Cold Stone Creamery and Franchising

Taking the self-test to see if franchising is a good personal choice for me, my results ended up stating that “franchising has some attraction, but you have some doubts that need to be carefully considered.” My score was a ten, which is close to the score needed to say that a person is perfect for franchising. I have always felt that I was more of a small business owner, as I am very independent and feel as if I do things better on my own versus under a franchise. However, if it came down to it, I feel as if I could be very successful opening a franchise. The restrictions would bother me, but I could learn to deal with it. (Picture one below were my answers to the self-test. Picture two below were my results).

The franchise I chose to look into that has the potential of fulfilling my entrepreneurial dreams was Cold Stone Creamery. Cold Stone Creamery requires a capital of $125,000 to begin and the total investment ends up being between $292,525 and $440,275. The original store was built in 1988 and began franchising in 1995 (according to Franchise Expo). It was also ranked fairly high in various franchise publications. 

After visiting the Cold Stone Creamery website and collecting information from the Franchise Expo website, I attempted to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the franchise. The franchise has been in operation as a franchise for seventeen years.  In 2007, it was ranked number one in the Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500. There are approximately 1,400 stores open. There is a page on the website that offers the steps to become a Cold Stone franchise. You first must apply to be awarded the franchise. You then have to secure a location, which they assist you with. There are then a few steps with the lease which they help you with. Then it is time for the “specifics” such as blue prints and training. Cold Stone has a program called Cold Stone University, which is intensive training that takes place in Arizona for two weeks. This is where they do all of the training and teach the owners and managers how to train other workers. There is then the finalizing of building, and then finally you can forever have a Cold Stone store. Cold Stone helps with marketing programs and various strategies to help make the business successful. 

All of this made Cold Stone have more strengths than weaknesses. I could not find if the firm would help with capital and credit. It also did not show any figures of exact net profit, but there strengths were significantly strong. It has a wonderful reputation, as you can tell by the success of the business. My search did give me enough information to answer most of the questions. I am sure contacting the company personally could help give me even more of the information.