Watch this 30-minute conversation with multi-unit FASTSIGNS franchisee, Val Vannoy. She came from the education world and, with the help of the excellent training and support she received from FASTSIGNS, has thrived at the helm of two franchise locations.
The FASTSIGNS Franchise Opportunity:
FASTSIGNS is the leading sign and visual communications franchise in North America, operating over 775 independently owned locations across seven countries. Serving businesses across industries with offerings ranging from traditional signage to digital displays, promotional products, and printing services.
The franchise operates in the $29 billion sign and graphics industry. With franchisees benefiting from one of the industry’s highest franchisee-to-corporate support ratios, with over 120 corporate employees serving the network.
Each year, FASTSIGNS uses the FBR franchisee satisfaction survey to gain unbiased insights into their franchisees, and they have ranked highly on our unbiased awards lists for many years, including:
- Top 200 Franchise 2026
- Top Business Services Franchises
- Most Profitable Franchises
- Top Franchises For Veterans
Interested in Becoming a FASTSIGNS Franchise Owner?
FASTSIGNS offers special incentives, including 50% off franchise fees for veterans and first responders, 24/7 online education through FASTSIGNS University, and comprehensive training and ongoing support focused on four objectives: franchise growth, franchise profitability, brand growth, and franchisee satisfaction.
To learn more about the FASTSIGNS franchise opportunity and get more information, call (888) 285-5935 or visit fsfastsigns.com.
Transcript
Allison Dudas (00:03)
Hi, I’m Allison Dudas from the marketing department here at Franchise Business Review. And one of the things that we do here is we talk to current franchisees and learn more about what it’s like owning their franchise. Today I’m so lucky to be joined by Val Vanoy, a franchisee from FastSigns. FastSigns is one of the most amazing franchise brands, and that’s because they survey
Val (00:14)
Yeah.
Allison Dudas (00:26)
their franchisees with us every year to figure out how they’re doing and then they take that feedback and they improve. so just a couple stats from from FastSigns before we talk to Val. So 93% of their franchisees agree that they enjoy operating their business. 97% of franchisees are likely to recommend the Fast Sign franchise to others.
Val (00:38)
Yeah. Facebook is being phased out. It’s TikTok too. Yeah.
Allison Dudas (00:49)
And ninety-one percent of franchisees agree that they respect their franchisor. So some pretty incredible stats from from FastSigns. Val, welcome. Thank you so much for being here to talk to me.
Val (01:01)
Thank you for having me.
Allison Dudas (01:03)
So firstly, I just want to hear a little bit more about you. I know that you own two FastSigns locations and you’re located in Texas. What were you doing before you were doing this? What what brought you into this business?
Val (01:16)
I was a kindergarten teacher and this wasn’t really supposed to be my path directly, but with the pandemic and everything that kind of flipped in the world my husband was gonna get into the signage and ⁓
I was literally on a field trip at the Houston rodeo with my class and on a Friday before spring break and they shut the doors behind us and told us to leave that the pandemic was out. So we walked out the door and I we really honestly had just had a panic attack because in August we had just signed over the our you know, basically our retirement and life savings to try to do a franchise and my husband was going to run it. He wanted to get into this and he was like, Well, I don’t want to quit my job
You’re a teacher, you can always go back and I got the you know, short end of the stick on that but after we started to go online and realized, you know, running around the school, you know, running around the kids running around their house with an iPad showing me their dog and everything else, maybe I needed a break. So it was a it was a neat opportunity in time. Sometimes the doors open and I took a break and I said, Let me try to do it, let me try to run it and that was ⁓ made the decision. We opened up in August twenty twenty when the world was shutting down.
Allison Dudas (02:04)
Yep.
Yeah.
Val (02:31)
⁓ in a brand new store with zero customers, zero territory, a completely new build out, and here I was. So that’s how I started.
Allison Dudas (02:42)
And it sounds like
it’s been going pretty well for you and we’ll we’ll get to more of that.
why fast signs? Like when your husband decided on fast signs, ’cause it sounds like he was driving that truck a little bit more at the time, what drew him to fast signs?
Val (02:54)
Mm-hmm.
