Building on Success: How BoConcept Continues to Transition Corporate Employees Into Its Growing Franchise System

Terrace Daniels spent 25 years working in the logistics industry before joining the BoConcept brand in 2005, where he quickly excelled at the corporate level, serving as the growing brand’s U.S. logistics manager. Seeing firsthand how BoConcept’s proven business model made franchisees successful around the globe, Daniels began to explore the idea of becoming a franchisee himself. Now, as he celebrates his one-year anniversary as a franchisee with the modern furniture retail franchise in Philadelphia, Daniels has ambitious expansion plans and hopes to add a second location in the area by the end of 2017 before also searching for a site to expand the brand into Pittsburgh.

Daniels follows a growing trend of BoConcept corporate employees who have successfully transitioned to become franchisees, like Soren Krogh-Jensen who made a similar switch to become a franchisee in the San Francisco area. 

“There is huge value in utilizing the equity our corporate team members have built up during their careers with BoConcept in a franchise operator role,” said Steen Knigge, BoConcept’s Director of Marketing for the Americas. “They bring a wealth of knowledge about the brand that allows them to ramp up operations and find success more quickly than others who need more training on brand history and procedures.”

Hailing from New Jersey, Daniels went to Creighton University, where he played basketball. He served in the U.S. Air Force before working in logistics for a furniture design company in New Jersey for 15 years. The company, which grew from $5 million to $70 million during his tenure, gave Daniels the opportunity to learn all about international importing and exporting. Eventually he was recruited by BoConcept to head the brand’s U.S. logistics department, where he helped to streamline operational efficiencies for the next 11 years.

As BoConcept grew in the U.S. and sales quickly expanded, logistics became more than just a one-person job. So, the brand decided to hire a third party to further increase its logistical support. Following that transition, Daniels became a franchisee in May of 2016, taking over BoConcept’s existing Philadelphia location.

“They decided to reward my loyalty and hard work with a franchise opportunity,” explained Daniels. “I had become intrigued at the possibility of opening a franchise for quite some time, so I decided to look into it. They presented me with an opportunity to take over an underperforming site in Philadelphia and I took the leap.”

With his experience in logistics and armed with more than a decade of corporate knowledge and training, Daniels proved to be the perfect choice to elevate the status of the Philadelphia location.

“Based on my background, the first thing I did was focus on the delivery processes that we had in place,“ Daniels said. “Once that was done, I branched out into marketing in our community and made our presence known. We got involved, joined the Chamber of Commerce and did just about anything we could do to get our name out there.”

In just one short year, Daniels has helped the brand build incredible new equity in the market, and the Philadelphia franchisee attributes much of that success to his employees and designers, overseen by store manager Nathalie Navarro, who he describes as the key to keeping their team aligned on mission and vision.

“I have a great team of people,” Daniels said. “Our master stylist Jill Book is one of the system’s top sales people and she has an amazing vision. We’ve been utilizing her skills on social media to create ‘master style tips’ for our followers and that’s been getting our customers much more engaged. We even have fellow franchisees looking for ways to incorporate it into their stores. We’ve been filming her and sharing it online and now she’s our own local celebrity.”