--- title: "Wild Birds Unlimited Helps Franchisee Turn Passion Into A Successful Career" url: https://burnaze.com/article/27f4a9f9-43e4-4eb2-9447-0e450d26c47b source: "1851 Franchise" original_url: https://1851franchise.com/wild-birds-unlimited-helps-franchisee-turn-passion-into-a-successful-career-4286 category: "Retail" industry: "Retail" published: 2016-04-15T14:09:59.000Z modified: 2026-11-01T04:13:14.439Z image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/de2fad4059d0c9ae673313aa34fa848f8474160415092759.jpeg --- # Wild Birds Unlimited Helps Franchisee Turn Passion Into A Successful Career **TL;DR:** Wild Birds Unlimited helped franchisee Chris Darlington turn her passion into a successful career, expanding her business with the brand's support. Darlington is now set to open her second Wild Birds Unlimited location in Georgetown, Texas. *originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2016-04-15. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/wild-birds-unlimited-helps-franchisee-turn-passion-into-a-successful-career-4286).* ## Story For years, Chris Darlington fed her bird feeding hobby by shopping at Wild Birds Unlimited. But it wasn’t until she moved to a new city that she discovered the brand was a franchise. When Darlington realized she had an opportunity to turn her passion into a career, she jumped at the chance. With the help of Wild Birds Unlimited, she’s now on the verge of expanding her already booming business. Darlington first fell in love with Wild Birds Unlimited when she was working as an elementary school teacher in Toledo, Ohio. She was already a big bird feeding enthusiast, so when she moved to Texas she intended to keep up with it. However, she found that when she filled her bird feeders with seed from a generic home improvement store, she wasn’t getting any birds. Darlington’s friend gave her a simple solution—she had to buy bird seed from a specialty nature store that was about half an hour away from where they lived. That store turned out to be a Wild Birds Unlimited. “My friend drove 25 miles to get bird seed, so I knew it had to be high quality,” Darlington said. “When I got to the store and saw that it was a Wild Birds Unlimited, everything clicked. I went home that night and started filling out the paperwork to buy my own franchise.” The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. When Darlington reached out to Paul Pickett, Wild Birds Unlimited’s Chief Development Officer, she discovered the owners of the already established North Austin, Texas store were ready to retire. Darlington got to work and tried everything to lock down funding during her development process. But despite her strong asset base and great credit, she was repeatedly declined loans because she didn’t have any retail experience. That’s when she turned to Pickett and the Wild Birds Unlimited team for help. “I recall a day in mid-2012 when Chris called me in tears because she had been rejected by yet another bank. I listened to her frustration and asked her if it was time to consider calling one of our financing partners to look into rollovers as business startups, or ROBS,” said Pickett. “Chris talked to our representative at Guidant Financial, did a ton of research on ROBS and made the decision to move forward.” Tapping into her 401(k) was instrumental in getting Darlington’s business off the ground. It made becoming a Wild Birds Unlimited franchisee more affordable than if she had received a loan, and she’s never looked back. Since Darlington took over the North Austin store at the end of 2012, sales have gone up. She’s focused on delivering exceptional customer service, training and promoting her manager and remodeling the store to bring it up to the brand’s look and feel. Darlington credits her success to the supportive team at Wild Birds Unlimited along with the advertising and promotion guidelines they already have in place. “They really know what they’re doing,” said Darlington. “The Wild Birds Unlimited team is here so that we can succeed as franchisees.” Building on the momentum from her North Austin store, Darlington is now set to open her second Wild Birds Unlimited location. She recently signed a lease in Georgetown, Texas and is expected to be open for business by mid-2016. Darlington knows the community there is eager for the store’s launch. “Birding is the second largest outdoor hobby behind gardening. Everybody here—our customers and our employees—love their birds and their backyards, and that’s what makes all the difference. Wild Birds Unlimited separates itself from the crowd because our business brings us joy. You can’t train passion,” Darlington said. ## Entities - 1851 Franchise (publication) - Retail (sector) - franchising (topic) - business expansion (topic) - Wild Birds Unlimited (company) - franchisee success (topic) - Paul Pickett (person) - retail business (topic) - Guidant Financial (company) - Georgetown, Texas (location) - North Austin store (location) --- Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/wild-birds-unlimited-helps-franchisee-turn-passion-into-a-successful-career-4286). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/27f4a9f9-43e4-4eb2-9447-0e450d26c47b).