MAYBVM

100 101 PETWANTS franchise stores. Pet Wants is a member of the Strategic Fran- chising System, a family of five separate brands: Freshcoat, a painting company; Caring Transitions, specializing in senior services; The Growth Coach, a leader in business and sales coaching; and TruBlue, which provides house care services. Recently, Business View Magazine spoke with Scott Hoots, a seasoned franchise management executive, who became President of Pet Wants in September 2017, in order to learn about this dynamic, fast-growing company. The following is an edited transcript of that conversation: BVM: How did Pet Wants come onto the scene? Hoots: “Pet Wants was started by Michelle Hobbs out of the need to solve a problem. Mi- chelle and her wife, Amanda Broughton, had a dog named Jackson, and Jackson was having some health problems that required a lot of visits to the veterinarian and thousands of dollars in bills. And when they got down to the root cause of Jackson’s problems, it all pointed to the lack of nutrition in his diet – they were feeding Jack- son one of the name-brand, big-box retailer dog foods. “So, Michelle and Amanda developed a dog food formula that was fresh and nutritious, and once Jackson started doing better on the food, Michelle got the idea that they could start selling the food and help other people’s pets. So, in 2010, in Findlay Market, in downtown Cincinnati, Pet Wants was born. In 2015, Michelle partnered with Strategic Franchising to help start franchising the concept.We grew from nine locations at the end of 2015, to 50 at the end of 2016. At the end of 2017, we had 65 open locations in 26 different states. Today, we are a national brand.” BVM: How are you continuing to build the Pet Wants franchise network? Hoots: “We use all of the traditional franchise recruiting methods; we have a very robust fran- chise development website; we use franchise development online portals. Generally speaking, though, candidates find us because they are look- ing for a franchise business where they can give back to the community. More often, what I hear from our candidates is, ‘We wanted to go into business for ourselves; we wanted to buy a fran- chise; but we wanted to buy a franchise that had an impact on people and one that gives back to the community.’ And that’s generally what leads them to Pet Wants.” BVM: How do you vet those potential franchi-