Franchise QB

Episode 52: Jason Stucky- Multi-Unit Franchise Owner, Color Me Mine

• Mike Halpern • Season 1 • Episode 52

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In this episode of the Franchise QB Podcast, host Mike Halpern interviews Jason Stucky, a multi-unit franchise owner of Color Me Mine. 

Jason shares his journey from military service and a corporate career at Petco to becoming a franchise owner. He discusses the unique aspects of the Color Me Mine franchise, including its creative outlet for families and the business model's support system. 

Jason also talks about his expansion into a second location, the challenges of staffing, and the importance of passion in business ownership. He concludes with advice for aspiring franchise owners, emphasizing the value of choosing a brand they are passionate about.

Takeaways

-Franchising offers a structured support system for new business owners.
-Color Me Mine provides a creative outlet for families and individuals.
-Using a 401k to fund a business can minimize financial risk.
-Expansion into multiple locations requires careful planning and evaluation.
-Franchise ownership can lead to financial security and independence.
-The franchise model provides marketing and operational support that independent businesses may lack.
-Choosing a franchise that aligns with personal interests can lead to greater satisfaction. 

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
02:37 Journey to Owning a Color Me Mine Franchise
09:23 Expansion and Growth of the Franchise
14:32 The Value of the Franchise Model
16:02 Advice for Aspiring Franchise Owners

https://www.colormemine.com/

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Contact me and my team with any questions along the way. www.calendly.com/franchiseguy
Mike Halpern, CAFC
mike@franchiseqb.com

