePie is more of a partner than a provider.

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So, I like being able to get on the phone with Travis and having conversations about what our objectives are. It’s a lot different than getting on the phone with other lenders, even if they understand the business. It just isn’t as seamless as ApplePie. You guys are so much easier to deal with. First of all, the platform is much easier. All the paperwork for the SBA is literally all paperwork so everything had to be filled out and scanned versus ApplePie which is an online platform and makes it a lot easier.

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I've had experiences with different lenders, none of them compared to dealing with ApplePie. Getting an SBA loan isn’t a breeze, but comparatively it feels like ApplePie is. Travis is amazing: He's smart, he's quick, he gets answers. There's no delay. Travis and ApplePie are helpful and working with us to achieve our goals. It just feels more of a partnership versus a lender that doesn't really understand the business or the goals that you’re trying to achieve.

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<p class="g_eyebrow_text">GROWTH</p>

What Timeline

The European Wax Center units happened all at once, which isn’t the norm. For Restore we had the territory and had goals for how we were going to open the six units. But it didn’t really work out that way. Real estate can be hard so when we found a great location and had the opportunity we grabbed it, and Corporate also asked us to change markets which was a challenge. Our first Restore was just crushing it and we were excited to open our second, and then everything changed because of covid. The pandemic  impacted the economy, supply chains, construction costs & consumer behavior in a lot of ways.

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So we were working on a plan of opening a unit every eight to twelve months and ended up with a gap and then opening the last two back to back. That was unintended and I would never recommend that to someone if it can be avoided. Opportunity, timing, construction delays and things that kept happening kind of obliterated our timeline. But we went with it, and it worked out.

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What's Next

For Restore we have the right to develop six more stores in our territory but we have until the end of 2026 to make that decision, and Corporate might even give us more time on that. I am still very bullish on Restore, and I love my Wax Centers, but I think we're gonna take a breath on expanding.for now. We've definitely been affected this past year and I attribute that to the economy. We've been affected by the cost of goods in the medical space and across the board. We're set on our stores right now and I think we'll just see how it goes. If interest rates keep going down and if the economy turns around and people start spending a little more money, then we'll feel differently. But for right now I think we're just gonna sit tight.

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Be Fearless

I'd have to say one of my favorite memories was deciding to take the leap and jumping into the franchise world.  Recently I went to one of my former partners' retirement party and I saw people there that I haven't seen in five or six years, and they're like, how'd you get out? You gotta be fearless because a legal practice is like the golden handcuffs of the law. I was fearless and I took the leap.