Episode 32

Kelsey Stuart From Bloomin’ Blinds

In This Episode

  • The importance of being nimble and adaptive in marketing strategies, especially in the ever-changing digital landscape.
  • Current trends in the window covering industry, highlighting the growing popularity of outdoor spaces and exterior products.
  • The two things that are crucial for success in the window covering industry
  • His advice to window treatment companies for 2024

 

Guest Profile: Kelsey Stuart

Kelsey is a second-generation window covering professional with personal experience for nearly 20 years, both in the field as well as in franchise leadership. As the CEO of Bloomin’ Blinds, Kelsey is passionate about the strategic growth and scaling of each franchise business and creating a culture of raving fans. Kelsey leads the corporate franchise team as the example, rather than the exception, and takes pride in a team that interacts like family.

Other Notes/Links:

To learn more about Kelsey Stuart visit: Bloomin’ Blinds

pssst…. want to be a guest on the show?

Listen to other episodes

Video

Transcript

[0:00] Welcome to episode 32 of marketing pains.
[0:01] My name is Will Hanke.
[0:03] This is the podcast where we talked with window treatment and Awning experts service providers business owners about their successes their struggles related to marketing their business today.
[0:15] I’ve got an exciting guest that I’ve known for quite a while Kelsey Stewart from Bloomin’ Blinds Kelsey.
[0:21] Welcome to the show.
[0:22] Thanks.
[0:23] Well, I really appreciate you having me on kind of pretty excited about.
[0:26] Yeah excited to have you here.
[0:28] We’ve we’ve been working Together in a couple different ways for a while and excited to have you on to kind of bring in something we’ve never done before which is talk to somebody who offers a franchise model for the window treatment industry.
[0:44] So a little bit different.
[0:44] I’m excited to get your insights since you have insights across, you know, a bunch of different dealers a bunch of different locations and you know, just kind of learn more about how your system works what you guys offer the benefits of doing so and those kinds of things So let’s get started.
[1:04] Give me the two-minute elevator pitch about Bloomin’ Blinds.
[1:10] Well, so I mean we’re a full-service window treatment company.
[1:13] So we’re much like your audience or much like most window covering companies that you would, you know, normally interact with or people that we know in the industry.
[1:22] So we were offer the full spectrum of products.
[1:26] We do a little bit on the outdoor with the exteriors part of our differentiation or value proposition in the space is we actually like repairs.
[1:36] I know that’s a bit different than most would look at the window covering World, but that’s how we grew up.
[1:42] We actually as a family business before we franchised we fixed and cleaned blinds before three years before we ever sold a single one.
[1:51] Okay, so we choose we just kind of grew up on the maintenance side of things.
[1:54] So that makes sense to us.
[1:57] Of course.
[1:58] The money is made in the sales like we all know that but sure there are some benefits that I enjoy out of the repairs.
[2:04] It’s just kind of fun and feels good.
[2:07] As a franchise model, we’re a small family business that got to a pretty good-sized family business and then learned that we wanted to expand and grow.
[2:21] In different ways than just more stores more locations more cities and we’re a family unit.
[2:27] We didn’t want to break up the family unit by sending one to Kansas City and one to Oklahoma City.
[2:32] And so we took the path of franchising and teaching other people how to work within the window covering space and then providing a system to support them and help them along the way.
[2:43] Yeah.
[2:45] I like how you guys embrace the whole family thing to I know that you’re Your annual or somewhat annual meeting is called the family family reunions, right family renewed.
[2:55] Yeah, it’s not an annual conference.
[2:56] It’s a family reunions.
[2:58] That’s awesome.
[2:59] I like that.
[3:00] So tell me about your role In Bloomin’ Blinds right now.
[3:04] Well over the 21 years.
[3:05] I’ve been here it’s evolved.
[3:08] So my mom started it and I was you know a year after she started it I jumped in so this hats 2002 the current role I play I mean on my business card it says CEO the truth is there’s three brothers that run the company mom’s now retired.
[3:29] So I was a I was pretty influential in there.
[3:33] Early daydreaming in the pushing us out of our comfort zones and things like that.
[3:38] Now I spent a lot of my time in the communication and support of the franchise owners certainly on the executive side, you know, the planning and strategic strategy of building the business, but my day-to-day stuff is working with people who are interested in coming on board as a franchise owner and then guiding coaching helping those that are already in the system.
[4:01] So I I’m more of a teacher Now that I do or by far yeah.
[4:06] Yeah.
[4:06] It’s interesting has businesses get bigger.
[4:08] It’s no matter how big we get.
[4:10] It seems like we’re always still kind of pulled towards sales in some sort of little way.
[4:16] We’re always kind of, you know, still involved in that process.
[4:19] We refused to get out 100% I love the chase.
[4:24] I love the pic me and they didn’t pick you like that’s exhilarating and it really doesn’t matter.
[4:32] What I found is that it doesn’t matter to me.
[4:33] Which widget it is, right?
[4:35] You know, it could be window coverings.
[4:37] It could be that I got the last one on the rack, you know, like haha.
[4:40] It’s a great price and I got it, you know, right?
[4:43] Yeah, and I speak that I think that speaks to the competitive nature that it takes to build a business.
