In 2014 Amy Arnold and Jessica Stanley, two stay-athome moms, started Card My Yard, a business they

Question:

In 2014 Amy Arnold and Jessica Stanley, two stay-athome moms, started Card My Yard, a business they felt could bring joy to others while providing extra income for their families. Card My Yard is a yard greeting-card company. The idea is to help people celebrate special occasions—birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, new babies, and similar events—by decorating their lawns with large, colorful signs. A typical sign, placed in a customer’s front yard, might read, “Happy 15th Birthday Abby” with pink, yellow, and blue letters as well as several celebratory symbols to mark the occasion. Amy and Jessica did not launch their business with franchising in mind. Working with their husbands, Josh and James, their original ambition was to service their community—Steiner Ranch—which is a planned community of 5,000 homes just outside Austin, Texas. From the start, this was a family business—Amy, Jessica, Josh, and James would put up the signs in the evenings, often with their kids tagging along to help them. As word about Card My Yard spread, requests came to them from people outside their neighborhood. While they tried to keep up with these requests, they realized that they were not able to service Austin by themselves. In 2015 and 2016, they opened new locations and paid people to operate them. They also experimented with licensing their concept to others. In 2017, they paused the business and went through the process of becoming a registered U.S. franchise.....

Discussion Questions:

1.Look at Figure 15.1 in this chapter. What type of franchise system makes the most sense for Card My Yard?
2.To what degree do you think Card My Yard will be able to maintain its leadership position in the yard sign industry? Thinking back on the material in Chapter 5, what barriers to entry have Card My Yard put in place to deter new entrants to the yard sign space? How effective do you think the barriers to entry will be?
3.Most Card My Yard franchisees own their franchise as a secondary source of income. Not many franchise organizations operate that way—most require their franchisees to devote themselves full time to their franchise. Do you think more franchise organizations should be created to offer secondary sources of income for their franchisees? Brainstorm an idea for a franchise organization that would offer its franchisees a secondary source of income.
4.Do you think you would enjoy owning and running a Card My Yard franchise? If so, what elements of owning one would appeal to you most and why?

Data From Figure 15.1

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