How Planet Smoothie Supports Franchise Owners

World-class marketing, training and operational support are built into the model

Planet Smoothie franchise owners are in business for themselves — not by themselves. They have access to skilled professionals from the very beginning, with training that helps them start strong and confidently. Ongoing Planet Smoothie franchise marketing support ensures they are able to tap into social media and other awareness avenues, and operational support means that everything from point-of-sale systems to back-office functions like financial management and payroll are the best available.

Marketing support creates visibility and drives traffic

One of the great benefits of owning a Planet Smoothie franchise is that you can start out with a strategic marketing plan that helps drive customers to your business. You also get expert guidance from the Planet Smoothie management team, and marketing support begins well before your store opens.

Our marketing resources help to identify a comprehensive strategy for attracting customers, encouraging repeat visits and boosting revenue. We will teach you how to analyze your competitors, identify potential community partnerships, and scout pools of likely customers. This analysis helps guide your community outreach, which can have a huge impact on your business. We also provide marketing materials and outreach strategies that are tailored to each audience.

We also provide a depth of assistance in planning and executing your grand opening marketing plan. Whether your store is the first in a new area or is in a region where Planet Smoothie is already well-known, this is an essential step in getting your store known and visited by those in your community. For example, Planet Smoothie’s corporate team provides creative services to design marketing pieces that can be customized for local marketing efforts. If you’re participating in a fund-raising 5K race, they can help build collateral materials around that, for instance.

Franchisees can also tap into several types of rewards to keep customers coming back: discounts off the next smoothie, same-day incentives for customers who order in the morning and come back for an evening smoothie, and a loyalty program where members can earn rewards, and more.

Training and support covers all the bases — and then some

New Planet Smoothie franchise owners receive extensive training, ongoing coaching and operations manuals that help them master the operations of a Planet Smoothie store. Training takes place several weeks before your store opens, and includes five days of classroom training at our Scottsdale, AZ, headquarters, or online, as well as three days of in-store training.

“We start with a welcome call from our team, so the new franchise owner gets to know all of us and we get to learn what they have done before becoming a franchise owner. We want them to be comfortable with everything, so we set up a timeline and clear next steps. It’s a great process,” says Stacey Wopnford, Vice President of Operations.

Whether you are opening a traditional Planet Smoothie location, or you are opening a nontraditional location, you and one other person may participate in training without incurring additional training fees.

All store managers should go through training, and you may send one new manager for training each year without incurring training fees.

Our training program provides:

• An overview of the business and franchise industry
• Details on operations
• Insights into providing exceptional customer service
• Details about the products that go into your smoothies
• Instruction in how to use the Planet Smoothie point-of-sale system and internal communications portal
• Financial management instruction and much more.

You’ll also learn about store-opening procedures, food-product handling, sanitation procedures, marketing, back-office administration, equipment operation, storage and store management.

At the opening, Planet Smoothie will provide up to four days of on-site assistance with experienced managers and trainers to get your store set up and to open your store with you.

“You learn a lot when you train in the store, and you learn a lot at the corporate training,” says Sura Alani, who owns and operates a franchise in Orlando, FL, with her siblings and parents. “They are there to help all the time, and because we have [Area Developer] Jason Mann and his team here, we have that extra layer of support that is wonderful.”

“Having that in-store training so we could learn how to work with employees and manage them correctly, as well as get real practice on inventory control and other operational things, was really beneficial,” adds Tala Alani. “Having that training made us more confident, and knowing that there are supportive people we can reach out to who will make themselves available right away is also great.”

Bring a Planet Smoothie franchise to your community today

Planet Smoothie is a simple, easy-to-operate business that doesn’t require any prior food experience. The smoothie market is strong and growing, and Planet Smoothie stands out with a menu built around real fruit and other healthier ingredients. Planet Smoothie has been around for more than 20 years because we do one thing really well: we make delicious smoothies. Capture a piece of the strong and growing smoothie industry with a Planet Smoothie franchise.