The Mag
Join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Salad Station. Mr. John Mike Heroman, how are you, sir?
John Mike Heroman
Oh, doing good. How are y'all all today?
The Mag
We are doing well. John Mike, before we get too far into things can you give us kind of a big picture overview of Salad Station how are you serving folks?
John Mike Heroman
Yeah, so that Salad Station we got started in 2012 and we grew the company to seven stores corporate stores fundamentally were self-serve salad concept where you would pay by the pound once you're finished making a salad so about two and a half years ago we decided that we were going to start franchising so we've gone from seven to now we're at 24 total locations open hoping to get somewhere close to that 40 number by the end of this year was the plan and we're going to try to make that the target yes that's kind of an overview of who we are we're big on family and providing opportunities for our franchisees to have a healthy concept and in their in their local communities that offers also some family-friendly hours and really it's been a really successful run for so far and hoping to continue
The Mag
now can you talk about the genesis of the idea that I know it's kind of unusual that there's a founder and his mother combination here can you talk about that a little bit
John Mike Heroman
yeah, so I grew up with the family the family has been in business in my local community the little hometown Ponchatoula Louisiana about 5000 people there and so we real proud but just growing up Scott's mom was always admired by the locals there she has a she's had for the last 25 years she's had a produce stand which does a lot more than just sell produce she's found all kinds of clever ways plant products to bring our little marketplace there. And so their background growing up was the market there were you know, they have the fruits and vegetables and so understanding that as part of her background and then the son Scott got out of high school most of us went to college and he was right the entrepreneur early on and went started a restaurant and so seven or eight years into battling the full-service restaurant him and his mom got together and really came up with just a wonderful model of a less labor-intensive salad restaurant opportunity that kind of combined both of their past and what they were doing previously with Scott in the restaurant the mom with the product and it's really just been a wonderful combination to watch them work together and be together every day.
The Mag
Now is that part of why family is so important in the model?
John Mike Heroman
Yeah, I think you know missing you know, every day you know that Scott grew up it was the Cindy and the dad Mr. Ronnie, they've worked together side by side running their businesses, to children's that's the oldest of three and every day where you know, most families are getting off the bus coming home doing homework going out to play their world was they go back with mom and dad and they've worked the family business and still to this day, you know, the entire family, the mother father and the three children all still show up in the same place and are working together and that's, that's really unique. And so, what you see is you see it just overflowing into what the salad station is, you just you feel that that presence and that family priority. You feel that in our business and our franchisees feel that as well. Hopefully, the customers do too. We, we like to think that
The Mag
Now are your franchisees’ people who are kind of family businesses as well.
John Mike Heroman
You know, it's, it's really interesting, our model our concept, we are closed on Sundays, and we believe that is a day for the family. And the day of rest. And so truthfully, the type of people that we've attracted, as a result of the core of who the family is, with, what their values are, the people that really get excited most about salad station are ones that have those same values and that want to have a family business want to give their community a healthy option, and at the end of the day, have the same priorities that we do. So, yes, I think I think the family has done an excellent job of finding people like-minded. And because we’ve been able to see that same culture in each and every one of our restaurants.
The Mag
And how was the transition to go from owner-operated to a franchise? Because those are kind of two different businesses. One is based on, you know, I got to get more people in the restaurant and when you're a franchisor it's now about serving and supporting these existing entrepreneurs and business owners in their local market.
John Mike Heroman
Yeah, so I think, I think that is an excellent question. And I think it is, it's not necessarily an easy one to answer or just this way is the only way. But the way that that the family felt and myself when I was coming on board is that we saw the value at the marketplace. So, we saw that when the that our customers or potential customers where We were open up these restaurants, we’re looking for a quick, healthy, convenient option, whether it was for lunchtime, a little break from work, and run over and grab a salad, or even time trying to figure out a way to eat healthier. And so fundamentally, we knew that customers were looking for what salad station was offering. And so, then we have to decide, are we going to continue to, to, to manage the stores ourselves are, so you're trying to figure out what's the best way to continue opening stores. And when we looked at it, the decision was really easy for us.
Because we saw an opportunity to provide a franchise option for someone out there that was looking to open a business, whether it's a husband-and-wife husband's working, Mom, the wife is looking for a way the entrepreneur will figure out more time with her children, and how she can, you know, be with the kids in the morning, and then kids get out of school. And, and so when you look at where our busy spots are during the week, and that we're closed on Sundays, we thought this option really would play well in the franchise market. As people were looking for business opportunities and become entrepreneurs, that you know, a family that has the same priorities that we do, this would be something that would really benefit them. And at the customer level, we've already proven and will continue to prove that customers are looking for this option and so the best business model that we saw going forward was to create a franchisor concept that would offer the franchisee offering. And that's about the best way I can describe it, I think.
The Mag
So now when a person decides to, you know, go down the Salad Station path and open one up in their market, what kind of support and systems do you have to kind of help them launch and help them get going?
John Mike Heroman
Yeah, so we've been very, very fortunate, myself, I have had past experience with the franchisor work concept we enable our Director of Operations, the high level has had a lot of experience with other franchisor work concepts. And so, the family did a wonderful job of just kind of going outside and figuring out who could help them understand what their responsibilities need to be and how this relationship would be best suited and how they could accomplish their goals by ensuring that we're providing wonderful customer service Fresh Healthy option at the customer level. But how to do that with the relationship of a franchisee-franchisor level.
So, I can tell you this the family's background is they are the Masindi her parents were produced farmers and the form still exists today. And so, their background is their former is that hard is what I would say and you're not going to find many that would outwork them. And so, it's a combination of them being willing to just work, unbelievable hours put as so much time and dedication into the salad station. And then that translates into they've got they've hired my opinion some wonderful people to help provide the support that the franchisees would need.
