April 2017 | Business View Magazine

134 135 a team of all different levels,” Leff adds, “from Millennials that work at the front counter to the professional staff of massage therapists, estheti- cians, and salespeople. And part of the business is educating the con- sumer on why a membership is good for them; why it serves their health and wellness interests.” McQuillan reports that there are many ways in which the company searches for potential franchisees. “When we started, the bulk of our business was going through consul- tants or networkers, and we still do Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa a great deal of business through them, but we have found that reaching out via social media, developing a better search engine optimiza- tion infrastructure, and leveraging technology has really helped us.We do regional and local seminars to bring in prospective buyers in spe- cific geo-targeted areas.We attend conferences, tradeshows, and franchising events to attract talent. And, of course, we leverage our existing franchise base from a referral system.” Leff adds that a lot of franchisees started out as either members of a Hand & Stone spa or its main competitor, Massage Envy. “It’s amazing to me how many members of the competition ended up buying Hand & Stone franchises,” he quips. Once a franchisee is awarded a unit, Hand & Stone’s corporate goal is to “hold the fran- chisee’s hand through the entire process,” says McQuillan. “When they come on board, the first thing we do is concentrate on the real estate process.We do it hands-on.We assign a real estate representative and that representative will work with them and a local broker to locate real estate, and then, we will travel to the mar- ket to evaluate the specific business and kick off negotiations for the site.” “They’ll be in the corporate classroom for five days as well as work in a spa for two days,” he continues. “When they do open their location, they’ll be assigned an operations manager who