Entrepreneur moms Judie
Byrd, 59, and her daughter, Teresa Shurtz, 38, mom of two, ages 12 and
10; respectively, founder and vice president of operations for Super
Suppers, Fort Worth, TX. Growth: 265 franchises in 40 states. Gross annual sales in 2006: $42 million.
Our story:
Since 1986, we'd helped many a mom choreograph everything from a
sumptuous Sunday brunch to a posh dinner party out of our family-run
cooking school in Fort Worth. Fancy was fine, said many of our
students, but what they really wanted was a lineup of last-minute
dinner ideas. So one night, we held a class called "20 Minutes from
Grocery Bag to Dinner Table." Afterward we heard, "This is great, but
it would be even better if we didn't have to shop or prep anything." It
occurred to us that moms wanted to whip up dinners that would impress
even the harshest critic (their 8-year-old) but didn't have the time or
desire to dice the onions.
We listened—and created a new course
in which we took care of the shopping, chopping and mopping. Everyone
went home with a chef-designed entree that was ready to pop in the
oven. When it became our most popular class, we realized there was an
appetite for prepared take-home meals, and in 2003, Super Suppers was
born. When we heard clients were driving almost two hours to assemble
meals in our kitchen, we decided to franchise. By selling the rights to
other entrepreneur moms, we could expand our business and help other
women start their own. We tested the waters with a second store in
Grapevine, TX, and that assembly-line operation became as popular as
the first. A fast-growing business is a good thing, but in the world of
franchising, too much too soon can lead to trouble. So we spent lots of
time researching before we launched our operation. We hired a sales
team, a franchise attorney and a marketing firm. When we felt ready, we
sold 100 franchises. That first year we grew so quickly that we didn't
always foresee bumps in the road. For example, each city had different
building codes that we had to consider.
We also learned that
our idea wasn't completely original. So we found ways to make ourselves
unique. We hired a recipe team to differentiate our menus from the
competition and vowed to provide the most solid ongoing training and
support to our franchisees.
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