COVER STORY
Franchising with the lot Nicole Carmichael’s energy and hard work has taken her from the cosmetics world to a multi-unit McDonald’s franchise, and she’s ambitious for more.
N
icole Carmichael is in her franchise for the long term. “I want to have 15 stores,” she says. This city girl was born and bred in Sydney and that’s where the Dubbo resident wants to get back to at some point. Her mini empire of four McDonald’s drive-thru stores is a stepping stone to a Sydney return Sydney–Cooma–Dubbo. That’s been the journey for Nicole, who moved from running the duty-free business for a French cosmetics firm (working with Christian Dior, Clinique, Armani) to signing up to a Gloria Jean’s cafe, becoming a multi-unit operator in the coffee chain, and then investing in a McDonald’s franchise. Nicole explains how the first shift away from corporate life took place. “French companies like you to move on from your role after two years, and as I was already senior in Australia, that meant a move overseas. I was newly married and didn’t want to relocate,” she says of the transition from cosmetics to cafes. So she took a sidestep, fulfilling her ambition of owning a coffee shop. “I regularly met up with a girlfriend for a coffee at Gloria Jean’s, and I always wanted to run a coffee shop.” She went through the training and opened up her first store when she was six months pregnant.
“Juggling any work commitment with a new baby is difficult, especially when it’s your own business because work never shuts off when you go home. But for me, I wouldn’t know life without having a million things to juggle, and the constant go go go is what I thrive on,” she admits. So within nine months and with a young baby, Nicole had opened up a second store. By the time she was ready to move on, six years later, she had accumulated six stores. “I loved Gloria Jean’s. I moved from the corporate to the franchise world and it taught me how to own and operate a business. I was training a lot of incoming franchisees, which was a privilege, but I wanted more personal development.” There was also a financial reckoning in the decision to move on. Nicole believed that even with six Gloria Jean’s cafes, she would make a bigger profit with a single McDonald’s outlet. “I came from a marketing background, so I thought about who is the biggest marketer, and it is McDonald’s. But I thought as I was a competitor with coffee, they would not be interested.” It turned out McDonald’s believed her coffee and business skills would be an asset to the fast food chain and she began the long process to become a licensee. In all it took about 12 months, she says. The process included interviews with
licensees, a three-day on-the-job evaluation, and an appearance in front of the review board of department heads and senior leadership to confirm her suitability as a licensee candidate. All this happens before being accepted on to a training program. Before Nicole got to the review board she was required to sell her Gloria Jean’s cafes as these were viewed as competitive businesses. She also sold her house to help finance the new business. And she knew she would be relocating, as the McDonald’s system requires new franchisees to start out in a regional site. “I was lucky to get my first store in 2014, I got Cooma. I was fortunate but it was a huge challenge because it is a seasonal store, most of the business is in the ski season with people travelling to the snowfields.” A mediocre revenue through the year rises to triple the volume in the ski season. What it taught Nicole is the importance of a roster, and learning to operate on a tight budget for nine months of the year. The store also had untapped potential. It was an opportunity to develop something she knew well – the coffee business. A target was set for what the business should be achieving by 2019; Nicole had reached that goal by 2016. How did she do it?
NOV/JAN 2021-2022 | 16 | WWW.FRANCHISEBUSINESS.COM.AU
