Why I Franchised My Business

For entrepreneurs considering ways to grow their businesses, determining whether franchising is the right move is an important decision.

1851 Franchise connected with Pat Morlando, director of franchise operations for Enjoy Your Party, Jason Parker, co-founder and co-CEO of K9 Resorts Daycare & Luxury Hotel, and Robert Esposito, founder of Relocators, to learn about why they decided to franchise their businesses.

Pat Morlando, Enjoy Your Party

Food service staffing agency Enjoy Your Party matches its extensive network of employees with events based on their skills and personalities. As Enjoy Your Party continues to grow, it becomes more challenging for Morlando and his team to handpick the best employees for each job.

“We do everything we can to ensure the vision of the event that we are staffing comes together, and that can only happen if we personally know each individual we send to an event,” Morlando said. “That is why our scheduling team spends the time to make sure our staff is scheduled for events in which they will be successful, and with more than 400 employees, that can be a challenge.”

Since Enjoy Your Party became a franchisor in 2015, it has been able to recruit franchisees to support the growing demand for professionally trained, temporary food service staff. Franchising also supports the brand as the nation’s premier temporary food service staffing company.

“With more offices, your footprint gets deeper, and it starts opening other doors,” Morlando said. “We are having more conversations with bigger clients, and that’s largely due to franchising.”

Morlando believes the primary reason Enjoy Your Party became a successful organization is because it focuses exclusively on food service staffing, and he expects franchisees to continue experiencing the same success.

“Everyone thinks they have the next best thing that will take off like wildfire, but that isn’t usually the case,” Morlando said. “Anyone can make a sandwich, but what makes yours unique? Is it the bread, the sauce or the veggies? Find something that separates you from everyone else.”

Jason Parker, K9 Resorts Daycare & Luxury Hotel

After five years of owning K9 Resorts, Parker decided it was time to consider franchising his pet care and boarding business.

“People love our concept,” Parker said. “We got numerous requests from customers asking if we were a franchise and if they could get in on it. It’s a unique business we felt we could grow across the country.”

From the beginning, Parker was confident that the high demand for pet care would help his business grow. As more people turned to K9 Resorts for luxury doggie daycare, the company continued to thrive. Assured that his business model was profitable, he decided the best way to expand K9 Resorts was through franchising. However, he made sure he had the proper procedures in place to vet and train franchisees before he started recruiting them.

“It’s important that you make sure you understand what you’ll be doing as a franchisor because it changes your life,” Parker said. “It’s different than simply running a business, so you have to be sure franchising is what you want to do and that you have an established model and systems to offer franchisees.”

Parker attributes the company’s success to its one-of-a-kind concept and dedicated franchisees.

“Not only have we expanded our presence in our home state of New Jersey by growing to six locations with many more to come, but we have also learned a lot about our business through the perspectives of our franchisees,” Parker said. “We now have a total of 13 units with seven open and six in immediate development.”

Robert Esposito, Relocators

Esposito founded Relocators in 2008 because he recognized how stressful moving can be. As a full-service moving company, Relocators distinguished itself from its competitors by handling every aspect of transitioning out of a home.

“As I grew the business, I saw more and more of the light bulbs go off in clients’ heads when they met with me,” Esposito said. “It seemed like I would get the job prior to finishing the estimate. That’s when I made up my mind to dive into the franchise world. I realized I could help business owners help people in their communities.”

Esposito believes there have been many benefits of franchising his company, including increased name recognition and the ability to collaborate with different people to not only improve the business, but also the lives of customers.

“I like empowering business owners and reaching a broader range of customers who need our services,” Esposito said. “Building a greater business is all about networking, getting more minds working on a common goal, and having perspectives from people from different backgrounds and walks of life.”

Esposito advises people who are considering franchising their businesses to make sure they take the time to hire the right franchisees and that they have a system established to teach them how to be successful.

“I started my company 10 years ago, so the things I do are second nature to me,” Esposito said. “When you franchise, you need to break that all down as if anyone can walk in and take the reins.”