I decided in October 2018 that I wanted to open my own business. Having worked for large organizations my entire professional career (
State of California,
AT&T,
Cox Communications and Cox Enterprises), I felt ready to tackle the challenges of running a small operation of my own. My husband was hesitant, so we discussed what this journey might be like and acknowledged the conceptual challenges ahead before I began to do down this road further.
On advice from a placement company with which I was working at the time, I determined that franchising would be the best path to business ownership for us. Franchising was foreign to me, with federal rules governing elements of the relationship between franchisor and franchisee, and thousands of business models, products, and services. Fortunately, I found three great franchise consultants who helped guide me through the maze of choices.
I looked at a few franchise options closely, including a restaurant concept and a home healthcare model. Eventually, I landed on
AlphaGraphics. There were several elements of the brand's promise and operations that appealed to me:
- Emphasis on small- and medium-sized businesses/organizations as clients
- Focus on interesting verticals, including non-profits (important to me)
- Ability to meet just about any visual communications need, from print to signs, from marketing consulting to promotional items
- Technology-driven, including on-line ordering
- Business-to-business, Monday-Friday operations
- Full-time, skilled team
- Support from the franchiser
So, I jumped in and started a new professional journey. It has been full or surprises, wonderful highs, and some obstacles. Today, I own two AlphaGraphics Centers,
Tri-Cities - Atlanta Airport and
Dunwoody - Sandy Springs, each unique in status and market. I am looking forward to our teams helping our Clients reach the audience they want, be they customers, donors, constituents, etc. I will share more in future blogs about our stories, our Clients, our teams, and our services and products.