It was ki that was also kind of a little of an accident how we flew we got into FASTSIGNS put to go back on what you were talking about at being a surreal time with everybody being, What do I do? Do I open a business? Do I go to business? Everybody was losing their jobs left and right and it was very surreal seeing that and knowing like here we’re about to open and do we deserve to be the ones open while we’re literally sitting here printing the signs that everybody’s closing down. And, you know, there was a gut wrench feeling in
Allison Dudas (03:24)
Yeah.
Val (03:26)
Seeing a lot of places going out of business. So some of the top stuff that we were printing was, you know, a lot of that distancing and don’t stand here. And it gets all back into your head and it really brings back that emotion at the time. But going back into how did we get into this?
Allison Dudas (03:38)
Mm.
Val (03:41)
⁓ it’s it’s a unique story in a way that my husband ⁓ we were friends with two other franchisees at the time before FastSigns. One of our friends, Chris Farr, that owns the FastSigns in Conroe, ⁓ used to work with my husband, Russell Vinoy and Daniel Nichols, who owns the Woodlands store. So they all worked together at a another company prior to this, and I think Chris was their boss, and they did IT and different, you know, had a
background
in computers and IT and Chris walked into Conroe one day and asked for boat numbers. Long story short, he ended up buying the sign the sign shop and then Daniel was the next one and we always joked, you know, well we’ll just wait till you pay off your 10 year SBA loan. We’ve got to wait till that goes down and then we’ll figure it out. And sure enough they came to us, you know, 10 and 13 years later and said it’s your turn. You said you do this. You’re on the opposite side of Houston from us. Get it done. And he said you’re right, we’ll do it. And then we jump we jumped into it. We read
Allison Dudas (04:20)
No.
Val (04:41)
searched it. We had to wait a couple of years for them to vet us and ⁓ get the territory area open, but we opened up on we signed the paperwork, like I said, August twenty nineteen and then March twenty twenty is when w we signed the lease and the world shut down. So opened August twenty twenty.
Allison Dudas (04:45)
Mm-hmm.
And what was that first year like? Obviously lots of printing, ⁓ social distancing signs, other sorts of signs. Was it just you and your husband Russell working? Did you have other employees as well? Okay.
Val (05:15)
He didn’t work at all. ⁓ he
chose to keep his job ⁓ just in case anything happened and went down. So I I stepped away from teaching. It was me and one other person. I posted a job for a graphic designer and that first thirty days I got six hundred people Applying I had to shut down the applications. It was very hard to to funnel through the thousands of applicants that were coming at me because everybody had lost their job that summer. So I found one one other female that she was a multitasker and we were like we’re just gonna
Allison Dudas (05:19)
That’s right. You said that.
Val (05:45)
do this so she and I ran it and then I think like a year later we ended up getting a third person as a production person to help us. So we’ve maintained at this first location three people always and about two years ago is when I took over the second location.
Allison Dudas (06:01)
And then when you took over the second location, did you step back a little bit from the first location and hire anybody to sort of fill your role or how did that work?
Val (06:11)
was retiring. It was a twenty two year old area, in near NASA. It was a big large community. we and it’s they’re side by sides and I live in this in the middle, so it was just an opportunity where it’s like we we really just need to take that one on and help them. They needed an experienced person and by this time, ⁓ I had been in the sign business for three years and our numbers had shot up significantly with just the few of us in this tiny little area. And we took that on and I left some people here in charge to
⁓ take it over. But since I live in the middle I just kind of infinity and kinda go back and forth. So I rotate. It’s still mostly just me running both of ⁓ but ⁓ I just split my days or every other day.
Allison Dudas (06:53)
Got it. And how many employees do you have total?
Val (06:57)
⁓ I think over there I’ve got five. It’s a larger center and we do more like we have an installer and ⁓ a di an extra counter person, so three and five.
Allison Dudas (07:07)
And then still s three
and five. Okay. So eight people altogether. And has your s husband, does he help out with the business at at all or is he more of a silent partner?
