FranDev Players: Tim Butters, Co-Founder and Director of City Cave

Tim Butters got his start in franchising in 2016 when he and Jeremy Hassell launched City Cave, an innovative wellness brand that offers its members the chance to feel their best through float therapy, massage and infrared sauna. 

Driven by hard work and a genuine passion for the brand, Butters has helped City Cave grow to 13 locations across Australia. Now, he has plans to take the brand international, starting with three locations in New Zealand and eventually Coral Gables, Florida.

1851 Franchise caught up with Butters to discuss the key components of growing a franchise and how City Cave has positioned itself to be an industry leader in health and wellness.

1851 Franchise: Tell me about City Cave and its founding.

Tim Butters: City Cave is a health and wellness brand. We focus on three core categories: floatation, infrared and massage. We offer memberships for all three. That helps us to hold people accountable for taking time away from stress and work to be able to focus on themselves. We’ve been open and operating for four years and franchising for two. 

1851: How did you get into franchising?

Butters: I had no previous experience before getting into it with City Cave. We started strong in 2016 and worked intense hours in the business to get it up and running in a year. Then, we moved to a second location and had a really intensive hiring process. We found it difficult to maintain passion, culture and drive with just managers. That’s when we decided to go down the route to selling the first franchise to one of our customers who was super passionate about the brand. She was a no brainer to partner with, and she had proper experience in the industry. The relationship worked really well and we moved forward and started marketing the franchise. 

1851: Are there any keys to consistent franchise growth?

Butters: Setting up any business, you have to have core values to lean on when it comes to any crossroads you may face — we have four. Communication: I can’t stress that one enough, you have to make sure it’s a two way street. Empathy: You have to care about the other person and there’s no room for hierarchy. Abundance: There needs to be a want for lots of love and financial freedom, we don’t like the scarcity mindset. And balance: You want to work hard and play hard. We want out franchises to have a great life as well. 

1851: What are the biggest hurdles to successful franchise growth right now?

Butters: For us in Australia, business finance is really tough for incoming franchisees. They need cash and equity behind them before they can get financing. With COVID, it's been harder. We were closed for eight weeks, but now we people have been flooding back to our centers. We’re offering preventative health care. From a customer's perspective, it’s great, but for lenders, not so much. Also, finding the perfect location is a tough hurdle to conquer. We don’t let a franchisee take a location we wouldn’t take ourselves. Try to find that perfect size has been a little difficult, but after the lockdowns it has opened that opportunity a little bit more. 

My advice for anyone is, before you narrow it down, fall in love with the franchise industry as a whole at first. There are amazing resources. It’s created so much wealth and opportunity for everyday people. 

1851: How did the COVID crisis affect franchise growth opportunities?

Butters: When the announcement came across, we came together as a community. We had 13 locations open and 19 in the process of opening. To be honest, we pulled together as a team over Zoom and leaned on our core values. We put on our thinking caps and worked on a project we weren’t planning to roll out this year. We took all of our training collateral to make an online platform. We created 80% of that program and now we’ve started the year with our learning management program live. From a learning and development perspective, we’ve gained a whole year. For us it’s proved to be not so bad. 

1851: Are there any common mistakes you see franchisors making when trying to grow?

Butters: A real common one I see is people going in undercapitalized — it’s a common business trend. We put a lot of effort into financially qualifying our franchisees. The same thing goes for new franchisors. They have the mindset of someone paying for them for their idea, they think of it as a cash cow. It’s not. You need strong financial support. You will not sell a franchise in the early stages of a brand without all the tools and resources you need to be successful. 

1851: What are your biggest goals/plans for 2021?

Butters: We’re very goal oriented. We’ve got some audacious goals. We want to have 30 more sites sold in Australia, and we’re moving into international franchising in New Zealand with three more locations there. One really exciting announcement is that we’re in discussions with someone looking to open a franchise in Coral Gables, Florida. He loves our brand and has known us since we started. We want to have proof of concept before we franchise in the U.S., but we’re really excited about it. By the end of 2021, we would love to have a City Cave open in the states.