The Secrets of My Success: The Story of Boost Juice, Juicy Bits and All

Chapter 10

Picking the franchising fruit

I never even considered having just one juice bar. I always knew that Boost was going to be big (which shows just how naive I was, and lacking in any true knowledge of what was involved to make this prediction a reality).

In the very early days, I also hadn’t considered how exactly I was going to create all these stores. I simply thought I’d have another and another and another … Unfortunately, as the brand expanded, I simply couldn’t hire the high-quality people I needed as well as expand. I realised early that if we wanted to grow quickly, people in the company needed to have ownership. There’s nothing like having everything on the line to make a business work well. Enter franchising.

I’d never had anything to do with franchising, and didn’t really understand how it worked. We met Rod Young, a franchise industry consultant, through a friend of a friend, and approached him to assist us in setting up the Boost Juice franchise. I always think that if you’re going to do something, you should do it right, and getting Rod on board was definitely the right thing — at the time, he was the best in the business.

Another important factor was getting the right franchise manager. I’ve always seen our franchise manager as the gatekeeper of the Boost Juice name. I imagine her standing in a knight outfit (with a very sharp sword) on a plank outside the Boost castle, and I know that she will not let the wrong people into my business (or our business, ...