122 Business View Magazine - July 2016
us different. Most of our competitors don’t offer epoxy
floors.” Sika reps also help train Tailored Living fran-
chisees in epoxy flooring fundamentals. “Sika comes
out about every other month and conducts training at
our location, here in Orange, but will also go in the field
as needed and either help our franchisees or provide
product for us during our training programs.”
Training its franchisees is a key element of Tailored Liv-
ing’s business model. All new franchisees go through
an initial training regimen of 11 days at company
headquarters, and then are carefully monitored and
supported for the next 12 months. There are videos for
remote training (“So we don’t have to have franchisees
flying in here all the time”), three ongoing webinars,
and focus-group leaders throughout the company’s
five North American regions who take on key projects.
“We have 12 mentors,” adds Tafoya. “Most of them
are doing a million dollars in sales or more. They all
have been in the field for four or five years plus; they’re
all very successful. After new franchisees leave the 11
days of training, the mentors go out to their locations
within 45 days. It helps reduce the learning curve for
new franchisees because we ask them to spend three
days there; they go out on sales calls, for cabinetry and
flooring; they do installations with them; and the last
day is all operations. It gives a new franchisee confi-
