Being an entrepreneur is a little like baking a cake: you can create your own recipe or find a cookbook with a recipe that appeals to you and make it from scratch, starting with buying each individual ingredient, maybe even from more than one grocery store; or, you can buy a box of cake mix and just a few basic ingredients that are listed on the back of the box. Chances are that either way you go, it will be delicious but one way will take longer and might be harder. 

When you buy a franchise business, it’s more like buying that cake mix in a box. The cake mix means that some of the measuring is already done and the mixing is included—just add milk and eggs! As a business owner, the initial market testing and brand awareness has been built so when you purchase a territory to run as an independent franchise business owner you have the advantages of the years of experience already put in by the franchisor.

At Sticky Fingers Cooking, we’ve developed a proprietary technology platform that makes running your business as easy as…cake mix in a box (because let’s be real, pie from scratch is not easy). 

Let’s Get Down to Business

In case you haven’t noticed, we really like food puns. The company’s proprietary technology platform is called “The Dash.” As in, a dash of salt, get it? The full name is the Sticky Fingers Cooking Dash® and yes, it’s copyrighted.

The Dash has been 10 years in the making (we made it from scratch, you might say) as we tested it on ourselves first. By taking care of technical details, we’ve created a more seamless experience in the classrooms for chef instructors, parents, and kids. 

What families get is an easy way to register for classes—online, at their child’s school, or for a private event. They can also download a favorite recipe from a recent class using this platform. 

The chef instructors simply log on and tasks such as accessing lesson plans, curriculum updates, shopping lists, recent class schedules and rosters are all readily available. Rather than tracking down a printed-out list of what ingredients to buy or having to call someone for a school directory, the instructors can focus on the fun of cooking and teaching—and tasting. 

‍What “The Dash” Means to You

As a business owner, access to The Dash means you won’t spend your time figuring out ways to help families register or ensure that your new chef instructor has correct ingredients and recipes for the current program. 

“The Dash is the hardest working part of Sticky Fingers Cooking so that franchisee teams can focus on the most IMPORTANT part of their business which is cooking up fun with more and more kids and schools in their community,” says Erin Fletter, CEO and co-founder of the company. 

This platform is designed to manage your day-to-day operations, provide a place for class enrollments, be a space for all financial reports, allow employees to submit their timesheets, logistics management, and be a home for all lesson plans.

Although Sticky Fingers Cooking was created as an in-person experience, the reality is that there are moving parts and pieces happening in a variety of locations. Remember that cake? Well, if you don’t get all of the ingredients correctly measured, it may not rise and will just cave in. With The Dash, you’re likely to get that mix just right every time, even as you oversee chef instructors in several schools across multiple school districts. 

Check out our company history and timeline here, then if you are interested in learning more about becoming a franchisee go to our inquiry page.