Val (07:18)
Not
at all. At the end of the year, he does have an MBA in finance, so he’ll look at all the numbers and he does stay on top of that. And that’s the beauty of it. Me coming in and being a ⁓ a kindergarten teacher and I don’t want to dismiss that. But at the same time, a lot of people think that they need fancy business degrees in finance and this and that. And that’s one of the opportunities that FASTSIGNS has offered so much help. I think if it would have been any other franchise, I don’t know how I would have been able to do it. Not to say it’s easy in all areas, but they’ve helped me significant with our franchise business consultants.
the marketing team and that’s part of our we know and you’ll hear a lot of us say our royalties are well spent within the within the franchise itself. So I haven’t had to to ⁓ you know use any kind of outside help or anything at all. The only the only time I’ve had to use anything outside for i in professionally or legally was a lawyer to maybe look over a lease. Otherwise it w everything is pretty much taken care of by the franchise.
Allison Dudas (08:16)
that’s great. So I think that’s such a good point because, you know, I I mean, I used to be a teacher as well. And I do think that there are tremendous skills that are transferable from teaching. I think it probably means you’re a great communicator. You probably means you’re a great problem solver. I mean, the list goes on and on and on. ⁓ so I I agree. I d don’t think you should discount that background. ⁓ you jump in and you figure it out, right? No one’s a scarier audience than a bunch of kindergartners waiting for the next thing, right? ⁓
Val (08:25)
Yes.
Nope, jump in and figure it out.
Allison Dudas (08:46)
And then but I also love that you’re saying that you step into this new business and you’re getting so much support from the franchisor. And I wanna unpack that a little bit. So every franchisee has to pay royalties monthly to their franchiseor. And that covers things like well covers covers a whole host of things and they vary a little bit from franchise brand to franchise brand. Can you break down what your royalties go towards with Fast Sign?
Val (09:15)
⁓ it goes into paying for the marketing team, which I use tremendously. ⁓ they have taught me significantly how to use like SEOs and advertising, keywords, searching, Google. It’s an entire to me like degree that I didn’t think I had, just kind of understanding marketing and advertising. ⁓
It covers the commercials that they put out for us. They’re advertising on your behalf. They also do the ads, you know, on our Instagram and our Facebook pages and the websites are all done by them. These are all independent things that I know that I have friends that own similarly a sign shop or other businesses that they all do on their own. ⁓ And just the franchise business consultant, keeping your numbers, your I’ve learned significantly about margins and markups and what does that mean and where do we need
need
to stay within versus market based pricing versus cost plus. ⁓ there’s a lot of these keywords that I can throw out at you, but it literally feels like I’ve gotten these many degrees in a lot of different areas because of them. Like marketing and finance are two significant ones that I didn’t have in my arsenal being a kindergarten teacher or reading teacher. And now I can feel qualified that I I mean I feel like I can have those conversations now with other people without having to have that schooling and just walking in
Allison Dudas (10:16)
Yeah.
Val (10:34)
to that ⁓ it’s been it’s been a great journey of ⁓ just understanding a lot of a lot of different angles i think the unique thing of between fast signs and like another franchise is not only have i learned from them but it’s also learning how to negotiate and have these conversations and meetings with like city officials i’ve learned about permitting bidding compliance regulations ad a I mean there’s there’s a lot to learn this definitely isn’t a boring
Business every day, everybody goes home saying, Today I learned something, I learned this, I learned that. We are constant learners, and I think that really appealed to me coming from education is we just have that energy and drive to constantly learn. So, and I could probably go on and on. I can’t think of all the things that the franchise ⁓ specifically does, but a lot of that they they spot out vendors for us and negotiate pricing so they’ve got better buying power with that. So when we need to get supplies, we have a little bit of an upper hand.
hand on that area. They negotiate with the software and the IET and they do tech support and that takes care. If I have a problem like I don’t know how to use this printer, you know, and then get on the phone, they’ll remote in, they’re helping us. These are huge parts of any business that people just don’t think about.
Allison Dudas (11:50)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, that’s such a great point. I mean, as a business owner, anyway, you have to wear a bunch of hats. You’re forced to. But it sounds like with the support that you’re getting from the franchise or that you are still wearing all of these hats, but you are kind of having your hand held as you figure out how to take on these responsibilities. That’s great.
when did you feel like you were pretty well established in this first location? When did you feel like, okay, we’ve got the hang of it, maybe you broke even, maybe you got your investment back on the place, on the build out. When did you feel like things started to kind of gel?