[4:50] I don’t know that I’ll ever get away from it.
[4:52] For sure.
[4:53] Yeah.
[4:53] Yeah, I there’s always like I said, you’re always going to have kind of your at least have your foot in the water a little bit on the sales side.
[5:00] So yeah, I think that’s pretty common for for.
[5:03] So so you mentioned your mom started it did she just started as one little kind of like Mom and Pop window covering business like like a lot of the people do nowadays.
[5:15] Well, so Bloomin blinds is actually like the second iteration of her in the window covering space.
[5:20] Okay, so we grew up in Washington state just north of Seattle.
[5:26] She ran a one-woman window covering company that did sales Cleaning and Repair as a one-woman.
[5:33] Man Show in Seattle for seven years After divorce, she wanted out of town.
[5:40] So she moved to Dallas and all of us kind of migrated this way fairly quickly.
[5:44] And again, she set off Bloomin’ Blinds with the full intention of being a one-woman show again, like our participation wasn’t part of the plan.
[5:57] As opportunity came up.
[5:59] We started slowly slowly jumping in the middle brother.
[6:03] Chris was the first one to jump in.
[6:04] I jumped in almost a year later.
[6:06] And then the youngest one Kevin jumped in probably two or three years later and it was more of a function of entrepreneurial nature.
[6:17] She’s a Serial entrepreneur as well.
[6:19] And so she saw a hole in the market.
[6:21] She saw an opportunity something spark their curiosity and without any planning or thinking it through You know off she went like most entrepreneurs, right?
[6:31] That’s the old.
[6:33] I remember when I was in high school.
[6:34] There was a shirt that Nike had I think it was Nike but it was Elevate and then decide me are right right is a basketball similar build the plane while you’re flying.
[6:44] Yeah.
[6:45] Yeah.
[6:45] Yeah, you got to figure it out while you’re going and that’s what entrepreneurs are good at is that nimbleness and that that risk tolerance in the ability to just kind of go because it seems like it’s a good idea.
[6:54] You got to test them.
[6:55] All right, so she she got to Dallas started blooming blinds as a one-woman show again at that point just offering repair and cleaning and then as we jumped in we still just offered repairing cleaning for a good three years.
[7:14] Then we began to see that our customers were asking us like hey while you’re here or hey, you guys did a great job.
[7:20] Can I buy some stuff from you and we were constantly sending it back to the retailers that were sending us the repair work because they didn’t want to do the And we are really hesitant to bite the hand that fed us but there was a point in which that’s well or that that volume of interest just couldn’t be denied like Yuki at some point.
[7:39] You have to stop pushing away money.
[7:40] Yeah, and and we very quietly added sales for about two years before we ever advertised it like we went for a full five years of just advertising cleaning and repair and then it got to a point where we could risk losing.
[7:57] Losing that referral from the Retailer’s which ultimately did happen sure because we became a competitor and and then we were just kind of off on you know, then We’re Off to the Races.
[8:07] Yeah.
[8:08] Yeah on the unique selling proposition.
[8:11] You mentioned the repairs.
[8:14] I like the idea of that because it gets you in the door.
[8:17] And as you say I think most smaller window treatment companies miss that opportunity.
[8:24] They they don’t they don’t want to they don’t want the hassle.
[8:27] I guess right but there’s some other benefits from doing that besides just hey while you’re here.
[8:34] Absolutely.
[8:35] Yeah, you can you can get a review right that grows reviews.
[8:38] So there’s a there’s a digital marketing side to that.
[8:40] Of course that’s always kind of my angle for it.
[8:43] But you also mention cleaning.
[8:45] Are you guys still doing cleaning as a service now?
[8:49] So within the franchise model it’s an approved service, you know franchises if someone’s not familiar with how they work.
[8:57] Effectively, we as the leadership decide or build out the business model and franchise owners kind of have to stay within those guardrails.
[9:04] Sure.
[9:05] So being that we grew up cleaning.
[9:07] That’s certainly An approved service also window washing.
[9:10] So we have you know, basically floor potential revenue streams But Blind Cleaning and window-washing are both fairly labor-intensive.
[9:19] They’re both relatively small tickets.
[9:22] So you I mean, you’re not going to get rich off doing that.
[9:24] It’s just a it’s another add-on.
[9:26] Yeah.
[9:27] And the economy since the eight years ago, when we started the franchise has been in a great position.
[9:35] Maybe some days are better than others.
[9:37] But overall we’ve been in a pretty good position for the you know, since the last recession and so none of our franchise owners want to take on the job and the effort of the manual effort like they’re doing just fine selling and repair and blinds which is the easy stuff.
[9:53] I think those that are building a truly big business.
[9:57] We’ll eventually build it out as they have more employees and people that can do those jobs.
[10:04] And I think if we have a big factor session, I think we’ll probably pivot into that a little bit more because I mean inside does show up stronger when money gets tight.
[10:13] Yeah.
[10:14] Yeah, definitely makes sense.
[10:16] You don’t lead with those services, but they are something that maybe you’ll mention while you’re there or you might just stumble across Yeah by and large.
[10:24] We don’t spend any marketing money on these Services.
[10:26] We just simply you know, it’s like an incidental by or it’s a just an opportunity that may come about.