This is the Franchise QB Podcast, where we empower entrepreneurs to win big in franchising. We huddle up weekly to educate our audience about the most successful small business model ever created. Franchise it! Welcome to the Franchise QB podcast. I'm your host, Mike Halpern, a 20 year industry veteran and entrepreneur. My mission is for listeners to achieve their American dreams of creating wealth and independence through franchise ownership. Every week we speak with franchisees, franchisors or vendors that support the industry. Thank you for joining us and let's get started. Joining us in the huddle today is Jason Stuckey, multi-unit franchise owner with Color Me Mine. Welcome to the show, Jason. Hi, thanks for having me today. All right. So you had a career with the U.S. Navy. Thank you for your service to our great country. And you spent 13 years at Petco in various locations and various capacities. So let's kind of start back with your military service. What were your duties back in the In the military, I was an aircraft maintenance administration. Or we basically maintain the log books for all of the the jets to make sure they're operating condition Okay, and then you spent many years at Petco both in the stores and at corporate Can you kind of talk a little bit about that whole kind of run with Petco? Yeah, so I started in the stores as a as a fish specialist worked my way up to manager in a studio or in a store and then went from there to the corporate office as an associate buyer for store use stuff, keeping the, you know, all the store use supplies in the warehouses for the stores. And then when my husband got a transfer to the Pentagon, because he was still in the Marine Corps, we moved to Alexandria, Virginia, where we were for 13 years. And I was a manager and a store out there for five or six years before we had kids. And then you subsequently moved to Illinois, which is kind of where you are currently. How long have you been in Illinois? 11 years. 11 years, okay. Yeah, and I mentioned to you before, I live in Northern Virginia, so I'm not too far from Alexandria. That's where I lived back in the early 2000s, so very familiar with that. Yeah, Kevin's in one apartment back there. He likes the weather there better than here. Yeah, it gets colder up there, but our winters aren't great either. let's talk about the brand where you're a franchise owner, which is called Color Me Mine. Give us an overview. What is Color Me Mine for those that may not be familiar with the franchise? So Color Me Mine is a paint your own pottery studio. And basically you come in and you pick a piece of pottery and you paint it. We fire it. And then you come and get it. It's a really, really awesome creative outlet. And you can actually make things, you know, the gamut from coffee cups and plates and platters to kids, know, tchotchkes, banks, kids, little figurines and things like that. I actually saw my desk this day. We painted this at not at a Color Me Mine, but at a business light Color Me Mine. I was like under five, this is one of them painted this. And it's so funny that this is where my career took me. Where I finally ended up was owning businesses that I used to take my kids to, you know, on a rainy day or an afternoon with nothing to do to create something. Yeah, my kids are teenagers now, but when they were younger, We went to a Color Me Mine in Fairfax, Virginia and had a ton of fun. was like a really cool place to gather if you're just looking for something to do or even like I know birthday parties and stuff like that. So I'm familiar with the brand. And one thing that surprised me was how big it's grown over the gosh, 30 years they've been in business. They have over 120 franchise locations, not just in the U.S., but in Canada and countries like Costa Rica and the Philippines. I've... read that they have a goal for expansion up to 300 locations by 2029. Yep. Pretty cool. So did you launch your Color Me Mine while you still were employed with Petco or did it happen another way? It happened another way. Actually, I had left Petco to be a stay at home dad when our first child was born. And I had been out of the workforce for probably 10 years. So I feel like they were nine or 10 when I went back to work. And I just decided, you know, now they're in school full time all day long, it's time to go and find something to do. And a friend of mine and I had happened to take the kids to the local color mine here in Geneva. And we overheard the staff talking about them needing a new manager. And I thought, this would be perfect. I'll come and work here during the day, be home for the time the kids get out of school. This would be a dream job. Little did I know that it was a corporately owned studio at the time. and they were looking for an owner. Interesting. So when you stepped into the role, like did you actually step into the role as manager first and make sure that it was a good fit? Where right out of the gate when you kind of threw your hat in the ring to manage the business, they said, hey, we're actually looking to convert this into a franchise location. Would you have an interest in being the owner? Yeah, no, we, I knew in the interview because the person interviewing me had explained to me that it was a studio that was in transition. So we bought it or somebody else bought it, it was on the market to be sold. And I had no intention of buying it when I took the job. Got it. So are you and your husband the co-owners of the business or do you have any other partners in the business? It's just us, yeah. Just you guys, okay. And how did you like, when it came to buy the business, did you self-fund it? Did you take a loan? What did that look like? That's the really cool part about Geneva. When we were looking at buying it, it was really touch and go there for the first, because I think I was the manager for like six months before we finally bought it. And it went back and forth, back and forth because we were trying to figure out how to, where to get the funds from without putting ourselves in any kind of risk, as minimal of risk as possible. And Kevin's very conservative when it comes to the financials and all that. And so he was like, yeah, I don't think we're going to able to do it. But then we found out through a front of his head. at his law firm that you can take your 401k or k's in our case we had several, you can take those and roll them into a business account and you just pay one flat fee to do that. And it's not like, like when you take money out of a 401k, you end up paying a ton of money. It's not like that at all. It's just one fee and they roll your whole 401k or however much of your 401k you want into your business. and that's a really great way to fund. actually had a, one of my funding specialists, Kelly Krueger from Bennett trends was on the podcast a few weeks ago, talking about that funding strategy for new business owners where you're basically creating a C corporation and buying stock in your company instead of Coca-Cola and IBM and these other businesses. So that's really cool that that's the path that you guys took to kind of get into business. It really, it really. opened a door for us that would have been kind of a struggle if we didn't remain able to do that. Yeah. And it's interesting. I always ask people how they found their business, but yours was it's in the neighborhood. You already were aware of it and you looking, you were employed there for you. And I interviewed someone recently who sold their business to an employee that worked for them for 10 years. So I think it's really great when you get that inside look at the business, buy it because you're like, I can add value to this. can grow it. And honestly, that's how a lot of the franchises end up selling. They usually sell to a manager or a past team member who want to get into the business. Yeah. So you must have had a calling for this particular discipline. you love art? mean, is that something that's important to you? I've always really been into art through college and in high school. I'd always taken a lot of art classes. And then when I was in the Navy, I was stationed at the weapons test squadron in Chinah Lake in California. We had a ceramic studio, full studio on base for Morale, Recreational Welfare, I think is what they call it, in WR. All right. Anyway, they had a full ceramic studio on site where you could pour your pieces and paint them and fire them and everything. And so that's what really, that's my first exposure to ceramics in my 20s. And so this wasn't a completely foreign concept to me. Yeah, it was really kind of cool coming back to it. So Jason, when did you open your first Color Me Mine franchise studio? Yeah, so we took ownership of Color Me Mine Geneva in May of 2018 after I went for about six months. And yeah, we decided that that was the way to go. Great. So you've been operating that one for about six years. And then you recently acquired a second studio. How did that come