Carolyn McManus’ story is certainly a feel-good franchising tale. Previously a regional manager with the National Australia Bank – a job which involved a lot of interstate travels – it wasn’t until Carolyn was on maternity leave with her second daughter that she decided she wanted more flexibility in her life.
“Franchising really stood out to me as the right option because it would still have an element of the corporate sector that I was used to and would also enable me to be more entrepreneurial and to put my business skills to practice working for myself,” she says.
Carolyn knew the food and coffee industry was a strong one, and so after doing her own due diligence, she opened The Coffee Club in Stockland Townsville in 2006.
She hasn’t stopped since.
In 2008 she opened another outlet in Domain Central, then The Strand Townsville and Willow Townsville in 2009, Airlie Beach in 2011 and in July this year Carolyn became the first franchisee to open a Ribs and Rumps steakhouse – a restaurant brand acquired by The Coffee Club in 2011.
“I always set out to be a multi-unit franchisee but I didn’t envisage it would be this many,” she told Franchising. “I always liked people management and people development and I liked the idea of multi-unit franchising because it meant I was able to create career paths for people.”
With six stores and over 220 staff in The McManus Group, Carolyn admits she spends hardly any time in-store, and is more focused on how she can grow her mini-empire.
“It’s now an organisation that runs franchise businesses, so one day is never really the same each week. On every Sunday I have to plan what will happen in that week, what meetings I have, and they might be around new sites that we’re looking at. Generally my role involves spending a lot of time with the general manager of the business … We have a general manager, an operations manager, and our own financial controller all within our group,” she says.
“I review the store’s results but I’m more focused on the forward planning and where the business is going. That’s where my energies are now.”
But Carolyn hasn’t always had the luxury of being able to take a step back from the coalface, trusting others to run her businesses as she wants them run; in the early days of franchising one of the hardest parts of her job was understanding the wants and needs of her staff.
“I came out from managing bankers and had good people management skills but then I had to manage a younger generation who didn’t have the same motivators as what career bankers did,” she says.
“I had to go back and learn and understand what the motivators of Gen Y are. I needed this workforce and I needed to figure out how to create a motivating environment for them.”
Six years later, she’s got that down pat and says watching her staff grow and develop is one of the most rewarding parts of her job.
“It’s the biggest reward for me,” Carolyn says. “We’ve got a manager at one of our stores who started at 17 years old and the most rewarding part of being in business and in franchising is seeing them grow. I get such a sense of pride seeing my staff work together and knowing that they’re friends outside of work –it’s nice to look back and say that you actually helped to create that.”
Fostering growth and career progression in The Coffee Club is what has allowed Carolyn to finally achieve the flexibility that formed part of her initial attraction to the franchising model. She is her own boss, has complete control over her working hours, is able to be a hands-on mum while still driving the growth and expansion of The McManus Group.
“I really do control my time now. I have three daughters and I’m able to go to their school events and swimming carnivals and things like that. I have control over where my time is. If I choose that I can’t do anything on a Wednesday then I can’t do anything on the Wednesday. It’s given my family a lot more flexibility.
“People see the size of the business and always say ‘I just don’t know how you do it all’ and the answer is, I don’t. I have more people working with me now and my time is spent on creating careers and opportunities for clever people. I have more freedom now than I did when I had one or two stores,” she says.
The past 12 months have been action-packed for Carolyn. Not only did she lead the way by being the first franchisee to open a Ribs and Rumps outlet, also located in Townsville, but in October she was named Franchise Woman of the Year at the FCA’s Excellence in Franchising awards, which formed part of the National Franchise Convention in Canberra. And while Carolyn has been presented with a number of other industry awards over the years, including The Coffee Club’s Franchisee of the Year in 2007, 2009 and 2010, FCA’s National Multi-Unit Franchisee of the Year in 2011 and Townsville Business Women of the Year in 2009, she says being acknowledged as a successful woman in the franchising industry is something she’s particularly proud of.
“To be recognised in that way, you feel very honoured because there are a lot of strong women in the franchising sector. I know that I don’t do everything perfectly but there are some things that I must be doing right and I must be getting the balance there. I actually enjoy talking to people and helping them, particularly in regards to multi-unit franchising – which can be really confronting – so to be recognised for something that I’m actually enjoying is a complete honour. I do take that very seriously,” she says.
Something else she takes very seriously is the growth of The McManus Group. She’s spent years and invested a lot of time and energy in creating a well-oiled machine, so she’s not prepared to call it a day just yet.
“We’re looking at another Coffee Club in the near future. There are about two or three things on the go at the moment,” she says. “We’ll still continue to grow. We don’t want to slow down just yet. Once you’ve got a good structure there with good people, you can plug on a few more systems or a few more franchises and it just means you need more roles to support it. I’m not daunted by that.”