Val (12:27)
Right. Well the first year, you know, we were just excited, you’ve got this new little business and you’re just running around decorating and moving the book to the left and moving it to the right and just straightening stuff and then you realize, wait, I’ve gotta make money and do stuff. So that’s when, you know, again the franchise negotiated with the government and said, Let us get our, you know, right to work I forgot what it was called specifically the right to work and we were we got the permission to be open with the hospitals and and everything. So when that came in it was like, Okay, you know
Let’s get going. We don’t have an excuse right now. We have the right to work and we’ve got to get everybody up and working what they need. So that was a really good wedge that they negotiated as a franchise with government. They’re always fighting on our behalf to get a lot of things passed for us. ⁓ and after that happened, it was like, okay, we’ve got to make some sales, and what is this sale? And what is this number? And we just got strategic meeting people in the neighborhood and getting into the chambers and went out and hit it. And probably after that first year, it was
Just kinda like ⁓ deer and headlights. Second year was like, okay, let’s let’s figure out all the aspects of it. But by year three, that’s when we shot up. So by year three, we had gone from like zero to almost that target million that they wanted everybody to be at. We were at eight fifty five and it was just smooth sailing. And I think at that point that’s when they allowed me to get the second location.
Allison Dudas (13:52)
That’s right.
That’s right. Okay, so that’s not too bad. Like you think about y you know, feeling like that first year’s crazy. Second year you’re getting the hang of it. Third year you start to thrive. That’s pretty good. Now now
Val (13:56)
Yeah.
It was a little
bit quicker in that first five years than I think mostly have, but I think the momentum of the pandemic probably contributed to that because everybody else was trying to get up and running. So it may have been a little unique, but we did shoot up really fast in the first three years, allowing us to do the second store and now we’ve pretty much kind of tapered off and I need to find that next hill. But
Allison Dudas (14:24)
Yeah, fair. ⁓ and then the second store was a resale. And how has that, you know, ownership taking over? How has that kind of gone and how did it compare to your first years with the brand new s new spot?
Val (14:39)
Well, when it was brand new in my first year, my store, I got to do everything our way and be very slim and minimalist and kind of you know, we we bought what we needed and we’re in a very tiny thirteen hundred square foot little shoebox strip center and just operating with one printer, one laminator, one cutter and we we were able to show the world we could do it on the very bare bones. ⁓ that center was large. It had ⁓ you know, like it’s near it’s in Webster, Texas, so
near now so it’s very large populated area. The building was huge, probably triple the size, but the equipment was also dated. We had fax machines. We had, you know, it was a lot it was a lot of work. That first year it was n nothing but me just getting it up to speed. So and it was a unique situation, but it it did need it did need some, you know, TLC. It’s like moving into an older house and trying to fix the things that you wanted updated. So essentially this year, this last year we realized that there were parts of that building that we
couldn’t repair so I did have to move the location. So it’s been fun having taking over two stores, moving one, moving the other. Staying busy. So we just opened the brand new second location. We did a whole new build out for it and moved in probably a ⁓ about two months ago and that one’s doing well. Got our signed up and we’re we’re happy and excited to be there.
Allison Dudas (15:50)
Yeah, I’m sure you stay busy. Absolutely.
That’s
great. So I’m sure you can finally exhale and feel like things are gonna run the way you want them. Yeah, right before the next thing. Now walk me through what a typical week is like for you. I mean, you you mentioned that you you do hop from both locations, but what is it that you’re spending most of your time as an owner several years in?
Val (16:11)
Before something else comes up.
Well, it’s ki and that hat in itself has kind of changed. In the very beginning I kind of was more in charge of doing the chamber lunches and the sales part of it and just getting out to know because everybody wants to know who who are the usually the management or the owners and they’ll buy from the people more so. So initially I did that.
When we were transitioning into the stores, I pulled back, got my name out of the hat with sales and just did a lot of the ⁓ efficiency. before teaching I worked at UPS and did a lot of logistics and we were like, okay, let’s let’s see where we spending too much time walking back and forth or doing and so we rearranged we we rearranged the building, we got equipment and that was more efficient and got rid of clunkier items and and just more of an organizational ⁓ aspect and then
Lately it me right now it’s just trying to be just a balancing act. I’m trying to be f completely fifty fifty because moving away to get the other store up and running did take up some of my time that took away from this first store. But ⁓ it’s it’s it’s unique. My typical day week looks like. ⁓ Mondays I’ll go over to Webster and because we do have an outside sales and we’ll have a you know our outside sales meeting, what do we’ve got planned this week? Let’s let’s get that up and rolling and and get them out the door and we set the ⁓
Set the center, you know, together. What are we doing that week? Just kinda have it all laid out, production, sales. And then Tuesdays and Thursdays I usually come over to Missouri City. So I’ll do Monday, Wednesday, Tuesday, Thursday, and then Friday I usually do half and half or I’ll d I’ll pick one that needs it. But generally the appointments and the luncheons and the different things will dictate, but mostly it’s at least pretty equal. But I do go to both.