[10:34] Okay cool.
[10:35] Very good.
[10:36] Thank you for clarifying that so so as you know, this is a marketing podcast.
[10:41] I’m a marketing guy.
[10:44] About that side of the business.
[10:46] So Bloomin’ Blinds is as an entity.
[10:49] What is the what is the product that you’re offering to a buyer?
[10:56] You can think of it as like a the analogy that I like to use is a recipe.
[11:02] So it’s similar to like going to the store and buying a cake mix in a box, you know some Betty Crocker mix and you flip it over and it tells you how many eggs how much milk how long to cook it?
[11:13] How long to let it sit there.
[11:15] There’s there’s a recipe on how to go about daily activity.
[11:21] So there’s a lot of that that’s like within the frame.
[11:24] System that is I think that’s what you’re asking is.
[11:28] Yes, like what are we offering as a franchise?
[11:30] Like why would somebody want a franchise?
[11:32] Yeah.
[11:35] I guess I’ll refrain this a different way.
[11:36] So definitely recipe but that there’s a lot of stuff and a lot of infrastructure and a lot of pieces that an independent business owner has to figure out on their own.
[11:47] Yeah that have already been created for them.
[11:51] Also how to do the job or how to navigate a customer that’s you know, having a hard time how to Market and who to choose who to work with all of that is done with a level of knowledge and expertise for the Business owner for the franchise owner so that they don’t have to trial and error with their money A good franchise system should just be a training and support organization.
[12:16] That should be the emphasis of the franchisor is if I help your world get better then I make my money sure.
[12:28] So that’s the focal point on our end is how can I make the owners lunch better more efficient?
[12:33] How can I help them?
[12:33] Make more money and How can I help them get past roadblocks and stumbles that are in their way?
[12:38] Yeah.
[12:39] Yeah.
[12:39] It’s kind of the that the Pareto Principle 80/20.
[12:44] Yo, you can get that 80% of the way down the road give them the tools the knowledge everything right up front where they’re they’re like way ahead of somebody who just said.
[12:57] Hey, I think I want to start a like your mom right?
[13:00] I mean, hey, I want to start a window cut your business now what you know, well Yeah, so we I mean, no doubt franchising costs a bunch of money like getting in buying a Bloomin blinds is not something you do with the money out of the cushions of your couch.
[13:14] Okay, but in like we kind of use the phrase around here in business you either build it or you buy it.
[13:23] Write and as in as a standalone operation, you’re building out your marketing campaigns.
[13:28] You’re trying to figure it out.
[13:30] I mean even working with you guys a client is now hiring somebody for their expertise versus trying to figure out how to do SEO on their own right 11 could do marketing and SEO and digital on their own.
[13:46] But you’re paying somebody a fee or some level of expense because they have expertise right and and there should be value like that should be an equitable trade.
[13:56] If not a beneficial trade, you know as a franchise.
[14:00] It’s kind of the same thing.
[14:01] It’s going to cost a bunch of money, but you’re probably get there a lot faster a lot faster like yeah, but but what it’s not and this may be different than probably you servicing your clients is in franchising.
[14:13] Sometimes the impression is that We do it all for you.
[14:16] Basically, like sometimes people have a misconception that we’re a stock.
[14:21] You can just throw your money at this and then everything just works magically sure and that’s not the case.
[14:29] You know, I would imagine as a marketing team.
[14:31] You’re probably a little bit more hand-holding like hey, yes, give me a budget to work with and I’ll totally take care of everything write night 95% of everything.
[14:40] Yeah, for sure.
[14:42] Yeah, but I think like I said with the 80/20 you you guys have you get an 80% of the Wayfarer ramped up pretty quickly right versus them trying to figure it out on their own but they definitely need to put the work in to make it successful.
[14:56] Yeah that 80/20 is really true on the infrastructure and the support side of things sure we do use the phrase there’s a lot for you to do but you’re never gonna have to figure out.
[15:10] To do yeah, I like that.
[15:13] That’s good.
[15:15] Very good.
[15:15] So who is your main kind of like target audience for Bloomin blinds as a as a consumer or as a franchise owners a franchise?
[15:24] Yeah.
[15:25] Okay good because I kind of have two different customers when you think of it that sure sure so franchise owners.
[15:33] What we have what?
[15:34] I haven’t had any conversions yet and in the franchising world, that means that there’s a independent business owner in the window covering industry that is willing to Rebrand into a Bloomin blinds.
[15:46] Okay.
[15:47] I’ve had a couple conversations about it before and I know that it’s happened in the past, but by and large are our franchise owners, this is there probably the first business They’re probably coming out of some sort of corporate environment.
[16:01] Maybe they’ve been an entrepreneur before or business owner at some level.
[16:05] I do have a handful of owners that are just kind of cereal franchise operators.
[16:09] Like they like the franchising space.
[16:10] They’ll build it up.
[16:11] They’ll sell it and I’ll go start a new one.
[16:12] Okay, but by and large, I think our demographics probably would follow a lot of the window covering treatment ownership, you know, good strong amount of husband-and-wife teams.
[16:29] We’ve probably got 15.
[16:32] Yeah, probably 15 percent of female owners women who are really kind of wearing all the hats.
