Veteran Franchise Professional Jordan Levine Sees “Magic” in the Amazing Lash Studio Model

Jordan Levine has worked in franchising for his entire professional career. Joining Cold Stone Creamery® while he was still in college, Levine spent a decade with the ice cream franchise, working in a variety of capacities on the corporate team and even operating his own unit as a franchisee. Levine calls those his “formative years — my unofficial MBA,” when he “learned more about business in ten years than I could have learned anywhere else.”

The diversity of roles Levine occupied while at Cold Stone Creamery left him uniquely well prepared for a successful career in franchising. Having been a franchisee himself, Levine says he can “speak and listen to owners in a way that others sometimes can’t.” And having worked for the brand’s corporate team, Levine gained an intimate understanding of the larger, system-wide concerns of a franchise business. That holistic appreciation of the industry made Levine a particularly effective leader at his next franchise brand, Massage Envy®, where he worked for seven years in the franchise’s domestic and international operations teams.

As he approached two decades in franchising, Levine decided to venture out on his own as a franchise consultant. One of Levine’s clients in that period was multi-brand franchisor WellBiz Brands, Inc. Levine was impressed with the passion and knowledge he discovered in the WellBiz Brands leadership team, and he was particularly struck by the work they were doing with the Amazing Lash Studio® brand .

After three years as a consultant, Levine decided to join the WellBiz Brands team full time in 2019 as the  Vice President of Operations. 1851 spoke to Levine to learn what he loves about franchising and why, after years in the industry, he sees so much promise in the Amazing Lash Studio brand.

1851 Franchise: You’ve worked with so many franchise brands throughout your career. What makes the Amazing Lash Studio brand stand out?

Jordan Levine: It is such an exciting brand — I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t. For a brand like this to have the backing of WellBiz Brands, Inc. is just such a strong and exciting collaboration. This is a team of great people who care deeply about their brand. I’ve seen a lot of people come and go in this industry who never really understand franchising. They may have impressive pedigrees in various corporate backgrounds, but they don’t get what makes this industry different. WellBiz Brands, Inc. is different. They are locked in, and they understand every little detail and nuance of franchising.

Running a franchise, every store owner has to be on the same page. They have to understand the “why” — why this brand exists, why it’s special — and as a franchisor, our team has to see the value of a true business relationship with our franchisees, rather than the top-down system you see at corporate owned chains. The WellBiz Brands team understands that, and they are great at sharing their values with franchisees.

I worked with WellBiz Brands, Inc. for a year and a half as a consultant before I had the opportunity to join the team. Once that opportunity came about, it was a no-brainer. I had a great relationship with this team, and I knew they had the right mindset and strategies to be successful.

1851: How have you drawn from your own experience as a franchisee to better connect with Amazing Lash Studio’s franchisees?

Levine: The most important thing my experience has allowed me to do is to really get into the weeds with franchisees. If a franchisee is struggling, I am extremely empathetic to that, and I know how to help strategize a path to success with them. And that’s what it comes down to, ultimately: Empathy. It’s not always a specific thing, sometimes it’s just that attitude of, “I’ve been there, I’ve walked in your shoes.” I think that makes a big difference in the relationship.

1851: Why should an entrepreneur invest in the Amazing Lash Studio franchise system right now?

Levine: There’s a real magic to our model. I come at this from an operations perspective, so I look at the business model more than the product, and what I see is a fantastic recurring revenue model. I would have killed for a model like that when I was a franchisee. It can potentially be a reliable, predictable influx of cash. You know what it’s going to be month to month, and you can watch and project its growth.

Compare a model like this to restaurants, where your first month or year is typically your best and then you have to project downward. With a membership model like ours, your first day is the slowest and then you watch your business eventually grow every day afterwards.

That said, we have an amazing product to back that up, and such a small percentage of likely guests have even discovered it yet, so there is still enormous untapped potential. Franchisees who join the brand now are really getting in on the ground floor of something special.

1851: What is something you think every new franchisee should understand before joining the Amazing Lash Studio franchise system?

Levine: You have to look at this formula, and you have to understand why this is such a uniquely exciting proposition. When you have the right people at the leadership level, the right strategy, the right product and the right model, that’s a rare thing and extremely valuable.

1851: Can you give an example of how your team is creating value for franchisees?

Levine: Right now, we are very focused on a program we’re calling Speed to Ramp. Essentially, it is a path to profitability program for new franchisees. The brand is exploring t new ways to get new studios to hit the ground running and quickly find success. We looked at the top performers and the most successful studio openings, and we’re taking the best practices from those franchisees and applying them to the whole system, so it really is a collaborative process with franchisees.

You hear the term “best practices” a lot, and my philosophy is, if something truly is a best practice, then it shouldn’t just be a practice, it should be standard operating procedure. So we’re collecting best practices and establishing them system-wide so that everyone benefits.

1851: Is there anything the franchise is working on that you haven’t quite nailed yet?

Levine: One of the big things the brand is focused on is changing consumer perceptions of the business to one that is far more guest-oriented. Some people still have an outdated idea of what the beauty services segment is, and they think it’s only fussy, expensive services that require appointments and all this rigidity around policies and services, and that really underlines the brand’s advantage in the market, because it is far more amenable to the modern consumer. This is one of those things we are learning from top franchisees, who have already been implementing great strategies to show guests just how guest-centric we are. We empower franchisees to tell us what’s working and what’s not. If they have a better way of doing things, we may adopt that strategy and roll it out across the system.

The investment range for an Amazing Lash Studio franchise is $239,210 to $508,510*, including a $39,900 franchise fee. For more information on franchise opportunities, visit https://franchising.amazinglashstudio.com.

*As per the March 30, 2020 Franchise Disclosure Document.

Amazing Lash Franchise, LLC. 9780 S. Meridian Blvd, Suite 400 Englewood, CO 80112. This information is not intended as an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, a franchise. It is for information purposes only. Currently, the following states regulate the offer and sale of franchises: California, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. If you are a resident of one of these states, we will not offer you a franchise unless and until we have complied with applicable pre-sale registration and disclosure requirements in your jurisdiction. MN File No. F-8741. This advertisement is not an offering. An offering can only be made by a prospectus filed first with the Department of Law of the State of New York. Such filing does not constitute approval by the Department of Law.  THESE FRANCHISES HAVE BEEN REGISTERED UNDER THE FRANCHISE INVESTMENT LAW OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA.  SUCH REGISTRATION DOES NOT CONSTITUTE APPROVAL, RECOMMENDATION OR ENDORSEMENT BY THE COMMISSIONER OF CORPORATIONS NOR A FINDING BY THE COMMISSIONER THAT THE INFORMATION PROVIDED HEREIN IS TRUE, COMPLETE AND NOT MISLEADING.  Each Amazing Lash Studio® is independently owned and operated. Amazing Lash Studio® and Amazing Lash Studio + design are registered trademarks of Amazing Lash Franchise, LLC.