Allison Dudas (18:10)
And how much
of your time do you feel like is spent managing the people? ⁓ and and I’m sure you’ve had to hire and ⁓ let go and all of that stuff.
Val (18:21)
coming from being a teacher, you know, I’ve found and that the people that I brought in, my number one was I’d rather have really good people. Culture was the highest thing for me and key. I can I can teach people how to do stuff, I can learn it myself, I can understand it, I can get that part out, but you can’t teach people how to be a good person.
my you know my hard line in the sand is going to be culture and people. We are all going to get along. We are gonna be good people, we don’t have to know anything. I can teach you, we can learn. FASTSIGNS offers an amazing
training module which is how we all learned everything that we did learn through FASTSIGNS University. ⁓ they’re there constantly for help and support. So that really took a big burden off my back on hiring because I knew that I could have the confidence in them training the people. So they they are there 100%. I still don’t know how to run these printers and plotters. I I don’t know how to do a lot of things here. I don’t need to. They learned they learned how to do it on my behalf. So that’s part of it. So just
Just culture, good people, and that’s kind of the direction that I’ve had better success with.
Allison Dudas (19:31)
Hm. I think that’s
such incredible advice, especially when you have a system that is going to properly train your employees to really hire more for personality, integrity, just type of person. I think that’s because I yeah.
Val (19:44)
Correct. People from the community too that know
that that know the area ’cause being on the outskirts of Houston, we have a like twenty little towns and when you can sit there and say Mo City or you know you can reference local things, I think the community helps and it does matter that they know you’re part of the community.
Allison Dudas (20:03)
I think that’s a good point. You get that kind of customer loyalty base because you know everybody’s from your area. ⁓ such such great advice because I do think ⁓ hiring right now is the biggest challenge that small business owners everywhere are facing,
I want to talk a little bit about like challenges and lessons learned. I’d love to know, like, did you have any moments, maybe especially that first year, where you were like, I made a mistake. What am I doing?
Val (20:31)
right?
And you’re like, no, no.
I don’t think
that kind of person. My husband more so is. He’s you know, you’ve always got a companion, one of you is the worry worth, the other one’s like, no, right through the storm. And I’ve just always been that kind of person, like, you know, I it might be from education, like what are we gonna do now? How do we problem solve? What you know, just ⁓ not really think about the things that go wrong and the and and that’s one of the big parts of what I spend all day long is taking out some of that negativity and just saying, What can we do out of this? Well how can we turn it? This happened for a reason or how can we flip it into something?
Or use it as a learning opportunity. ‘Cause I mean, we’re not perfect. We mess up. you know, we’ll mess up a print or a cut or this and that and it’s like we can’t just shove it under the bed and act like it didn’t happen. We have to sit there and say, Well, what went wrong? How can we do differently? What what is it about this? Can we change the vinyl? Can we do something differently? And that’s just more me. So anytime anything did come up, I don’t remember it because I didn’t make it an issue. I just okay, well what do we need to do? You know, like that that’s you just move on.
You wouldn’t be here today if you didn’t. Yep. Buffalo to the storm. Let’s just go. What are we gonna do?
Allison Dudas (21:39)
You just kinda put your head down and get Yeah. Yep. Yep.
Yeah, that’s that’s really good point. And I love that you bring up your your husband because I do think that oftentimes I mean there are a lot of franchisees who co own with their spouse, ⁓ whatever franchise brand they’re working with. And oftentimes the two people have different reactions to things. Some are very organized and and logical and
Val (22:01)
Right.
Allison Dudas (22:07)
good at the nitty gritty and then some are bigger picture and dreamier and, you know, whatever it is. ⁓ so I love it yeah, and I love that you have different strengths ’cause I think that that’s really important and really ideal.