[16:39] So in our world, we do our own installs, we don’t contract things out so sales install and repair and the rest of them are guys who are the guys little guys who are probably 35 to 55, you know, they’ve been successful enough.
[16:57] Enough where they have the funds available to make choices and they like a coach and a mentor guys, you know window treatments is not rocket science, like it can be figured out we didn’t have a franchise we figured it out, but it’s people who like to get to the front of the line who have enough financial money to like there’s have enough money to make those choices.
[17:24] They can buy their way to the front of the line if they want to sure.
[17:27] But they also appreciate a coach and a mentor because that’s pretty heavy within our system.
[17:32] That’s a real big emphasis is let us coach you and you’ll make more money.
[17:35] Yep.
[17:36] Yep.
[17:37] And the Smart Ones are going to look for that right?
[17:40] I mean when I hired a coach it changed my business dramatically it is there’s a humility to give you know taking on coaching.
[17:48] There’s a trust Factor like, you know, okay.
[17:52] Yes.
[17:52] I’m paying you but why would I follow what you’re doing?
[17:55] There’s you know.
[17:57] Do we find the pride is probably the thing that gets in the way the most and so we actually talked about it quite a bit and we’re trying to bring it to the surface so that we can deal with it or help people realize that it’s a stumbling block but as grown adults our society doesn’t embrace the idea of asking for help or telling people you’re new or you don’t know what you’re doing.
[18:17] That’s just not celebrated in our world today.
[18:20] Yeah, and and so we have to push really hard to try and help people understand that just because I say, I want to be a mentor like that’s not Show that’s not smoke and mirrors.
[18:28] Like that’s literally how you make the most out of a Bloomin blinds experience.
[18:33] Yes.
[18:34] Yeah.
[18:34] I love that.
[18:35] Alright, so we know so we kind of know what your product is who you are who your audience is who you’re trying to get that product in one thing and I know you guys you guys have had fantastic success.
[18:46] So what do you think is the one thing that is really attributed to your success at this point?
[18:53] Man, who won the challenge there is just one thing.
[18:58] Yeah, it’s because success is never one thing right because I think I think a lot of it kind of centers around the idea that we don’t view ourselves as a product.
[19:09] I guess.
[19:11] Maybe I should clarify again.
[19:13] Are you talking about the success of the franchise?
[19:15] Are you talking about success?
[19:16] Yeah.
[19:17] Sorry.
[19:18] I keep getting lost in which customer talking about.
[19:20] We can you sew down both roads.
[19:23] The way if you if you want well, I mean, so I was headed down the consumer path.
[19:27] I’ll finish that one.
[19:28] Okay, we recognize that people buy from people and the way in which we go about things is meant to be very educational and it’s made to meant to really focus on building a relationship so sell an emotional experience not a product and more often than not customers tell us that that resonates differently like that like not everyone’s Doing that that sounds like if we put that on a test everyone would get it, right.
[19:58] But sure you put you put them in a house and you put their money on the line and it doesn’t always go that way and it doesn’t always go that way for us either but that’s the whole as a franchise.
[20:10] It may sound crazy.
[20:11] But in the in the scheme of starting a franchise business, we’re in the lower Spectrum.
[20:16] We’re on the lower third.
[20:18] If not the lower quartile of what it cost to start a franchise.
[20:22] So we’re Within Reach of more individuals which helps I think the fact that my brothers and I are still intimately involved and people get to work with the founders.
[20:33] They’re not just you know, treated like an account number or a little cash cow.
[20:37] Like there’s a lot of emphasis on family and relationships and we really try and maintain like a real like a genuine intimate connection with our franchise owners.
[20:48] I think that resonates specially if you’re looking at us versus like a giant Corporation It’s not the same now, there’s benefits to the corporation.
[20:58] But if you want to feel like you’re connected to the brand and to the people who are running it we offer that very easily.
[21:04] It’s very transparent and easy going around here.
[21:09] I think I got to give credit to Budget Blinds.
[21:13] Like I think that they’ve proven that a franchise model can be very successful can be a strong player in the market.
[21:21] They kind of plowed the road for us.
[21:24] The and I’m eternally grateful.
[21:26] I’ve said this billion times like I love Budget Blinds for what they did and what they proved that doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy competing against him or for, you know, like I think of them as they’re my Nike and I have every intention of being the Under Armour.
[21:42] Yep, you know, like no one’s going to unseat ikey I get that but there’s no doubt that Under Armour was able to get there faster and more efficiently than Nike did it because they had the benefit of someone plowing the road ahead of them.
[21:54] And again, I love them but will still go to war.
[21:59] Yeah.
[22:00] Well, I don’t know whether there’s room for everybody.
[22:03] Absolutely.
[22:03] Yeah, what do you think is the biggest benefit that sets you apart from budget?
[22:10] Well what I wear I think budget wins is the household awareness, you know there I think Budget Blinds by and large is a household name and that’s that’s a competitive Advantage.
[22:22] Like there are there they’re going to get more cracks at the opportunity than we are just because that’s a household name.
