Females in Franchising: A Q&A with Small Business Finance Franchise Owners
Business ownership among women has been on the rise over the last five years, growing twice as fast as all other businesses. In 2019, an American Express study showed a 5% increase that year alone.
On the franchising side, the Wall Street Journal reports that women either own or co-own about 265,000 franchises across the country. This figure shows a 24% growth in women-owned franchises over the last decade.
I recently spoke with three of Lendio’s franchise owners: Wendy Eaton (Lendio Kansas City), Leanne Airy (Lendio Denver), and Karen Davis (Lendio Seattle) about why they chose franchising and what they’re doing to help other business owners get access to capital.
MC: Thanks, everyone, for doing this. If each of you could kind of just give a background as to how you came into business ownership — did you always have an entrepreneurial bug?
LA: I would say South Africans are super entrepreneurial. We like to make our own paths and are very driven. I feel like America aligns with that. It’s an incredible country for opportunity, where you can make anything happen business-wise if you put in good hard work.
My husband and I have always been on more of an entrepreneurial path. On that path, we’ve owned several of our own companies, but Lendio Denver is the one I’ve been most involved with. Now that my kiddos are 9 and 12, it’s giving me a bit more freedom, and it’s been absolutely great. I feel like my brain is reignited, and I’m enjoying the daily challenge.
But I’m particularly loving meeting other women. I’ve joined this ‘Women Helping Women Entrepreneur Group’ online, and it’s just great support. It’s awesome to see what women are doing out there and following the American dream.
KD: I grew up working in a grocery store which had been started by my grandfather. My parents took over, and we all worked there from a young age. I held my own real estate license, which in some ways, is my own business. Ultimately, my husband and I love helping people, and we just found that this was a fun little niche that we could both put our backgrounds together and really support other people that are out there. So, it’s just kind of in the blood.
WE: For me, I actually thought I would be a stay-at-home mom but found out that I wasn’t very domestic, so started my first business in 1990. I opened a bed and breakfast, even though I’d never even stayed in a bed and breakfast. It was a lot of fun. I got to open what I fantasized a bed and breakfast would be. I bought into my first franchise in 2001 and loved the support and the systems of having a franchise. So then, when I discovered Lendio, it just seemed to be a good fit.
KD: It really is nice having a franchise and having the support behind you, and you’re bringing in so much more information. So, you don’t have to learn all on your own. You just become better, quicker.
MC: That was part of my next question, that very thing Karen. Why be a part of the franchise organization versus going your own? Could you give us a feel, if it’s appropriate, to contrast what the two of you were doing before, because Dan had been working in commercial capital before he became a Lendio franchisee. Could you explain that to us a little?
KD: Yeah, so you know we sent him through training because he’s been our core of information. Me, I’ve been playing like the anchor in the back. But we had a lot of stumbling we had to do with the amount of information that we got. From licensing and everything, there was a lot that we had to do and find our way through. It’s a lot of pounding the pavement, getting out there talking to people, calling and asking questions. And sometimes, we’d just stop and say, we’re supposed to know this stuff. But we’re coming in on our own, talking to lenders, and trying to understand what they really need, and it was a huge learning curve.
Now, we’re learning even that much faster, having the tools that Lendio gives us. We have so much more information and support at our fingertips.
LA: I would like to add to that, Mark. It’s just like night and day coming starting our own business from scratch to going into a franchise. We are blown away at how awesome the support is. We wish we’d done a franchise earlier, from the marketing aspect, to being able to reach out and brainstorm, as well as the constant training you guys have in keeping us up-to-date. It has been such a positive experience going into a franchise, versus starting from scratch. It gives you a huge leg up and advantage.
MC: Thanks for saying that. I was going to come to you next because I knew you guys had had several businesses before. That’s helpful. Any other color you’d add, Wendy?
WE: No, exactly what Leann just said. I had started the bed and breakfast on my own, and Ray and I had started three or four other businesses before I bought that other franchise in 2001, and I had the same reaction. Starting from scratch is very difficult. Buying into a system and having the support and the marketing materials and just all the benefits of a franchise makes everything much easier. So at this stage of our lives, buying a franchise just made a lot more sense to us.
MC: Let’s talk for a second about how you landed here in small business finance. I think all of us would agree this isn’t the easiest business, so how did you end here, and did you look at other industry types before joining the Lendio family?
KD: For us, Dan and I had both been in packaging. And one of the things we learned over time was that businesses would get these big contracts, and now they’d have to double or triple their output. They’d need new packaging materials and have other expansion costs, but they didn’t have the capital. So Dan would go through and talk about how they could find the capital, but he found there was really nothing out there for a lot of these people. So he decided, you know, I really want to leave the corporate world, and after a huge discussion between the two of us, we decided to step out and be there for the businesses that needed this to grow. The country is really built off of the mom and pop businesses, and seeing them be able to flourish is great. We just have a heart for our community.
LA: Bill and I were already helping people repair their credit scores and were business owners ourselves that needed those lines along the way. And we always joke to this day that we wish we had known of Lendio because we would have had options.
We just felt like finance and understanding the background of building a business was well within our wheelhouse. Once we met you guys, we just felt like it was a family when we walked in the door and a really good company to grow with.
