Sisters Ashley Keever, left, and Krista Rhymes are Chicken Salad Chick ‘zees with partner Matthew Miller, center.
After 25 years of working through all the ups and downs of running businesses together, Ashley Keever and Krista Rhymes have figured out a simple but effective system for putting aside any disagreements.
The siblings write their respective ideas on how best to solve the issue on a whiteboard in their office, walk away from it and then take up the discussion again the next day with the understanding that they will come to a mutual agreement for moving forward.
That system is working. Since signing a franchise agreement with Chicken Salad Chick in 2017 and opening their restaurant in Monroe, Louisiana, a year later, the sisters have added two more locations, in Ruston and Slidell, Louisiana. They say their busiest Chicken Salad Chick location in Monroe serves between 250 and 300 customers a day.
The sisters said their interest in Chicken Salad Chick began years before when Rhymes went to a tax seminar in Birmingham, Alabama, and instantly fell in love with the brand after stumbling upon it by accident. “I came home and told my sister, ‘We have to buy one of these Chicken Salad Chicks and bring it to Monroe,’” she recalled.
When a would-be franchisee pulled out of a deal at the last minute to develop their territory in northern Louisiana, the sisters jumped in, thanks in large part to the due diligence undertaken by their late father.
“Even though our father had some experience in barbecue restaurants, we really didn’t have any restaurant experience at all and never even considered getting into it. But we did have experience running our own businesses and we didn’t mind hard work and long hours and our father quickly saw what a strong brand Chicken Salad Chick was,” said Keever, who ran a pair of gift ships with her sister for 20 years before switching to franchising.
Along with Matthew Miller, a third partner in their Chicken Salad Chick franchises, the Louisiana siblings divide and conquer their multi-unit tasks. Keever focuses on social media and marketing while Rhymes does the bookkeeping and Miller handles most of the day-to-day operations. All three business partners make the rounds to their three franchise locations.
“I think the key to my business relationship with my sister is we both understand our strengths and weakness and we are also best friends,” said Rhymes, who lives on the same street as her younger sister.
“My advice for any siblings who are thinking of going into franchising together is make sure you have the same work ethic and values because it’s truly a partnership and you got to learn to bend,” Keever said.
—Joe Halpern
Julia Fung, left, and brother Charles Fung left corporate jobs to become Mathnasium franchisees,
Fung siblings find true calling at Mathnasium
Charles Fung and sister Julia Fung are the first to admit they are quite different when it comes to how they go about their jobs. But they are also quick to point out that their differences serve them well as equal partners and co-franchise owners of a pair of Mathnasium locations in New Jersey.
“She is the big picture and marketing person and spokesperson for our business and I’m more of the detail and logistics guy who focuses on the daily nitty gritty stuff,” said Charles.
“We know each other so well that I like to think we complement each other well,” said Julia, the older sibling. “His strengths are my weaknesses and my strengths are his weaknesses, so it works out well.”
Since giving up their high-paying but stressful corporate jobs, the Fungs have successfully grown their supplemental math tutoring business from a single location in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey, to a second location in nearby Plainsborough. In the past two years, their combined enrollments between the two centers have ranged between 200 and 235.
Julia was in the pharmaceutical industry, having worked for Merck & Company and Bristol Myers Squibb Company. Charles was in the banking sector, working at Morgan Stanley in Midtown Manhattan for years and at Citigroup prior.
The Fungs, who come from a long line of family entrepreneurs (their grandfather started his own textile manufacturing firm in their native Hong Kong that still is operating), said their corporate experiences helped them transition into franchising.
“We both worked for very big companies and I think that has helped us run our franchises. We have experience in processes, logistics and management,” said Charles, who holds degrees in mechanical engineering and computer science.
He said the decision to become Mathnasium franchisees was an easy one. He said he and his sister both share a love of kids, along with teaching math. “We take pride in knowing we’ve changed the lives of hundreds of kids,” Charles said.
Meanwhile, Julia said the other important part of their story is that Mathnasium franchising provided her brother and her a better work-life balance, which allowed them the time needed to take care of their aging mother. “That was a big advantage of Mathnasium, the flexibility it gave us,” she said.
And what about working with her brother?
“Sure, we disagree at times about how to run the business better, but we never fight,” Julia said. “We are too much alike and too close to let anything go too far.”
—Joe Halpern
Eddie and Diana Finley are brother-sister franchisees for Title Boxing, with one location open in Tennessee.
Siblings open Title Boxing Club to transform lives
For Diane and Eddie Finley, their interest in boxing came before the urge to enter the franchising space. The siblings wanted to open a boxing studio in Tennessee in 2014 and the state didn’t have a Title Boxing Club location yet. “I was fascinated by it being a new concept,” Eddie Finley said. “I think it’s good to jump on something so unique, like Title at the time.”
Title Boxing Club was founded in 2008 in Kansas. The brand has since grown to 129 stores at the end of 2022, down from 175 at the beginning of 2020. In 2021, BoxUnion Holdings purchased the brand. “The fact that it was a start-up, the requirements to get involved were a lot easier than more franchises,” continued Finley, who has a history in sales. “But from a business perspective, the numbers they showed us looked really good.”
Diane Finley said the two have different strengths, which has been beneficial for running a business together. He focuses on the business side of things, whereas she puts more emphasis on operations. “So, it works out really well,” she said.
The pair share a passion for boxing’s ability to transform someone’s life, Diane Finley said. “He saw the change with me,” she said. “We want to do that for other people. It was just cool to do it together.”
The siblings have a good relationship outside of work, which makes things easier as well. “I hear a lot of horror stories about families getting in business together. If they’re not getting along before business, they’re not going to get along as a partner either,” Eddie Finley said. “I think if you’re pretty compatible before, there’s a pretty high likely chance it’s going to work out well.”
Any squabbles they do have are kept out of sight from staff. “I think it’s important that the team just sees as cohesive in agreement. It’s OK to see us argue sometimes, but we don’t do it much—at least in front of them,” Eddie Finley said.
The Finleys initially wanted to open five studios, but have since decided they’re “pretty content” with the one they have because the concept wasn’t as scalable as they thought. Under the new ownership, though, they feel better about the support they’re receiving from the team, Diane Finley said.
—Emilee Wentland