about? Well, that's an interesting story because we were planning on moving back to Virginia. And I was going to we were going to sell Geneva. And we were going to open a studio either in Arlington or Fairfax. And I had it in my head that I wanted two studios if we're moving back to Virginia. thought this is perfect. Color Me My Mind is out of business in Northern Virginia. We don't have any Color Me Minds there yet. And so I thought this would be great. We could reintroduce Color Me My Mind in two locations. This would be amazing. So I just got really hyped up about having two studios. And then after some careful evaluation, we realized the move wasn't really what we needed right now, what we wanted to do. I had an in my head that I wanted two studios. But the Chicagoland area was pretty, the territories here are pretty much purchased out, like everyone's where they're supposed to be. But funny enough, the guy who helped me come into Geneva was selling his studio in Glenview. And we're like, all right, let's try it. Let's see if we can swing Glenview. And that's So you just worked out a deal with him and made that acquisition? Yep. Very cool. So how far are those apart? Are they like within arm's length? Is it easy to get from one store to the other? Neva is literally 15 minutes from my house. Okay. So how about the staff? Like what's the staff look like at your locations in terms of how many people, are there roles in the business? And is there any cross-pollination where I would assume since they're only 15 minutes apart, you might be able to kind of go between. Geneva is 15 minutes from my house. Glenview is 45 minutes from my house. So yeah, so unfortunately they're not close enough for me to really kind of share any any staff And the Glenview location has a full-time manager So I'm really only there to support her So I'll go up once a week once every other week whenever she needs me to you know Do the heavy lifting or anything around the studio? Otherwise she pretty much runs the whole show In Geneva, I have a couple of assistants that help me And then I also help out in Geneva more because it's only 15 minutes from my house Got it. So how many people do you have employed at both locations, including full-time and part-time? Probably 20. OK. Got it. I mean, it like relatively, I don't want to say easy, but is finding people to kind of work in the shops, it seems like a fun business. You get people that love art, have a good personality, are good with kids. I would imagine they'd be a good fit for the studios. You've probably heard this before. The hardest thing about owning your own business is staffing. There are plenty of people applying. It's just whether or not we're all the right fit. Because a lot of times what I'm looking for isn't what's applying. Like, therefore, while I was looking for someone who could work 30 plus hours a week and only the only people who were applying were kids who only wanted 10 to 15 hours a week. So that's the only hard part I have ever had with this business. is finding the right people at the right time. Like right now, knock on wood, we're good. Like we have all the right people in the right places and everything's good. But I also know that that can change at a moment's notice. So we're always kind of viewing and visiting. A lot of our customers can become good employees. So we're always not paying attention to who comes in a lot and who might be looking for a part-time job. Yeah, that's smart. Very cool. So is there any seasonality to the model? Like, I mean, I have cold winters and hot summers. Like, does it really change during the different seasons or is it pretty consistent year round? Yeah, no, it definitely changes. We just got out of our slowest month out of the year, which I think industry wide for a pincher on pottery, September is the slowest month of the year. that's like, is because people are going back to school or they're coming back from vacation or? You know, when you're in a, cause our prime demographic is families with children and. If you think about like, have two kids, have two kids, September's hectic. Like you ever been getting back into school, getting back into a rhythm, getting back into, you know, all that. So I attribute that's a big reason why we don't see a lot of people in September. And then coming into November and December, October, November, December, third quarter, fourth quarter is going to be our busiest three months of the year. Got it. Okay. Thanks for that. Yeah. The only other time that's busier is a spring break. Okay. So, You know, you've achieved this financial security. You've got more time back with your family. You now have two locations that are up and running. Any plans to possibly expand again? Not right now. I I wouldn't say it's out of the question, but as Kevin keeps reminding me, we need it because we did take out a small business loan on Genit or Glenview. So we've got to get that paid off before we make any big decisions. That's good. Plus you also made the other acquisition last year. that store is still pretty new and being an owner of two shops is a little different than having the one. So I think once you get that figured out, it might be easier to scale and kind of get that third one. Exactly. So you had said that none of this would have happened if it weren't for the franchise business model. Why is that? I'm just, I don't think I would have went into it without the support that the franchise that our home office offers. Literally all of our marketing, all of our artwork, there's just so many tools that aren't available to an independent that we get. I mean, obviously we pay for it, but it's just that it's all in one package. I don't have to go hunt it down and source out all these different vendors. They did all the hard work. They screened everybody. and know, price the lowest pricing, found the best services. And I think that that just is a tremendous value to someone who, especially someone who's never owned their own business before. Yeah. So prior to, you know, working there and subsequently acquiring the business, did you ever consider opening up an independent business or once you saw kind of the business in a box that franchise offers, you knew that that might be a good fit for you? Yeah, no, the idea of opening my own business never crossed my mind. yeah, I had never thought about that. but when it, when it fell in my lap, I was like, this seems like a no brainer. Like, why would you not want to have a little bit of independence and a little bit of freedom and not be held to, you know, Corporate America's, whatever they say goes at the time. Yeah. Well, to your point about that, I mean, if someone's listening to the podcast and they love the idea of having wealth and independence, and they're considering franchise ownership, what advice would you give them? Go for it. Honestly, mean, obviously check out the brand, make sure it's a strong brand. You know, is it something that you yourself enjoy that you can have a passion for? Because I have met people who own food franchises who they're not really passionate. I mean, it's just another conveyor to make money, which I think that's cool too. Like honestly, like how you do it is how you do it. I have just found that because I'm so passionate about it, it's what's made it so much fun. I literally converted our detached garage into a ceramics workshop. So we actually pour a lot of our own pieces, which we don't have to do, but it's such a stress reliever for me to play with the clay and get into the dirty side of the business that it doesn't even feel like work to me. Yeah, that's got to be very satisfying. And I think that if you're able to take a business that makes you money and kind of couple that with something you really love to do and it brings people joy, that's a really great. So is there anything else Jason you want to add to the mix before we wrap up today? I think I think you covered it all. OK, awesome. Well, if anyone listening would like to connect with Jason to learn more about operating a Color Me Mine franchise, contact me at FranchiseQB.com or on X @QBFranchiseQB. I'll get you guys connected. Jason, thank you so much for taking the time to get in the huddle and discuss Color Me Mine with us today. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for listening to the Franchise QB podcast where you're at the helm of your future as a franchise owner. If you enjoyed the content, please rate the show and recommend it to anyone that might be interested in franchising. Make sure to visit FranchiseQB.com to subscribe to my newsletter and for an actionable playbook to go from walk-on to legend in your new business. Follow us on Twitter @QBFranchiseQB and join us every week for a new episode. See you next time. franchiseqb.com. take the next step of your journey towards wealth, independence, and franchise ownership. And remember, when working for the man gets old, you must do something bold. Thank you for listening.