[22:29] They also have an advantage from the marketing because they’re I mean now they’re almost a billion dollars a year in sales.
[22:34] I mean it’s a massive organization.
[22:38] So I think that’s definitely a benefit.
[22:40] Don’t know their systems in their operations, and I don’t know how well they train people and things like that.
[22:44] I can imagine they have enough to provide some really good resources.
[22:50] What I have is the intimacy I have the ability to actually know them and know their kids and know their wives, I mean not for not for any nefarious reasons, but there’s a lot of franchise owners who I have their wives phone like in like we’re like the wives are totally comfortable to Eat with us, even if they’re not in the business.
[23:12] It’s just one of those comfortable relationship.
[23:15] Yeah back to the only thing totally and you would imagine a company started by Mom and ran by Three Brothers is going to have to embrace that and be good at and be good at it.
[23:26] You know are we had a I think we have an advantage on the technology side to like we have the benefit of being a relatively young franchise in a very tech-heavy worked.
[23:43] So we are able to Pivot into some of the newer stuff and bring on New pieces because the system still pretty small.
[23:51] I only have 60 plus franchise owners right now.
[23:54] So it’s not like, you know in budget you try and onboard 1400 owners across two continents 02 Nation.
[24:02] Ones like that’s a problem.
[24:03] That’s a challenge that nobody wants.
[24:05] So there’s a lot of opportunities where we go to face we go toe-to-toe, but we’re able to bring in similar products similar pricing, but we can add some value through the technology that we use and sometimes that’s the differentiator.
[24:20] End and then I think the fact that we’re we openly Embrace service.
[24:25] I think that gives us some opportunities and kind of creates more of an all-in-one story than budget or any other company.
[24:33] That is a I call it a one trick pony was probably not nice to say but that’s how I get to you know, that’s my selling proposition against it.
[24:41] Yeah.
[24:42] Yeah.
[24:42] There was a book that came out a while back too big to fail.
[24:46] You know, I think that that kind of speaks to the to the budget side.
[24:50] When we come up against them, you know, like marketing locally most times.
[24:55] They’re not paying attention because they’re so big.
[24:59] They’re not focusing on the local, you know, the SEO those kind of things right and and and most you.
[25:06] So you’re in a fantastic position there, you know where you guys can come in and start doing some things and push them down fairly quickly which is which is a great Advantage, you know, it was because budget is almost Entirely a I think they might be entirely franchise.
[25:23] I don’t know that they have corporate stores, but we find in a competitive scenario that sometimes those business operators are a little fat and happy, you know, and we see that all the time especially when like when the market gets red hot, you know, two thousand seven two thousand six two thousand twelve thirteen fourteen.
[25:45] Like I mean, it wasn’t shooting fish in a barrel o shooting fish in a Dixie cup.
[25:51] Like it was so easy because there was so much work and I can imagine I don’t know because I don’t live in their shoes.
[25:57] But again, I think they get more opportunities than most because that household name and so we see elevated prices.
[26:05] We see lack of attention.
[26:07] We see lack of communication.
[26:11] And I’m sure there’s some operators who make the most out of all of it.
[26:15] But we definitely come across operators within their system that are just cool to like kind of go through the paces because there’s another one right behind you.
[26:25] Yeah.
[26:26] Yeah.
[26:26] And so yeah anyone independent or franchise can can capitalize on that.
[26:32] Yeah.
[26:32] Yeah.
[26:32] I definitely think so.
[26:33] So with your role as even though you like you said on paper see CEO, you’re still kind in that training.
[26:41] Bring out coaching area.
[26:43] What do you see as one of the biggest mistakes that your franchisors or just window covering owners in general make on a regular basis?
[26:59] There’s going to be I think.
[27:05] Try to figure out a puts up a couple of these into words.
[27:08] So from a market from a marketing perspective, you’ve got to be in tune with the shifts because I’ll go I’ll use a recent example so prior to covid maybe four five six seven years ago, you know, our is reason is that you can genuinely build a good business on relatively reasonable pricing from PPC, you know, like a good solid website and a healthy body.
[27:35] Dude in PPC and an active audience meaning like the consumers are interested in Window Coverings like it man.
[27:42] It didn’t take a whole lot.
[27:43] Like the wind is at your back and you just kind of it was easy covid hits granted all of us in the industry had a really good time during covid.
[27:51] If you were if you were even just moderately paying attention, right but now come in now coming out of it, you know, there’s another shift and SEO is playing much more relevance now, we’re finding that We’re finding that there’s a demand to and it’s different for us because we’re launching brand-new locations.
[28:12] Like we’re introducing Bloomin’ Blinds to a particular City, but the community involvement and getting your name out there beyond the digital aspects like that.
[28:24] It’s nearly a requirement for us.
[28:25] Now we can automate and we can we can provide support on the digital side.
[28:31] Like I can take that off your plate as a franchise owner.
[28:34] That’s easy.
