Frenchies Modern Nail Care | EXECUTIVE Q&A
1851 Franchise: What void does Frenchies fill? What inspired you to start?
Guy Coffey, Co-Founder and CEO: Stephanie and I have been franchise owners in the Anytime Fitness franchise system since 2007, when we opened our first unit in Colorado. That is how we were introduced to franchising and over the years we’ve opened 5 clubs. Stephanie has also worked on the corporate side of Self Esteem Brands and held the position of President for Waxing the City. We always had our eye out for opportunities to change another industry just like Anytime Fitness had done with fitness — making it more convenient and welcoming.
As we were looking at the data surrounding Waxing the City, we saw that nails were a huge portion of the overall nail and waxing industry, but there was a lot that could be improved — the client experience, the operations, the cleanliness. These issues were resulting in diseases, injuries and unfair practices. A few years ago, the cheapest place to get a mani-pedi was Manhattan because of human trafficking. There was no regard to labor laws or sanitation and it was blatantly bad and dangerous for people. That is the industry that we are fighting to revolutionize.
Stephanie Coffey, Co-Founder and COO: It is an extremely fragmented market. The majority of nail salons are mom-and-pop, which means they don’t leverage technology and the guest experience is lacking. Back in 2012, the nail and waxing industry was worth $12 billion and nails made up 94% of that. There are huge waxing franchise brands, but there aren’t any huge nail care franchise brands. Why hasn’t anybody done anything with this industry? Now, in 2022, the nail and waxing industry has grown to $20 billion, and in the next five years, it is expected to grow another $5 billion to $25 billion. It is a huge market that absolutely needs to change.
1851: What are you doing well right now? What are your brand’s differentiators as a franchise opportunity?
Stephanie Coffey: Our corporate team brings a wealth of franchising experience. Guy and I still wake up every morning as franchisees of Anytime Fitness. We still live in this world. We lean in heavy with franchisee support because we understand first-hand that it is the heartbeat of any franchise system. We have an amazing amount of useful tools to help franchisees from the moment they join us through their entire journey as business owners, including a grand opening roadmap, monthly marketing calendars, advanced processes & systems that have been fine-tuned over the years, detailed plans to help franchise owners grow their business and much more.
We also have specialized training in place for owners, managers and the entire staff, which comes from our background in franchising. We leverage a partnership with an online training portal called LearningZen, for example, which has been a real game-changer for us. Everytime we have a new team member join a studio, we can leverage that portal to offer both online and face-to-face training and support.
Additionally, we have a great vendor partner network, especially for an emerging brand of our size. Because of our experience and our connections in the franchising world, we are able to offer a stronger foundation to incoming franchise owners. We are a small, tightly-knit team with a lot of franchise experience, and we live everyday to ensure that our franchise owners’ success is our success.
1851: What were some learning opportunities that Frenchies leveraged to get where it is now?
Stephanie Coffey: We had so many franchise owners join us in 2019 right before COVID hit. They were brand new to franchising and the beauty industry, so in February 2020, we held a two-day learning workshop at our headquarters in Denver with a laser beam focus on their “Path to Profitability.” It was all about how to help franchisees get to breakeven as quickly as possible. Little did we know what was coming a few weeks later.
When the pandemic began all our studios were forced to shut down for 3-4 months. It was devastating for our new franchise owners who were just starting to build their businesses. We had built a detailed plan for the franchise owners on how to quickly get to profitability and beyond. They leveraged our tagline “We Love Clean and executed the path-to-profitability plan! This allowed us to springboard out of the pandemic.
The whole experience was a major learning opportunity. Fast-forward to 2022, and our next training wasn’t about getting to breakeven, it was about getting to 20%+ profitability for all our franchise owners.
1851: What are some of the brand’s most important milestones so far?
Guy Coffey: When we first franchised, one of the biggest milestones was just seeing how many people had the same vision that we did and recognized that the nail care industry needed to be changed. It was exciting to see so many people signing on to become part of that revolution.
The bounceback after COVID-19 was also a big milestone for us. Our studios systemwide have increased profitability since the shutdowns. While we had just been focused on breaking even before, now the focus is on reaching 20%+ profitability as fast as possible. A number of studios are already achieving that. What we are offering has also become more relevant. It is an indication that people are prioritizing their health — a cheaper option isn’t worth it anymore. People don’t want to mess with their health, even in an economic downturn and we offer an affordable luxury.
1851: What does the ideal Frenchies owner look like?
Stephanie Coffey: The ideal franchisee is somebody who is passionate about building, grooming and mentoring a team of women in an industry that they love. These young professional women love the beauty industry, and they don’t necessarily realize that they could have a fulfilling career and do nails at the same time. The ideal franchisee also needs to have a passion for giving back to the community because they are working so closely with the people they serve. They can’t be shy. They have to be gritty as well — able to execute and leverage all the tools we have and all of our plans to achieve success. In terms of how they run their business, we have a mix of owner-operators and semi-absentee owners. We have some owners that have really strong managers who run the business for them.
Guy Coffey: The people that do the best with Frenchies are active in their community, more extroverted than introverted and don’t mind a little bit of a spotlight on them as business owners. If you are the owner of a beauty brand in your community, you become a bit of a local celebrity. It's not like you are a Hollywood star, but you certainly have a powerful voice in your community. But if you are looking at beauty brand franchises and you are attracted to the industry because you picture fun times in the studio, parties, people recognizing you, etc., you need to remember that you will have to be gritty. This is a small business.
1851: What growth plans does the brand have in the coming years?
Guy Coffey: Long-term, we hope to have 500 operating studios properly. That is how we will achieve our goal of revolutionizing the industry. We also want to grow leaders in the community and provide professionals in the beauty industry with a solid career path. From a franchise development perspective, you are also getting the benefits of scalability — you own one location and then all of a sudden you have two, three or four studios. We want to dominate the nail industry. Some of the bad actors in the nail industry need to go — the ones that aren’t taking care of cleanliness and safety, and their team members. We are also going to raise the expectations of the consumer.
Overall, we want prospects to know that this is a blue-water opportunity. Ninety-nine percent of this industry is made up of poor competition. It is a rare combination — there is a huge demand, but substandard operations. Our big dream is to clean up the nail care industry by making it a pleasant, safe, pampering, self-care experience, rather than one that just makes your nails look better. We want there to be a pre-Frenchies nail care industry and a post-Frenchies nail care industry and now is the time to join the revolution.
The total investment necessary to open a Frenchies Modern Nail Care studio comes in between $262,444 to $447,016. For more information, visit: https://frenchiesnails.com/own-a-frenchies/