Healthy Vision Becomes a Habit

• Healthy vision becomes a habit.pdf

Healthy vision becomes a habit.pdf

Katherine Sampson shared the same aspirations as many women, namely to strike a happy balance between work and family.

Part of that juggling act was running a sandwich shop in Knox City she had bought from a relative in 1992 at the age of 27.

But when her marriage came unstuck in 1998 all that changed. The single mum realized she had to provide for her family and so she embarked on creating a sandwich empire.

The first task was to come up with a new name.

“I though of 30 names and gave 50 sheets out to family and friends to see what they liked,” she said.

The most favoured names were Healthy Habits and Gourmet Health. Eventually she chose Healthy Habits and opened her second store on the banks of the Yarra River at Southgate.

A year later she opened an outlet at Glen Waverley’s The Glen shopping centre and a second site was opened in Knox City in 2002.

But Ms Sampson has even bigger plans for the brand.

With the help of franchising consultant Rod Young, who has worked with Janine Allis’ Boost brand, she spend eight months looking at the feasibility of turning Healthy Habits into a franchise.

In October last year, the franchise was rolled out in Victoria. This was followed by the launch in Queensland in February and Sydney is due on June 23.

While there are around a dozen shops trading a total of 26 will come on line throughout the year, including outlets at Melbourne’s Eastland and Highpoint. A number of stores, including Highpoint, will be kept as company stores to assist in training of franchisees.

Ms Sampson said when the franchise opportunities were launched in Victorian there were 300 inquires which translated to 35 attending a seminar. Four have gone all the way to sign up for a Healthy Habits franchise.

She said franchisees were varied and included husbands and wives, fathers and sons and many were aged between 30 and 45.

Fountaingate is an exception and is operated by a young couple in their early 20s.

But Ms Sampson has bigger plans, with a five-year target of 110 sites in Australia. There are also plans to do business in New Zealand and Dubai. Her 10-year plan aims to have 150 Healthy Habits shops in Australia and to extend the brand’s reach to the US and China. Ms Sampson said the Dubai possibility came about after consultants who assist in developing foodcourts approached her. They said they wanted to take the concept overseas because Dubai is having such huge development,” she said.

China, because of its enormous growth, is considered a good opportunity. However, Ms Sampson said considerable research would be required on sandwich fillings. “I don’t think they would like beetroot,” she said

The franchise push includes a rebranding and the addition of a smiley face logo.

Ms Sampson said while mums and dads and people aged 25 to 55 were the main customers, they had modernised the brand to make younger people see it as trendy. “We wanted young people to feel just as comfortable walking away with a wrap as a business person,” she said.

Ms Sampson is still trying to get the balance between work and family. She starts work at 8am and several nights a week will work as late as 9pm, leaving her children, now 15 and nine, in the care of a nanny.

Ms Sampson said one of her biggest difficulties was getting banks to back her. “It is still my hardest business issue, banks are not willing to lend to a single, while female with two kids,” she said. “They think it is high risk I am on my own.” Ms Sampson said they would lend with her home as security but did not recognise the value of her stores. “Money has never ever driven me. I am more broke, I am at most risk now than I have ever been,” she said.

Ms Sampson, a finalist in the Telstra Business Women’s Awards in the category of Business Owner, has entered the awards again this year.

Her tips for success include the following advice:

1. TREAT staff as assets not liabilities.
2. ENLIST business coaches and have mentors.
3. DON’T be afraid to employ people smarter than you.
4. LEARN from the people around you.
5. DON’T be afraid to take risks.
6. MAKE time for family and friends.
7. PAY for good advice.
8. BEFORE starting, save enough money for a year or find private investors
9. NETWORK, network, network.

 

By Claire Heaney
Herald Sun, p32,62
Tuesday 14 June, 2005