Household comes first at Cousins Maine Lobster — the place the group truly is household, or simply needs everybody to really feel like household.
Courtesy of Cousins Maine Lobster
The model started a decade in the past, when Jim Tselikis, who was residing in Boston, went to go to his cousin Sabin Lomac in Los Angeles to catch up. “Once we have been reminiscing,” Tselikis says, “we realized that each time we have been with our household, we’d have lobster — stay lobster, lobster rolls, lobster mac and cheese.” Tselikis was in gross sales and had no prior meals or restaurant expertise. Lomac had labored in additional than 20 eating places however was in actual property on the time. However, they began to think about a enterprise during which they’d deliver their cherished expertise to individuals throughout the nation.
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Out of that, Cousins Maine Lobster was born. The model was based in 2012, landed on Shark Tank (the place they scored a cope with Barbara Corcoran), and now serves seafood out of greater than 30 vehicles and almost 10 eating places throughout 18 states. However as Tselikis says, household nonetheless drives this model.
You guys had by no means run your individual enterprise. How did you begin?
It was about getting one meals truck off the bottom. A significant factor was managing cash, determining what to place into the enterprise to present it an actual probability to succeed. It is also how a lot you are going to work for it. As a substitute of going out on a Friday evening to drink beers, it is dedicating that point to make it possible for every bit of what you are promoting is fine-tuned, buttoned up, and guarded.
As we began franchising, we did the whole lot we may to know how one can succeed right here. We have been studying a whole new enterprise on prime of our meals truck enterprise, and that does not occur in a single day. You are not an skilled in 12 months one, however you be taught a lot over time. That is the most important piece in all of this. It is advisable to use studying experiences and switch them into potential for the longer term. That method, when the following spherical comes, you say, “What did I be taught? How am I adjusting?” It is steady.
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How has being family-focused impacted the enterprise?
We did not go to enterprise faculty. We simply wished to create a enterprise that might be enjoyable and significant. Our principle is, “If we develop with folks that we belief which can be blood, or as near blood as attainable, they will not allow us to down and we can’t allow them to down, as a result of we’re all in on this mission collectively.”
In terms of franchising particularly, we had 2,000 requests after Shark Tank, however we solely awarded 10. We wished to ensure we selected the correct individuals, and we actually do name them relations. We selected folks that we knew would run an awesome enterprise, but additionally individuals whose lives we’d wish to find out about. Our relationship with the franchisees is like, “Your son simply graduated from highschool? Your daughter simply obtained married? Let’s seize a drink and speak about it.” To me, that is the way you construct a extremely robust basis — when everyone seems to be simply invested in one another.
Having now labored with so many franchisees, what recommendation do you could have for others who’re fascinated about shopping for a franchise?
To be a franchisee of a model, you’ll want to purchase in — not simply actually together with your {dollars}, but additionally into the truth that this franchisor has finished this. They’ve this mannequin and toolbox and the help to make you profitable, and it is shopping for into that route versus doing it by yourself.
It is also about having an open thoughts. We hearken to our franchisees. It is not us versus them. It’s totally harmonious. We all know we’re not excellent, so if they’ve an concept, or in the event that they see one thing out within the area and wish to deliver it to us, we’re all ears, as a result of we all know we are able to all the time enhance. So if a franchisee is available in and says they do not know the whole lot, however they’re prepared to be taught and we are able to prepare them, they’re going to achieve success.
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