Female Founders
In 1998, they opened their first store.
For the first few years they owned and operated it themselves and opened a second
location, also in Las Vegas. When they decided to open a third location, in Phoenix,
she inadvertently discovered one of the
benefits of expanding through franchising, versus opening corporate stores and
hiring managers to run them.
“We had hired a manager to take care
of the Phoenix store. I made a surprise
visit one day and found the entire staff
watching ‘Shrek’ on the manager’s computer in a back office,” she says. “That’s
when I knew I needed a system in place
that would ensure effective and successful operations.” She had been aware of
franchising, but it wasn’t until after attending a Franchise Expo and speaking
with several consultants that she fully
embraced the franchise business model.
Nothing Bundt Cakes began franchising in 2006. Shwetz developed the sales
process, wrote the manuals, and created
the system for opening and operating the
bakery locations. Today, with more than
150 locations doing more than $100 million in revenue, she remains an integral
part of the brand, not only through her
leadership and founder’s vision, but also by
assisting in sales, program development,
franchisee support, franchisee relations,
and strategic planning.
“The franchising model is so effective,” she says. “It’s not just a way to grow
a successful business, it also provides opportunities for people to realize their own
dreams through owning and operating
their own franchise location.”
GETTING STARTED
What inspired you to start your business? My friend and partner, Dena Tripp,
brought a Bundt cake to my house for
dinner one night. I had a great creamcheese-and-butter frosting recipe I had
shared with her, so I asked her why she
didn’t frost the cake with my frosting. She
said she couldn’t figure out how to frost a
Bundt cake and make it look nice, considering the shape and the peaks and valleys
created by the Bundt pan. We started to
discuss how this might be done, that it
would be fun to figure out how to fill the
middle, and the idea was born! Neither
42
of us could let it go. So we got together,
wrote a business plan, and worked out of
my kitchen for a year creating a quality,
homemade-tasting product that would
become the cornerstone of our business.
What is your background? I come from
a middle-class family. My dad was a salesman for U.S. Steel and my mom stayed at
home. Both were well-educated and very
hard-working. My grandfather owned his
business and had 31 patents. I remember
touring his business with him and watching him interact with his employees, make
decisions on the spot, direct and lead, and
then clean the bathroom. I graduated from
the University of Washington in Seattle
with a degree in psychology, worked in a
multi-level marketing company, worked
for my insurance agent, and was a medical
transcriptionist. My goal in these positions was to supplement family income,
yet still be able to pick my kids up from
school. I was a mom first.
How did it prepare you for starting
your business? Growing up in my
family, we all had to share in the work of
maintaining our household. My job was
yard work and weeding every Saturday
morning before I could play with my
friends. I clearly remember the moment
I understood that I could put my nose
to the grindstone and finish the job as
quickly as possible or I could drag it out
all day. This task taught me the value of
do it now and you have more time for
fun! I was also very close to my grandfather. He spent a lot of time with me as a
mentor and shared with me some of his
trials and tribulations, and he walked his
talk. I admired him very much and was
apparently soaking up his work ethic and
entrepreneurial spirit as I grew.
What’s the best and worst advice you
got when starting out? Best: Put the
time into understanding your brand as this
is your message to the consumer; and, if
you need to, re-brand your company before opening your first franchise. Worst:
Don’t take the risk of opening a singleproduct, niche concept. It won’t work.
How did you get started in franchising? We initially intended to grow cor-
porately. We were headquartered in Las
Vegas with two locations. We decided to
open our third location in Phoenix as it was
a community similar to Las Vegas, yet far
enough away for us to begin to understand
how to support a remote location. On a
surprise visit we found the entire staff in
the back of the bakery watching “Shrek” on
the manager’s computer! Needless to say,
we let the manager go, but we were left in
a quandary. Many of our guests asked if we
had considered franchising, so we decided
to investigate this business model further by
attending the Franchise Expo held at that
time in Washington, D.C. At this show, we
walked the floor, listened to every breakout
session we could possibly attend, and met
with two franchise consulting companies
to better understand the process.
Why did you choose franchising? After investigating the business model and
understanding that we would be growing
with people who were as invested in our
concept as we were, it made great sense.
Also, understanding there was an entire
franchising community from which to
draw [