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This summer, Jan Hatch, who opened her <a href="https://franchise.wbu.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=wild-birds-unlimited-franchisee-jan-hatch-breaks-first-year-sales-record-2704555" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Wild Birds Unlimited</a> franchise in Greenwood, Indiana in early 2015, was awarded the franchise&rsquo;s annual High-Flying Fledgling Award for the highest 1st year retail sales.

Hatch attributes the success of her store to a strong brand and an easily applied operational system, which allowed her to get her store up and running quickly, largely bypassing the learning curve that most new business owners experience.

&ldquo;The work was already done for us before we got here,&rdquo; said Hatch. &ldquo;Jim Carpenter [founder, president, and CEO of Wild Birds Unlimited] and his team created a brand and concept that is so unique and so appealing. All we had to do was follow the system and open the doors.&rdquo;

Hatch, whose interest in owning a <a href="https://wildbirdsunlimited.1851franchise.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=wild-birds-unlimited-franchisee-jan-hatch-breaks-first-year-sales-record-2704555" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">WBU</a> store grew out of her passion for the brand as a customer, said that the company&rsquo;s rock-solid foundation allows her to stay focused on her customers.

&ldquo;We can stay 100% guest-focused,&rdquo; said Hatch. &ldquo;In that first year, I had to prove to people that they could trust me and I&rsquo;d be there for the long haul. Now I have more than 2,000 customers and I feel like I know 80 percent of them on a personal level. I yell &lsquo;hi&rsquo; to them when I hear their voice without even turning around.&rdquo;

Hatch&rsquo;s store is one of five WBU locations in the Indianapolis, IN market, where the brand&rsquo;s flagship store and Franchise Support Center are located. That close proximity to other Wild Birds Unlimited stores has presented a number of benefits, including increased brand awareness among customers and a strong support system between franchisees.

&ldquo;We partner with other stores in this area,&rdquo; Hatch said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll loan each other inventory, call each other with questions, and we invest in advertising opportunities together.&rdquo;

In addition to the support she receives from other stores, Hatch, like nearly all WBU owners, is engaged with one of the brand&rsquo;s four franchisee coaching programs, which provides guidance on every facet of the business&rsquo;s operations.

&ldquo;My coach will do anything for me,&rdquo; Hatch said. &ldquo;She&rsquo;ll take my midyear report and help me look at it from all different angles. We&rsquo;ll figure out exactly where I&rsquo;m doing well and where I can I can make improvements, or we&rsquo;ll look at what other stores are doing differently and figure out which of those differences I could successfully apply in my store.&rdquo;

When pushed to identify what makes her store in particular so successful, Hatch pointed to her adherence to the brand&rsquo;s original focus of selling top-of-the-line bird food and feeders.

&ldquo;WBU owners have a lot of leeway not only in how they run their stores but also in the inventory they invest in,&rdquo; said Hatch. &ldquo;We try to keep our scope narrow in that respect. We want to concentrate on the hobby itself and not get distracted with other peripherals. I&rsquo;ve seen other stores have success with additional gift items, but sales on those items are a little less predictable. People know the brand for food and feeders, so you know there will always be a strong demand for that. We&rsquo;ve added some things like fountains and birdbaths, but ultimately those gift items are about one percent of our sales.&rdquo;

That strategy continues to pay off for Hatch, whose store has been even more successful in its second year than its award-winning first year.

&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had so much more success in our second year,&rdquo; Hatch said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d set goals coming out of our first year, and we&rsquo;ve exceeded all of them. Now that we are really established in the community, we&rsquo;ve got so many regular customers who are telling their friends about us, all we have to do is keep applying the system and taking care of our customers.&rdquo;

Wild Birds Unlimited Franchisee Jan Hatch Breaks First-Year Sales Record

1851 Franchise

Jan Hatch was awarded the High-Flying Fledgling Award in June for breaking the brand’s first-year retail sales record

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