Becoming a franchise owner is a process that starts with that first inquiry after you learn about the brand online, on social media, through a friend, at an expo or elsewhere. Once you meet with the team and gain insight about the investment and territories, there are legal documents to review. Once our franchise owners sign the Franchise Agreement, we jump into setting up their business and training.

Training at Sticky Fingers Cooking is a fun, intense, crash course in business ownership and brand knowledge. 

Training is crucial to our franchise owners’ success. We want them to have a very solid foundation of understanding our systems, software, brand standards, operational procedures, best practices, customer service expectations and more. Our training equips new owners with the knowledge and skills they need to operate their business effectively from day one.

What Training a Franchise Owner Looks Like

As the COO of Sticky Fingers Cooking, I am very involved in training each of our franchise owners as well as providing ongoing support. Katie Brennan, our Chief of Staff, is heavily involved in our training as well so a typical training day involves a lot of quality time with us.

Our training takes place in the Denver historic Highlands neighborhood where Sticky Fingers Cooking was founded in 2011. We start off the week with a deep dive into our proprietary tech platform, The Sticky Fingers Cooking Dash®, lovingly referred to as The Dash. We focus heavily on Dash training as it does about 85% of our company's operations and it quickly becomes our franchise owners best friend!

After lunch, our new franchise owners visit a local school to soak up our after-school enrichment classes or a camp to really get the feel for the business—and taste! They jump into classroom training just like a new instructor would so they fully understand the in’s and out’s of what Sticky Fingers is all about.

Toward the end of the week, our Chief Financial Officer, Lelania Howard, takes the lead when we dive into the numbers, KPIs and projections.

Founder and CEO, Erin Fletter, is co-owner of Barolo Grill, a fabulous restaurant that celebrates Italian cuisine, with her husband, Ryan Fletter. Each training session includes a night out at Barolo to recognize our franchise owners and their new venture.

We see the three most important takeaways from each training as:

·  Understanding the brand and our company values

·  Mastering the day to day operations

·  Feeling confident and ready to communicate with schools, parents, and     build a team of chef instructors

Our franchise owners leave with full bellies and abundant knowledge about how to make a success of their business in their market.  

Hear from Our Franchise Owners

It can be more impactful to hear about the experience of training from our franchise owners.

Paul Kim, franchise owner in Dallas, Texas: “Training has been unbelievable. I hope every franchisee has the pleasure of dealing with the team—Katie and Kim and Lania. They’ve all just been amazing and I couldn’t have asked for a better team. I couldn’t be more excited about the future.”

Victoria Jones, franchise owner in San Diego, California: “The training has been amazing! It’s definitely been a lot to take in, but I feel no pressure. I feel very supported and like there’s going to be a lot of opportunity to come back to things that I’ve learned. I feel very prepared. I feel cheered on and encouraged.”

Trang Nguyen, franchise owner of Nova, Virginia: “The actual training with HQ in Denver in January 2024 blew my mind - I learned how much I did not know and became super knowledgeable of SFC operations. I came out of the training a different person.”

She adds: “The training equipped me with not only the knowledge about SFC operations but also the confidence to introduce SFC to my area knowing that I have a solid team behind me to cheer on me and support me whenever needed. I am not alone in this and as a business owner, what more could I ask for?”

One thing we’ve heard over and over again from our new franchise owners as they leave training is that they know they are not alone as a business owner and feel supported. This is such an important part of franchising: relying on those who built the brand and systems to share their knowledge so you can thrive.

If you have a passion for working with children, are hungry for a new work from home business opportunity, and feel that your values are aligned with ours, get in touch: inquire about the franchise opportunity. Yes, we can train you!