Val (22:11)
Yeah. That’s me. ⁓
Yeah. Thank
you. And initially in the beginning this was his dream and I think he really did want to get into this and that was w probably one of the leaning factors of us trying to get a second franchise. But since they’re kind of operating the way they are, we’re just sticking with the status quo. So he he loves his job and realizes that it’s okay that he doesn’t have to be there. He can come on the weekends or at night and cut up stuff and make his own little crafts and be gone. But it’s it’s working out.
Allison Dudas (22:46)
I love that. Well,
and what an interesting surprise. You probably didn’t think like, I’m gonna be so great at you know, a running a a fast signs franchise. You probably were like, I’ll do this for a little bit and then you’re taking over and you had a whole plan, but the reality just was different.
Val (23:02)
Yeah.
Well, I mean adults are not that different from children and I see this every day. So they they’re they’re just overgrown children and it’s very unique. So I don’t I miss the kids, I miss teaching and the children, but I mean at the end of the day i they’re still humans and you still get those interactions and it’s nice. So
Allison Dudas (23:25)
You do. And I love
too what what you said. Adults are are a lot like children. Also that like we can still learn new things. You know? ⁓ I mean you you mentioned entering this world in your in your mid fifties and obviously you you continue to learn how to do lots of new things and ⁓ I think owning a business just forces you into that and it sounds like you’re enjoying that, which is amazing. what okay, just thinking about
Val (23:35)
Definitely.
Allison Dudas (23:56)
Wha who would make a really good FastSigns franchisee? Who do you feel like would make a a great franchisee? What what qualities do you think they need to have?
Val (24:05)
Specifically for fast signs because that’s all I know. yeah. What I have found in and this is really odd, but I didn’t think about this till now was in the very beginning before we got into this franchise. Yes, we were convinced by two friends, but we made the initiative to go to the convention before even signing up and owning to see what it was about. I didn’t want to jump into something and be like, here’s the little kindergarten lady and here she’s female jumping into a man’s world. So I I needed
Allison Dudas (24:08)
Specifically for fast signs, yeah.
Val (24:35)
To you know, have my evidence and go. So I went to convention and I realized and I’m a and I’m not a shy person, so I approach as many people and called as many people as I can, like I need to know, I need to know, you know, do you have regrets? Do you have this? And it is an entirely unique world of people that they’re just so it’s like a family. I and I hate to say be so cliche cliche about that, but there there’s just so many unique people. There’s so many women, there’s so many people from all over.
Different backgrounds. You know, I’ve met the the franchisees from like different countries and different you know states, and in seeing that how unique it is, there’s not like this cookie cutter kind of franchisee where you’re gonna feel left out. You can walk into this with tattoos, you could walk into this with a suit. Be a woman, be you know, we have young franchisees, we have older. There’s a huge great mix of culture, age, gender, you know, vision.
Very open minded, everybody is an equal, and you don’t have to step up, excuse me, it’s me that you need to talk to, not my husband. And being female, that was huge, because I didn’t want to walk into a business already not knowing about how to run a business and and be, you know, already having to prove myself because just in general, women have just nonstop have to prove themselves in every area. And I didn’t want to have to do that again. And seeing at the time that we had Catherine Monson was our CEO.
⁓ and we had a bunch of high women in all the directors positions and just a bunch of women owned stores. It was just fascinating that they could give me a list of other women to call and I did and they were all in the same shoes. I mean like you won’t feel different, you won’t feel left out. And I don’t.
Allison Dudas (26:21)
I love
that. And I also want to point out that FastSigns, with the data that we collect from franchisee surveys, they are ranked really highly among women franchisees. So they have made our top franchises for women’s lists this year in 2026. ⁓ And I think that that’s so great that I’m hearing from you without even having brought it up, that that’s been your experience, that it is a good franchise to own if you are a woman. Fast signs has also made a few other lists this year. ⁓
⁓ most profitable, which is exciting.
Top franchises for culture, which kind of relates back to for you. Culture is obviously important to you in your franchise location, but culture’s been something that FastSigns has been outstanding in according to its franchisees. And you know, they’ve also made the top 200 franchise brands of 2026. So really exciting stuff. Fa FastSigns is consistently rated positively by its franchisees, and it’s so nice to talk to somebody who ⁓ who can really speak to that.
