How to Choose the Ideal Franchise Territory & How the Seablooms Knew Minneapolis was Perfect for Toastique!
Factors to Consider When Choosing the Ideal Toastique Territory
While more parts of the country are seeing growth in the demand for healthy alternatives to the existing breakfast options in the fast-casual and quick-service restaurant market, that doesn’t necessarily mean that every city or town will be a perfect fit for the Toastique model. Instead of wondering or hoping someone will come along and tell you if your community is a good fit, here are a few factors we recommend looking at to tell if your area is prime territory for our gourmet toast and juice bar franchise.
Ideal Customer Profile
When you first start to think about your own health-focused restaurant, you’ll first need to consider the type of customer you’ll want to target and attract to your business. At Toastique, our concept is designed to perfectly fit all kinds of people and lifestyles; however, this doesn’t mean that you should target anyone and everyone in your area who might enjoy gourmet toast options in their diet. Instead, imagine your dream customer – whether that’s young professionals on the go or high-earning, health-focused families – and plan to target them. This will not only help you narrow down your search for the perfect brick-and-mortar location, but it will also streamline your future marketing and expansion efforts.
Territory Demographics
Once you have a clear understanding of who your ideal customer is, you’ll then turn your focus back to your prospective territory or territories and figure out if you can find your dream customers there. In order to do so, you’ll take a close look at the demographics of the area and compare them to your client profile. Your assessment should include things like housing types, age group distribution, income levels, and even recent economic growth and with Toastique, you’ll receive guidance during this step of the process because we want to ensure your breakfast restaurant is successful, too!
Look at Other Businesses in the Area
At Toastique, we believe that we truly don’t have any competitors that are offering the same delicious products and level of service as our gourmet toast and juice bars. However, that doesn’t mean that you should disregard the other nearby restaurants during your site selection process! Neighborhoods that are highly industrial and are home to only the typical chain restaurants may not be the ideal community for your Toastique; however, a mixed-use area that boasts complementary concepts like coffee shops and full-service local restaurants could be the perfect place for a toast, juice, and smoothie concept like our breakfast franchise.
Future Territory Growth
If you’re local to the territory, it won’t be difficult to recognize the direction your community is growing. Metropolitan and suburban neighborhoods across the country are seeing record-breaking population growth and development, making them an ideal fit for an entrepreneur that’s looking to maintain and grow their business well into the future. Conversely, certain types of neighborhoods have seen a decline, especially since 2020, making them a more difficult territory to successfully open a restaurant. Depending on the city, these could be downtown areas or even mixed suburban/rural neighborhoods. Wherever you’re considering as your future Toastique territory, make sure you consider how it’s grown in recent years before making your final decision.
Please Join Us in Welcoming Our Newest Owners: Scott & Laura Seabloom of Minneapolis, MN!
While Minnesota may be a true Midwestern, meat and potatoes state, the young, growing city of Minneapolis is the perfect setting for our next Toastique healthy cafe location! To help us get there, we’re excited to introduce Scott and Laura Seabloom: the hungry, energetic young family with an existing passion for healthy living and dream of business ownership!
Becoming the Seablooms
Scott Seabloom was born and raised in Minnesota, where he lived the typical active Minnesota lifestyle, with much of his life revolving around fishing (both open water and ice fishing), baseball, road biking, football, and more. After high school, he chose to attend college in Duluth, MN, where he began his career in IT sales and consulting, a path he has continued more than 20 years later.
On the other hand, after moving to Minnesota at 25 to pursue her Master’s in holistic health studies at Saint Catherine University in Minneapolis, Laura and Scott crossed paths, and the rest is history. As the pair got to know each other, Laura began working in fashion before pivoting to become a holistic health coach, earning certifications and working both independently and within health and wellness clinics along the way.
Since starting their family, Scott and Laura have enjoyed enrolling their family in recreational sports and focusing their life on all things wellness and self-care. However, the pair knew that their diverse backgrounds could complement each other and help them start a business and take their careers on an entirely new trajectory. Scott had been casually looking at franchise investment opportunities for years, the Seablooms finally discovered the Toastique healthy breakfast franchise through a simple internet search, and it suddenly all fell into place.
Becoming Entrepreneurs & Getting to Know Toastique
Laura had operated as her own freelancer in previous years, but the couple longed to start a business together that allowed them to become financially independent as a family. However, they wanted to do it in a way that empowered them to spread the healthy living mantra through their community at the same time.
“We have always discussed owning our own business for a variety of reasons. We love the challenge of owning our own business and the potential financial reward and future flexibility it will create. With Toastique, it also provides the opportunity to pursue a passion while creating an impact in our community and surrounding areas.”
The Seablooms considered a variety of fast-casual restaurant franchise concepts, but nothing fit their lifestyle and goals for their family, quite like Toastique’s gourmet toast and juice bar. After Scott first discovered our business model and crunched the initial numbers, he brought Laura into the conversation so the pair could determine if their corner of Minneapolis would be a good fit for their own healthy cafe. Once they recognized the market fit and opportunity to join the growing health food niche – not to mention the promising EBIDTA – they saw in Toastique, there was no question about it: the Seablooms had found the franchise for them!
Sitting Down with the Seablooms
While Scott and Laura are preparing to open the doors to their first Toastique healthy cafe location in the prime Minneapolis territory, our team was eager to get to know them even more! Luckily, the couple made time to sit down with our team for a quick Q&A, so take a peek at some of the answers they gave us!
Why is Toastique the right fit for you?
Scott & Laura: “Toastique is the right fit because [it] represents a unique entry point into a niche health market that aligns with how we would eat as a family. We share in their passion for delivering quality food that is both appealing to the eyes and pallet while nourishing your body. [We felt that] Brianna is personable, professional, and passionate. Teamed with Kyle and the rest of the Toastique team, we immediately felt welcomed. They are transparent and want to ensure this is a win/win for everyone.”
What did you like about Approval Day?
S&L: “We really liked seeing all the DC locations while discussing the pros and cons of each location (size, features, etc.). It was also great how open the discussions were, with Brianna and Kyle walking through certain scenarios, answering detailed questions, and getting to know each of us personally as we went from site to site. Of course, the delicious tasting food and sampling the cold-pressed juices were encouraged, and we took full advantage.”
What was the a-ha moment that made you want to franchise with Toastique?
S&L: “[It was] our sit-down in the conference room during Approval Day, when Brianna and Kyle walked us through step by step the process from signature to opening day, tools and resources we’d have access to, how-to’s, etc. They answered all the questions we and the other potential franchisees had and were very transparent in [the] discussion. This transparency, along with [the] entirety of the Approval Day, was our ah-ha.”
If you’re looking to join the growing health market and feel passionate about bringing a fast-casual restaurant concept to the community you love, like Scott and Laura, Toastique has the business model and fresh, delicious menu that Franchisees are clamoring to join. With new Owners joining us from all over the country, it won’t be long before a Toastique healthy restaurant location pops up in your neighborhood! Will it be you behind the counter, or will you miss out on this franchise investment opportunity?
Now that you know where to look to find the best possible territory for your future gourmet toast and juice bar, take the next step in the process by seeing if you qualify to join our healthy franchise family! Who knows – maybe you’ll be the next new Franchisee we feature in a future blog! If you’re ready to say goodbye to corporate life for good and bring a fresh, healthy cafe concept to your community, take our quick qualification quiz to see if you’ve got what it takes today.