WE: For us, we had semi-retired, and when we realized that wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, Ray took on something on his own, which left me to do some research and figure out what I wanted to do. We had determined that our favorite businesses over the years had two aspects: one, they helped people, but the other was using the experience that we had racked up over the years. Being business owners, I had had an SBA loan, I had a line of credit, a term loan, purchase order financing. So Lendio just seemed like a good fit for helping people and utilizing the experience we had as business owners who needed financing and knowing the hurdles that we had gone through. So, we wanted to be able to use that experience to help others.
MC: When you were looking, did you compare Lendio franchising with other franchise opportunities? Were there certain things you were or were not looking for in a franchise partner?
WE: Well, I’ll jump in here; we were actually just trying to figure out what business we wanted to do. But some of the important things were low entry costs and location independence so that we could really run the business with a cell phone and a computer. Then, obviously, when the possibility of having a franchise came along, the training and support were very important. And Lendio met all of those requirements.
LA: We were definitely looking for something where we could help small businesses and sort of take our current knowledge and dive in quickly. But cost was definitely a factor, and then second to that, what territories were available? Were we going to be blazing a trail in our area? We thought in Colorado we had an opportunity to grow here, so that definitely factored into our decision.
KD: For us, it was systems and processes in place for business development. It really needed to support small businesses, which you know are these mom and pops of the community. So that was a huge thing for us, and we did a lot of research and asked a lot of questions, but we really felt as though it was a good family to participate in.
MC: Thank you for that. Any advice for other women out there who are thinking about franchising?
LA: It’s really hard if you’ve been at home for a long time with your kiddos or if you’ve been working on and off in the background. It’s hard to jump feet first into a brand new business with no support. I would highly recommend a franchise strictly because of the support that comes with it. It’s like jumping into a family rather than being so alone. As a woman entering the workforce, I would say absolutely I would look for a franchise.
WE: I’ll add to that, for women who are starting a business or purchasing a franchise for the very first time, don’t try to do it all. You have got to know that first of all, it is very rewarding to have your own business, and I would highly recommend it, but I also wouldn’t think that I needed to have my own business, be the perfect mom, wife, and have the perfect house. Something’s going to have to give, or it’s going to take it out of you.
I know there are women out there that are capable of having it all or at least appearing to have it all. But I think that for me, I’d rather be real and just be able to do what I can do where it’s most rewarding for me. And I have to let some things go sometimes.
KD: You always have to enjoy it. If you don’t enjoy it, you’re not going to be very good at it. We’ve got to think about if this is something that you really have a passion for. Do we really care about how a business is doing right now? And you know, in a franchise, you want to know where their heart is. Is it out there for the people that you’re going to be servicing? And is that franchise going to support that and help you grow that in your passion?
MC: What’s most difficult about being your own business owner?
KD: Treating it like a business, and especially when working from home, there are tons of distractions. Even without kids, there are distractions. Give yourself an end time and make sure you’re taking weekends, so you’re not getting burned out.
WE: For me, it’s being the person entirely responsible for making the business successful. It’s totally different than coming in for work and taking home a paycheck. When you’re the person responsible for making sure the business is functioning, successful, bringing in revenue, and that kind of thing, it’s a lot. But with that, the benefit is the flexibility and the freedom and also the responsibility of being your own boss, so it’s definitely a tradeoff.
LA: The hardest thing is wearing a million different hats. I’ll be cooking breakfast for my family, then jumping on a call to train, then talking to a business owner, then jumping into LinkedIn, getting out of my pajamas and putting on a professional business suit, and hitting the bank to meet people before coming home to pick up the kids do homework and cook dinner. So for me, it’s wearing a million different hats. But it’s good exhaustion at the end of the night.
I must be honest, it’s very rewarding to be wearing all those hats, but it is a challenge.
MC: Well yeah, thank you, the whole world has seen a little more about what it’s like working from home this year. You have heard my door open three times while we’ve been on this call! Leanne kind of led us into it, talking just for a minute, if you will, about the rewards of being your franchise owner or being a business owner.
LA: There are huge silver linings and rewards in running your own business. Just two weeks ago, I was sick, and I was able to work from my bed on my laptop and still help those business owners. I didn’t have to get up on time and report to someone else. You can have that flexibility. Even if not sick, you can be at those events for your family and still continue to make your business thrive.
KD: You get to pick who you work with. We really enjoy who we work with. Not only do I enjoy my work partner over here (points to husband), but it’s fun with Kevin and Ron and Mitch (franchise support team). It’s such a fun time when you can brainstorm here and there. Sometimes you’ll have a big deal that is a rollercoaster, but it’s exciting when it finally comes to completion, and the deal is done. We love celebrating and sending them a big gift and seeing a smile on their face.
MC: Thanks for sharing. Wendy, is it the Central America vacation home, or what’s your reward?
WE: These ladies have already said so many of the rewards, like being your own boss and setting a schedule. But yes, the true reward is having a business where you’re impacting other similar people. Being able to impact your community, being able to help others is, for me, by far more than any monetary reward. I could do that working for someone else, yes, but they would guide me, or the business would dictate how I would do that. So being able to make that decision for myself makes the reward that much better.
MC: Thank you so much; this has been delightful and really productive. You’ve reminded me why we do what we do! I love working with people who are betting on themselves and are passionate about helping others. Thank you for allowing me to be here and part of this conversation. Thank you for being the leaders you are.