So
Val, kind of parting words here, do you have any advice for somebody who’s considering buying a fast signs? What would you tell them to do? And y you did touch upon a couple things, but I’m curious if you have any other words of wisdom.
Val (27:42)
Well, I do know that it’s definitely a franchise that you need to love it and work it and you have to be a part of it. ⁓ I know that there are other franchise franchises that you can buy and just kind of be an owner and just own it and have it, but this really is something that that a lot of people need to embrace. They n they need to at least work it, be it you don’t have to know everything about running design and printers and all that, but you do need to be a part of it and that is key and that really does help to
⁓ with the business itself and the environment because I do know that if you walk into something like another, you know, popular franchise and it might be a a chicken place or a coffee place, you really don’t know who owns it or who runs it. You’re you’re encountered by just a lot of the employees, which is fine. But this one specifically does count on your face being a part of it and being into it. And those are the franchisees that they really try that really end up being successful in my opinion and getting in and owning and
learning it. I really want to be a learner.
You will never be like a bored person. So ⁓ it’s definitely not a boring place to work, but it is definitely a learning place. You will learn no matter what level degree you have all over your wall, you will still come into this learning. And so you need to be a learner, you need to be somebody that wants to be in involved and actively in it and participate because we do all get together, we we we all independently are a family and we we do seek that companionship and help from each other. So knowing that that’s
That’s
kind of what I usually tell people when they first come in. I have helped a couple of people get into the business in different areas and and giving them tours and kind of walking them through it and I’ll tell them this is great and everything, but you know, at the same time, you know, you you’ve got to wanna do something like this. And and there is a passion in it. People end up having that passion towards whatever their business is, but this specifically does attract a lot of people. So I have seen like ⁓ the employees be the next persons that people that take over, you know.
when they retire and that’s been the trend also in fast signs that usually people come grow up in it take it over and and repeat wash range repeat coming from the outside and being blindsided a hundred percent from kindergarten to this it wa I did my research first and I tried to you know go to convention, I asked people, I did tours, I wanted to know first. I did have that little bit of caution in the beginning, but it once I make my decision I I ran with it.
⁓ but and being positive and just knowing because it’s a different kind of customer. We are not dealing with the consumer. And so being more B2B, you know, it it’s it’s a it’s a next level kind of a business where you’re really running it, you know, a different partnership with other small businesses. I’ll tell people they don’t think about it, but we’re the first person or the first company that they visit before they all become small businesses in the neighborhood. They come to us immediately just to get their little address numbers or
their fire marshal ⁓ emer you know emergency exits so when you you literally get that opportunity to meet every new business in your community so when you’re the first person they meet in your community you’ve got that you know to uphold that you’re you’re the next you know it’s it’s neat in a way so you get you know you’re like hey you know congratulations welcome to the neighborhood but you’ve got this whole nother level of friendships out there that are all the other small businesses so
I don’t think you get that with the other business. If you were just a cupcake shopper or chicken place, you open your shop, you’re that business, and you’re having to reach out and get to know people. But when you’re the person that helps them all set up their business and you’re the one that gets them up and running and opened and everything, you’ve got a deeper relationship. with them that you went through with.
them and I think they appreciate that a lot. They’re like, you know, you know, I had to go through permitting and knowing and helping them with permits, helping them with that. It’s a unique feeling because I feel like you really did help people. And I like that part of it. You didn’t just sell them a cookie, you helped them open and went
you’re a part of the city and the community to get that city and that community going, it it’s a very good feeling inside because you know that you went through the trenches with each and every single one of these small businesses.
Allison Dudas (32:02)
I love that. I think that’s such a great way to look at fast signs and the work that you do. And it also speaks to the kind of person that might really enjoy this work. Val, thank you so much. I feel like people got a really good idea of what this what owning a fast signs would be like, the pluses and the minuses and
the support that you get from the franchiseur and what seems to be really important for FastSigns. And I just appreciate you sharing your wisdom and your insight and your experience so much.
Val (32:33)
Thank you. If you have any other questions, just reach out.
Allison Dudas (32:37)
Thanks so much, everybody, and best of luck in your franchise research.