[28:35] I’m like going out and kissing babies shaking hands cutting ribbons, you know throwing a happy hour for some Realtors like those are kind of things that I we can’t do for you we can give you the ideas, but you got to go execute on them and the loaders.
[28:50] Yeah.
[28:51] Yeah, the owners that have really invested a lot of time into that and really made it a driving force of their marketing in addition to a healthy digital plan are finding that it’s definitely paying off his Lot, so we have like we kind of got caught by that and that’s one of the benefits of being intimately connected to your franchise owners is we only know that because a handful of them said hey, this digital only thing isn’t working.
[29:17] So well, what else can I do and was so we sent them out into the public and all of a sudden it clicked.
[29:24] So we got we got feedback from the ground or from from the franchise owners that kind of taught us those lessons.
[29:31] So you have to be nimble and you have to pay attention.
[29:34] Yeah.
[29:34] I like that brand exposure is a big part of especially the early on for yeah.
[29:41] We I mean when we launched it was 2001 literally our business was formed the morning of 9/11 like we filed our business paperwork and then the towers got hit.
[29:52] Oh, wow.
[29:53] Yeah.
[29:54] So we’re launching this business mom’s launching this business in the economic environment that followed 9/11.
[30:01] So to get business she was in a box truck and she would purposely go get stuck in rush-hour.
[30:08] She would get Salter girlfriend.
[30:10] She gets them to go food because she didn’t like to cook and she would go drive for box truck about few.
[30:15] No 45 miles down the road in traffic at 15 miles an hour, then she’d pull off and let that traffic cycle past and then get right back on the freeway and go get stuck again for another five miles and that’s that was that was the most effective early marketing campaign that we had that was before we even had a website so you can see the yellow.
[30:36] Yeah.
[30:36] So it was it was all about awareness, like people needed to know and even if they don’t need blinds right now if they see your logo when during the search and then they’ve seen it before liked that Association brings comfort and much more.
[30:54] Likelihood that they’re going to give you a shot to give you a call.
[30:58] Yeah.
[30:58] Wow, that’s cool.
[31:01] I like that story.
[31:02] So what is what has been the biggest challenge promoting bloom in and I guess we’ll go both both directions on this one.
[31:13] Um from a consumer, it’s just there’s there’s a limited amount of funds and there’s a whole lot of open space.
[31:20] Yeah, and that’s that’s kind of the the challenge there right like you especially if If an owner looks at marketing as a bill.
[31:35] It shouldn’t be a marketing is not a bill it is feel for your rocket.
[31:39] Right and you know, I use the phrase if you want to go to Mars.
[31:42] You wouldn’t go on a half tank.
[31:45] You know, like if you have high aspirations we are in a pay-to-play world if there is just no way around it either accept it or you get beat up by it.
[31:56] And so that that can be the challenge.
[31:57] There’s especially for a new business owner franchised or not.
[32:02] There’s so much to learn and so much to get good at It all feels critical at the moment and that’s why I’ve tried to really provide systems and Automation and great Partners who can help with that process and take a lot of that weight off their shoulders as a franchise.
[32:22] It’s kind of the same story, you know like to build the franchisor to attract people who might not even know boom blinds exists in Cleveland, Ohio.
[32:34] My marketing budget has to go up against McDonald’s or bunch of lines or you know, like Pet Salon that franchised like that the amount of the depth of pockets within the marketing.
[32:52] Budget of franchise organizations is massive, and we’re still in the franchising World.
[32:59] We’re still a very small player in terms of Revenue, you know available Capital number of franchise owners things like that.
[33:07] We’re still very much young and and but we’re throwing up in the big leagues because we’re a franchise like you just instantly are in that realm and so that that’s a bit of a challenge there.
[33:21] So you find your ways around it you find organic growth you find, you know the pieces where you can kind of slip between the cracks from a digital standpoint for us.
[33:31] We hired an outside company that has a really strong reputation from a lead flow standpoint, like people bring candidates to them just because I have a really strong process and systems so through Outsourcing we gained leverage, but it’s I think a lot of it is just it’s a big wide open world and you can’t spread it to thin like you just have to pick your moments and pick your spots.
[34:00] You got to figure out what you’re really good in good at and then lean into that and stop being everyone everything to everyone.
[34:08] Yeah, you never get far on that route.
[34:11] Do you know you’ll be much better as a sniper than a shotgun?
[34:15] Yeah.
[34:17] So let’s talk about the industry real quick.
[34:19] Just in general.
[34:20] What do you see current trends changes in the industry things that we should be paying attention to right now.
[34:29] Well, I’d say the from a sales perspective, right?
[34:35] Because we kind of drift towards that again the outdoor space.
[34:39] Is still incredibly strong and it’s going to continue to get more saturated, you know as more and more people wake up the early adopters, you know, man you made a hay day like it was easy.
[34:50] Nobody knew what it was.
[34:51] It was big it was expensive.
[34:52] It was Technical and so your exterior products.
[34:58] Early on very little competition but you’re getting more and more competitors coming in every day.
[35:04] Yeah.
[35:04] So are you interested?
[35:06] Are you talking about exterior roller shade solar Shades those types of things.
