Why Dirty Dough Cookies Markets to Younger Franchisee Candidates

Younger franchisee candidates bring with them creativity, social media awareness, and an eagerness to succeed that benefits both the franchisee and the franchisor.

Bennett Maxwell, founder and chairman of Dirty Dough Cookies, is fairly young himself at 31. He has found that younger franchisee candidates are more likely to be involved in the business, learning the ins and outs of the business model.

• Another benefit of younger franchisee candidates comes from their tech-savvy skills and awareness of the impact of social media.
• "If you have a younger franchise owner, they're going to be a lot more creative on how to use social media to attract customers," Maxwell said.
• "If you get somebody that's 50 or 60 years old, they often ask 'How do I do my grand opening?' but I just got off the phone with a young franchisee in San Antonio, Texas, and he's got everything planned out for an influencer night."

Millennials have been found to have a greater desire to improve their communities than previous and more recent generations. They are opting for companies that they firmly believe in and share values with, meaning they're likely to have passion behind their business ownership and take initiative toward their success.

As a franchisor, there are steps that can be taken to tailor the franchisee experience to younger generations to reap these benefits.

• When Maxwell developed the franchise model for Dirty Dough Cookies, he attempted to tailor the experience to younger entrepreneurs by thinking about what sort of concept he would want to invest in.
• He simplified the model to appeal to young candidates by offering a low startup cost and an easy-to-follow process.
• Maxwell made it incredibly easy to reproduce the beloved product by shipping out the cookies in preportioned, frozen form so all the employees have to do is put it in the oven for a set amount of time.

By offering a business model that caters to the priorities of younger candidates, with a low startup cost and easy-to-follow process, franchisors will pique the interest of young franchisees. This was the case for Maxwell, as his brand has sold 450 franchise locations in just two years.

The importance of social media cannot be understated. Maxwell explained that his brand has basically only generated leads through social media platforms. However, he rarely targets franchisee candidates directly.

• "We never advertise directly to franchisees on the brand’s social media, so it's really just been my personal social media," he said.
• Building an online presence allows potential customers and franchisees alike to get to know you. People are interested in investing in your product or service but, more than that, they want to invest in the story behind your brand.

Dirty Dough isn’t the only success case; although Crumbl is a competitor, Maxwell can’t help but praise the brand’s social media presence and resulting success.

• "People love the product and they also want to own the business and see how they could be part of it," Maxwell said.
• "The brand did weekly announcements of flavors on social media, getting thousands of influencers to taste-test their weekly rotating cookies. It just got so much hype around it."

This goes to show that a big, positive social media presence translates to a big following for your brand, which in turn makes it desirable for franchisees, especially those from the younger social-media-savvy generations.