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In many cases, personal experience or frustrations give franchisers their golden ideas. Women at Large, a chain of gyms for larger-size women, was started three years ago by Sharlyne Powell and Sharon McConnell, two athletic women of ample proportions themselves. Both had felt uncomfortable taking aerobics classes full of skinny people and being taught by equally slender instructors. At the ten Women at Large salons, from Canada to Tennessee, customers are encouraged to relax and think positive. Clients weigh an average of 175 lbs., and the instructors are equally full framed. Each Women at Large gym sells a line of stylish leotards and leg warmers in hot pink and other fashionable colors. The sizes, of course, are suited to women who weigh up to 450 lbs. The company is now marketing a one-hour workout video featuring heavier women. Price: $39.95
Sometimes franchisers launch a company simply by making an old product better. In 1982 Ted Rice, a Kansas City TV cameraman, brought home a cinnamon roll he had bought from a vendor and asked his wife Joyce, a schoolteacher, if she could make a tastier one. After she came up with a delicious specimen topped with streusel and a thin layer of vanilla icing, they tried selling her rolls at state fairs and arts-and-crafts shows. When long lines started to form, they knew they had a hit. The Rices opened their first T.J. Cinnamons shop in Kansas City 2 1/2 years ago, and have since opened seven more in the area and sold 133 franchises in 42 states.
Often it is not the basic product or service that is appealing but the atmosphere in which it is provided. Phil Akin was working his way through Iowa State University in 1983 by installing coin-operated machines on campus when he decided to start his kind of launderette, a place where people could get a cold beer or play a hot game of eight ball while they waited for their clothes to dry. Akin opened the first Duds 'N Suds store, complete with pool table and bar, with a $120,000 loan from an Ames, Iowa, bank. Since then, Akin has added eight launderettes of his own and sold 56 Duds 'N Suds franchises in 27 states. The entertainment features are left to the tastes of the franchisees. Several Duds 'N Suds outlets show movies, and the three in Nevada have slot machines, naturally.
No matter how good the concept, it must be well executed. Experienced franchisers warn that the potential franchisees must be carefully screened, since the future success of the company depends on their reliability and hard work. Says Victoria Morton, founder of Denver-based Victory International, which franchises the Suddenly Slender and Designer Body weight-loss centers: "It's like marriage. We have to like and trust them, and they have to like and trust us." Dan Stamp, founder of Priority Management Systems, a Vancouver-based chain that helps executives organize their time, says he looks for "high self-esteem" in his franchisees.