[35:10] Are you talking about awnings or all of that?
[35:12] Well, so my our frame of reference primarily is exterior roller Shades.
[35:17] Okay, we have we recognize and know or believe that awnings is part of our future as a franchise.
[35:28] It’s like who’s going to make them can they fit into your systems?
[35:32] You know how longs it take to train your team to get good at it because we got to support it.
[35:35] It’s not as simple as an independent dealer who just like hey, let me go talk to the rep for three hours and now go sell some mornings.
[35:42] Well, it takes a lot either intensive lot more.
[35:45] Yeah lot more procedures, you know from a business standpoint.
[35:48] Yeah.
[35:49] You got to set up by him.
[35:50] Yeah, you got to sell up you got to set up all the infrastructure before you educate your franchise owners.
[35:54] Yeah, so we’re bits.
[35:57] Slower in that way.
[35:59] So the outdoor space still I think is red-hot and even if it gets saturated, that’s fine write like plantation shutters is fairly saturated, but we people are going to buy pick you because your confidence.
[36:14] And the way you present so even if it’s gets busy like there’s still opportunities for those who do it really?
[36:19] Well.
[36:20] Yeah.
[36:23] We’ve noticed the impact of social media.
[36:28] So we’re learning to really lean in and monetize the lead flow that can come off social media.
[36:35] That’s another one of those things where I told a franchise owner that he was wasting his time and then he went out and did it.
[36:41] Anyways.
[36:42] Yeah and ultimately proved us wrong and we have now used his experience to actually teach franchise owners like how to navigate that that world because if you don’t do it just right It’s really hard to feel like you’re getting anything out of it.
[36:56] It can be it can really be a time suck if you don’t have a plan behind it.
[37:01] Yes, so the the layers and the elements of execution while no means are we in expert we do have a couple owners who have done it really?
[37:09] Well.
[37:10] Yeah, and so we just simply emulated what they’ve done and that’s been really good for us.
[37:15] Yeah recently.
[37:16] You know here we are December 2023.
[37:20] We’re starting to see some Behavior Trends with inflation.
[37:23] I’m kicking in and bugging people.
[37:26] You know, December is always kind of a hit-or-miss month because of the distractions of Christmas and the holidays and whatnot.
[37:32] But we’re starting to see more quotes.
[37:34] We’re starting to see some little hesitancy.
[37:38] We’re starting to see more interest in financing program that we offer things like that.
[37:44] So, okay.
[37:44] I think I think the market I say that but we’re in a soft spot in the seasonality side.
[37:50] So I mean but I think it’s softening a little bit but I don’t see any like major Cliff coming down their way anytime soon.
[37:59] Yeah.
[38:00] Yeah.
[38:01] So twenty twenty twenty one twenty two were these anomaly years right where we had this great opportunity.
[38:09] So a lot of our clients are kind of looking at their numbers in 2019 and comparing that yeah.
[38:17] This year’s growth right or loss.
[38:20] How do you see 2450 fitting into this?
[38:26] I feel like I feel like the consumer and whether it be my household or just a general consumer.
[38:31] I think we’re going to see a lot of the more the same.
[38:35] I think we’ll probably see very much at least within a certain a small deviation another 2023.
[38:45] I know that when I was selling blinds, I right before an election.
[38:49] I would have a couple of those like think of a bell curve right like most people really don’t live and die based on the election but there’s a couple people who really like how it is and there’s a couple people who really hope it changes write and and they fit they feel like their money or maybe they know their money is tied to whoever’s in power.
[39:07] But with that regard like, Godless of which so I think there’s something to watch in the election coming up in November of next year, I think.
[39:24] I believe that there’s got to be some sort of financial Reckoning for all the money that was put in the system.
[39:29] I know we’re feeling a little you know, some of it now through the inflation but that was a lot of cash to put in the system sure.
[39:37] And so any Penny any political party that is in power.
[39:42] They’re always going to Kick the Can or delay any sort of negative effect until the election occurs when they’re closed.
[39:52] And both sides would do the same thing.
[39:54] So that kind of gives me some feelings.
[39:56] Like we’re going to have a lot of stability through 23.
[39:58] Like I think the parties that are in power don’t want to have that major disruptions.
[40:03] They’re going to do everything they can to keep it nice and cheery through 24.
[40:07] Yeah, and that’s kind of the basis of why I’m saying that yeah.
[40:11] I’m in agreement with you two.
[40:13] I don’t I don’t think it’s going to be a rocket year.
[40:16] I think it’s going to be more of the same basically exactly what you said, you know, which isn’t great for sales.
[40:21] Right.
[40:24] Well, I mean it’s not great for growing sales.
[40:26] But if you’ve already built a strong business sure where it’s probably the kind of year that’s going to weed out some of the weaker players though.
[40:35] Yeah, you know those that may be almost made money and they’re really need a big year next year to really kind of make it worth their while I know as franchise as a franchise system, you know, we’ve got owners who who treat this as a job not a business, right?
[40:51] And so if they’re not making great money at their job Being the business they’ve spent money on then they tend to just want out and go find a job that will actually pay them more.
