Cape Commerce - CapeCodeOnline.com
Cape Commerce
Lisa Benson of Eastham has purchased the franchise for Resort Maps of Eastham and Wellfleet. The tourist map "The Best of Eastham and Wellfleet" will be available to visitors in March 2010.
For more information, contact Benson at lisab@resortmaps.com.
NEW JOBS
Beverly A. Coholan of Dennis has rejoined Citizens Bank as a mortgage loan officer. Her office is in Hyannis.
Coholan has 18 years of experience in real estate and banking, including six years with Citizens Bank. She joined Citizens in 1998 and was assistant manager of the Winchester branch when she left the company. She most recently worked as a loan officer with Advantage Mortgage.
Coholan has been an active member of Dennis Conservation Trust, the American Business Women's Association, the Kiwanis Club and the Cape Cod Women's Organization.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Vineyard Vines by Puritan Cape Cod store, located at 21 Market St. in Mashpee Commons, will host a fundraiser for the Boston Bruins Foundation from 4 to 8 tonight. The event will include raffles, prizes and appearances by the Bruins mascot and the Bruins Ice Girls. The official Boston Bruins Hummer will be on-site for viewing.
Customers will receive 10 percent off their purchase. Vineyard Vines will donate another 10 percent to the Boston Bruins Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to enriching the lives of children throughout New England.
RSVP to vineyardvines@puritancapecod.com.
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Classic Kitchens & Interiors, 127 Airport Road in Hyannis, is celebrating 30 years in business. Classic Kitchens was recently honored as one of Wood-Mode Custom Cabinetry's top 10 dealers in the country.
Send submissions to Cape Commerce, Cape Cod Times, 319 Main St., Hyannis, MA 02601 or e-mail them to business@capecodonline.com (include the phrase "Cape Business" in the subject line). Include a contact phone number. Photos may be mailed or e-mailed in jpg form. Call Cindy Carlson with questions, 508-862-1202.
Your New Travel Guides- Mary Kay & David McLane Take Over Charleston Resort Map Operations
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA AND WAITSFIELD, VERMONT…
Resort Maps, creator of more than 90 customized travel maps across the United States, England and Puerto Rico, recently announced Mary Kay and David McLane as the new owners of their Charleston, South Carolina operations. The Charleston residents took over the publishing of the South Carolina map for Judy Warner, effective October 1, 2009.
Resort Maps are colorful, hand-drawn maps of towns and cities, distributed free to area visitors at rest and travel information areas as well by advertisers. The Best of Charleston Map highlights local attractions, restaurants, accommodations, retail shops, real estate and other services in the greater Charleston area. Each advertiser on the map is represented with a display ad surrounding the perimeter of the map, including a color-coded grid locator and their actual building drawn, highlighted and labeled, making it easy to locate.
“Resort Maps is a great business opportunity for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it’s a great product that provides a great vehicle for advertisers to showcase their businesses while offering invaluable service to people visiting Charleston,” said David McLane. “The other main appeal of the Resort Maps business opportunity is that it fits our lifestyle and gives us a chance to get to meet and know more people in the Charleston community.”
Hailing from central Pennsylvania, David and Mary Kay purchased a second home in Charleston in 2006. Since that time, both David, a clinical psychologist, and Mary Kay, healthcare and retails sales, retired from their respective careers.
“We’re extremely excited about this opportunity. We fell in love with Charleston on our first visit and it’s always been a popular destination for tourists, particularly as people stay closer to home during their vacations,” said McLane. “The Best of Charleston map offers a real treasure trove of things to do for people vacationing in the area or just down for a day or two. Our free ‘souvenir style’ maps can be found not only at the local advertisers’ shops but also at many non-advertiser locations throughout Charleston.”
These same colorful maps can be found on-line at www.resortmaps.com. Here you will find interactive maps of all 90+ resort areas to choose from. These interactive maps allow the viewer to read a description of each business as they scroll over each building and to connect to the website of the business for further information.