And from an operational standpoint, most of our franchisees or not restaurant owners before, the restaurant is something totally new to them and they've all been able to train translate into being a salad station owner and my opinions have had great success. And I think that stems from the hard work from the family and their willingness to go out and find great staff to help them put the process and procedures in place to build a franchisor company.
The Mag
What do you think, are the most important qualities of a successful franchisee? Is it that kind of, a person that's immersed in the community, you mentioned that a lot of the current franchisees don't have a lot of restaurant experience? But is that something that would be nice to have if they had that? Or do they have you know, access to some of the local farmers and their market? Like what are some of the qualities you would like to see in a successful franchisee?
John Mike Heroman
I think I think there are some, some added bonuses, I think if you're born and raised in the community, that you're opening a business and I don't think in whatever business you would go into, I think there's definitely an added bonus there and advantage there in terms of you know, being intertwined, and you know, the local forming, to me, that would be a bonus as well. But, you know, when I ran, what we were really looking for is we're looking for good-hearted people that want to work hard, want to serve their community, and want to do what's right day in day out and provide this healthy option to their customers into their community. And, and that's really kind of what we're looking for. I don't know how to sum it up any more than that. It's something that we've been very fortunate in the group that we have now. All are very like-minded in those ways. And I think I think we'll continue to try to find those same types of people.
The Mag
If you're just now joining us, you're listening to franchise marketing radio. Our guest today is John Mike Heroman with salad station. John Mike, The Mag here. Have you found a certain tool or set of tools more effective than others in terms of just getting the word out about the Salad Station opportunity?
John Mike Heroman
like being on your show, hopefully, help us do that somewhat. Hopefully, there's somebody out there listening to take it, maybe just a good idea. But yeah, no, we're, we're constantly trying to be creative. You know, we're still a relatively young franchise franchisor most of our franchisees play, all of our franchisees were customers first and saw the model and went and ate at one of our restaurants and realized, man, this would really do well in my community. And then they would inquire and go through that process. But I think Yeah, I was trying to figure out the best way to go to the new markets and find these like-minded people who are looking for these types of opportunities.
That is something I would say we've not totally figured out on our end and are eager to present the brands because we feel like we do have something that's very unique and very special in terms of the opportunity and when you look at the lower cost in terms of a restaurant less from a labor standpoint, we don't have the same labor a normal restaurant as we don't have the same restaurant experience we're not cooking the food we're not preparing the food. So, I think I think yeah, I think we would be still trying to figure out the best approach now on how we find people in these markets that we want to be in and I think there'll be some organic growth that has continued but at this point, we're very confident what we're doing and would like to get a little more aggressive there.
The Mag
Now for somebody who is interested in becoming a franchisee, can you walk me through what that process looks like? If they were interested in joining the Salad Stat network?
John Mike Heroman
Yeah, so pretty simple. There is a website https://thesaladstation.com/ and as a portal and we've got a franchise segment on the website and it's got a little quick questionnaire, just a little information, send it in and you're more than likely get a phone call from me pretty quickly. And, and at that point, we will start the process of, you know, a simple questionnaire, a couple of interviews, just kind of getting an idea of who they are, what they're looking for, make sure we're the right fit for them and, and going forward, we can qualify them on our ends.
And it's inviting them out to a discovery day a chance to meet myself, the Scott and Masindi founders, our corporate team, taking behind the scenes look at you know, one of our restaurants, meet the management there, and just try to get an idea again, like all we're trying to do is, is we're wanting to make sure that it's the right match. When I ran but also the right match on the franchisee and so walking through that process, we come out of the discovery day and if things are still ago on both sides, we'd want to have one last final kind of interview with the witness Masindi and Scott and just to make sure again that this is the right match and if everybody approves coming out of that meeting then yeah, we'll sign a contract grant a territory and get moving on building out their salad station.
The Mag
Now the territory is right now you mentioned it sounds like you started out in smaller towns, not big major metropolitan areas. Is that the target as well as you move forward?
John Mike Heroman
Yes. So Well, I'd say on in terms of where we're looking to go we feel like you know, our offering plays well in any market whether that's the small rural sized commuter town or whether that's you know, in New Orleans or Baton Rouge or Houston tied down we feel like there's a need for what is offering us as long as you know, our demographic requirements as long as we see that there's enough people that would be looking for this type of opportunity, our customer level are there then yeah, we, we feel comfortable to go in any market
The Mag
Now, are you looking at the franchisee being kind of an owner-operator? Or is it something that eventually it can be handed off and you can kind of build an empire around your area if you do this properly?
John Mike Heroman
Yeah, so we, we think there's two there's really two types of franchisees that we see kind of going forward the first is you know, it is going to be the owner operator and we think there are some great advantages to be an owner operator of a Salad Station and on our end it gives us comfort knowing that an owner would be at the store every day and so we do we do like how that plays but you know we also see that this is a scalable business in our opinion and if you're the right type of operator that can manage multiples which not everyone can do but there are there are Restaurant Management groups out there that have proved that they can take other brands and manage multiples and we would have that offering available as well we would be a little more targeted on who we would allow to do that we would want to see some experience there in order for us to feel comfortable but that I think those are the two the two targets that we would we would see kind of going forward the you know the husband wife husband maybe still has their job looking for a wife for a business to oversee that would give them you know, the income that they're looking for. And then also you know the time with the children or the family that a Salad Station can offer and then someone that really wants to scale and manage multiples. Those are the two types of people that we say
The Mag
Well John, Mike, thank you so much for sharing your story today. Again, for those who might be interested in learning more about the opportunity on the website.
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