[41:04] Yeah, but if you build a business and organization, if you felt this self-sustaining snowball, yeah, if you don’t grow 30% this year, that’s okay because you already have a good healthy business.
[41:17] So just kind of depends on the stage and who’s who’s at the steering wheel?
[41:21] Yeah.
[41:22] Yeah, I’d agree.
[41:23] I think I think you’re spot on there.
[41:25] So alright 11 different question for you.
[41:29] If money were No Object.
[41:31] What’s the craziest marketing publicity?
[41:35] Whatever stunt that you would like to do for blooming.
[41:38] Oh my word.
[41:40] All right.
[41:42] I’m going to take a second and think about this because we’re kind of an honorary little company like it would be something I guarantee you whatever I thought of my brothers would be like no way.
[41:54] Like let’s go to let’s move down to like your fourth idea.
[41:58] Lets look at that one.
[42:02] I think it would be an entire series of like little shorts of like funny.
[42:10] Mildly inappropriate skits that involved window coverings in some way or form or fashion.
[42:16] Like I’ve always had this dream that because as a Blind repair company, we get brought in to fix blinds when the dogs chew on them, right so dog damage is a thing for us sure.
[42:27] And so we love the dogs for that.
[42:28] I’m like, you know coding louvers with peanut butter.
[42:32] Nobody’s looking.
[42:33] Yeah, like I’ve always had this dream of dressing up my youngest brother Kevin who’s like 65?
[42:42] Okay, not not a small individual.
[42:44] He’s not like one of those skinny 65s like he’s a fill the room kind of 65, but I’ve always had this dream of dressing him up in a full-body dog costume and giving him a baseball bat and let them just go to town on a plantation shutter.
[43:00] Oh, I love ahead and then like swinging in front of the camera like some cheesy like 1970s like hey, you know and talking it like all kinds of like little advertisements in series and shorts about that.
[43:12] We’re we’re like kind of mocking ourselves like a mockumentary kind of feel.
[43:17] Yeah.
[43:17] I would love to have a production company be able to come in and take all of these little Day Dreams that I have about how to make light of the window covering company and turn that into something that everyone can consume.
[43:30] I love that answer it also Speaks to the personality of the of the business Bloomin.
[43:37] I really like that.
[43:38] That’s fantastic.
[43:39] You guys are not you know by the book corporate straight down the road.
[43:43] You’ve got a little variance there too.
[43:45] Let’s have some fun.
[43:46] Yeah, we firmly believe that you can have fun and make money at actually.
[43:50] I feel like that’s probably a quicker path to it.
[43:52] But yeah, we we are like I said earlier like we’re an honorary little company.
[43:59] We love our sarcasm in our humor.
[44:02] Cool, cool.
[44:03] Well, thank you so much for being on today.
[44:05] If somebody wants to learn more about Bloomin.
[44:08] What’s the best path for them?
[44:11] I’d probably go to bloom in blinds.com.
[44:13] There’s a link all over the page that says, you know become a franchise and that’s just like the contact form and then we begin to have those conversations about what it looks like but that’s probably the best way to go about it.
[44:26] Okay, and of course, I’ll link it in the show notes Here those kinds of things so everybody.
[44:32] Can can get to that easily so yeah.
[44:36] All right.
[44:36] Well Kelsey, I appreciate you being on today.
[44:38] Appreciate your time.
[44:39] I know you’re very very busy and anything else any other last minutes of wisdom that you wanted to give to everybody.
[44:47] So I guess I’ll go 2 ways.
[44:51] Well, I mean consumer.
[44:53] So if anyone in the window covering Industries watching this get involved in your community, like go out and make sure that people know who you are.
[45:02] And see if you can try and get it to a point where like like your referrals begin when you have a good enough relationship is that if you saw that person in the grocery store, you would stop and have a conversation for five minutes.
[45:13] Like you can’t just go in with a business card and expect the money to flow follow.
[45:19] You got to you got to truly build a relationship before the lead flow is really really strong.
[45:24] So go out and get out there like you’re you can’t make any money with your van in the driveway.
[45:29] Can’t you can’t in traffic?
[45:32] Yeah.
[45:33] Yeah, I guess sorry.
[45:35] I probably should remember that amount of marketing.
[45:37] Okay.
[45:37] So let’s go the other way spend more than you think you should if you know there’s a good Roi like put your money where your heart is and let the people you hire to drive your business give them the ammunition they need to do it.
[45:50] But again you talked about how it’s always comes back to sales.
[45:54] It also comes back to marketing you can be awesome, but if nobody knows View or knows how awesome you are.
[46:01] Then matter doesn’t matter at all.
[46:03] Yeah, so you gotta build the biggest megaphone possible.
[46:07] I’ll leave it with that.
[46:11] Uh, that way too much suffering.
[46:12] I like that.
[46:13] I like that that’s good.
[46:14] So well, thank you.
[46:15] Again.
[46:16] I appreciate your time today.
[46:17] I really do appreciate it listeners.
[46:21] If you enjoyed Today’s Show course, give us a thumbs up subscribe if you haven’t already or to be bringing you more.
[46:29] Business owners, you know people in the industry service providers to help you guys grow and make your business has bigger and better and Kelsey.
[46:40] Thank you so much.
[46:41] Hope you have a great day.
[46:42] And we’ll see you guys on the next episode.
[46:45] Thanks, man.
[46:45] I had a lot of fun.

Free Strategy Session

Ready to implement your success plan?