Jane Abraham – Building a Legacy for the Next Generation Story with Grand Opening
Most parents want their kids to have a better life than they did. They constantly plan for their children’s futures from birth through childhood and, in many cases, beyond college. It’s not a burden, but a feeling of personal responsibility and an innate desire to provide for their children. Some even take this responsibility beyond their own lives. They seek to build a legacy to ensure that their children will always be taken care of long after they are gone.
This is the story of a successful family and how they sought to achieve this goal through franchising. This family is one that has done amazing things in their life and accomplished much. They had two beautiful twin girls and always provided them with every advantage they could in life. However, they had a simple rule: their children had to learn and understand the importance of being able to provide for yourself and take responsibility for your actions.
The girls grew up and went to college, each choosing a degree that they felt was appropriate for them and would put them on the path to their independence. They studied hard and did well, but sometimes plans change. While one sister landed an opportunity immediately after graduating, the other had decided she wanted to take her Georgetown degree in a more entrepreneurial direction.
Her parents were supportive of their daughter in her decision. They wanted to help her find a business of her own in which she could grow and develop herself. They felt that a franchise could provide their daughter with the infrastructure of a controlled system in which she could create something of her own and learn about business . So they embarked on a quest to find the best franchise system that would match their goals and their daughter’s personality.
Scout and Molly’s is a boutique woman’s apparel store that has carefully curated designer goods in an 800 to 1,200 square foot class A Retail storefront. The business caters to women of mid to high income households.
This business model offers an owner with no retail experience a semi absentee business model in which you manage the manager and develop multiple locations over time. There is corporate support for your lease and buildout – and each owner is supported by retail analysts and corporate buyers who assist the owners and managers on inventory control. It’s a low labor model in which you have a full time manager and 3-5 part time Style Scouts.
Once this family went into a Scout and Molly’s boutique for the first time it was love at first sight and after an extensive due diligence process, they’ve purchased the rights to develop 3 stores near their home in Virginia. Jane and Betsy are excited to launch their retail empire and embark on this adventure together!
As in all things bricks and mortar, there were challenges and last minute hiccups (including the store not being ready AFTER the grand opening invites went out!). But after scrambling and coming up with the ingenious idea of a Pop Up store to accommodate, the grand opening went off without a hitch. Here are some shots from the grand opening. The pride and satisfaction is all over their faces and we wish the Abrahams all the success in their new business venture.
UPDATE – we were just informed that their opening results broke the corporate record for highest sales figures for a soft open – ever!