For information on how to advertise on the upcoming Charleston map, you can call David or Mary Kay McLane at 843.722.1033 or email at davidm@resortmaps.com or marym@resortmaps.com.
Resort Maps began creating and publishing maps in the northeastern U.S. back in 1986. In an effort to continue the company’s growth and simultaneously maintain the quality of the product, Resort Maps became a franchisor in 1993. Since adopting the franchise model, Resort Maps has grown steadily to more than 90 maps distributed across 20 states as well as towns and cities in England and Puerto Rico.
“We publish over 20 million maps per year in more than 90 cities and towns for a good reason. Our maps are fun, easy-to-read and they really do make you want to stop and see some of the local attractions before heading to the next part of your trip. Our advertisers like them for that very same reason,” said Peter Hans, president of Resort Maps.
For more information on Resort Maps or to inquire about ownership of a Resort Maps franchise, please visit www.resortmaps.com or call 802-496-6277.
About Resort Maps
Headquartered in the Green Mountains of Vermont, Resort Maps has been creating and publishing advertising maps in the northeastern U.S. since 1986. In 1993, Resort Maps expanded its reach by creating a franchise model for distribution of its colorful, hand-drawn maps of resort towns and cities. Today, that network of franchises has grown to over 90 Resort Maps in publication in the US and the UK, with several more in the process of being published. More than 20 million Resort Maps will be printed and distributed in 2009.
For more information on Resort Maps and/or the franchise opportunity, visit www.resortmaps.com or call 802-496-6277.
Resort Maps franchises serve cities and towns in California (Carmel, Monterey), Colorado (Boulder, Breckenridge, Cherry Creek, Colorado Springs, Denver, Eagle River, Estes Park, Fort Collins, Summit County), Delaware (Bethany Beach, Rehoboth Beach), Florida (Clearwater Beach and Gulf Beaches, Cocoa Beach, Daytona Beach, Melbourne, New Smyrna Beach, St. Augustine, Tarpon Springs), Georgia (Savannah/Tybee Island), Maine (Bar Harbor/Acadia, Boothbay region, Camden-Rockland, Kennebunkport, Kittery, Portland, York-Ogunquit), , Maryland (Annapolis, Eastern Shore, Ocean City, Solomons Island, St. Mary’s County), Massachusetts (Berkshires, Chatham-Orleans, Falmouth, Hyannis-Yarmouth, Martha’s Vineyard, Newburyport, Plymouth, Sturbridge, Worcester), Michigan (Traverse City), New Hampshire (Franconia/Notch Region, Hampton Beach, Hanover/Lebanon , Keene, Lakes Region, Mount Washington Valley, Portsmouth), New Jersey (Barnegat Bay, Cape May, Hoboken/Jersey City, Hunterdon, Lambertville , Long Beach Island, Ocean Grove, Point Pleasant, Princeton, Sandy Hook), New York ( The Hamptons, Lake George , Lake Placid, Saratoga Springs), North Carolina (Asheville, Brunswick County, Hendersonville , Outer Banks, Salisbury and Rowan County, Sandhills, Wilmington,), Pennsylvania (Bucks County, Chestnut Hill, Delaware River Valley, Gettysburg, The Main Line), Rhode Island (Newport, Providence), South Carolina (Charleston, Hilton Head, Myrtle Beach), Tennessee (Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge), and Vermont (Addison County/Brandon, Barre/Montpelier, Burlington, Killington/Rutland, Mad River Valley, Manchester, Mount Snow, Okemo, Smugglers’ Notch, Stowe, Waterbury/Richmond, Woodstock/Quechee) —as well as towns and cities in England (Chicester, Lewes) and Puerto Rico (Vieques, Culebra).
Buying into a Franchise Can Take Uncertainty Out of Getting Started
Trish Harrington brought her 6-year-old daughter to a birthday party at Snip-its in North Attleborough and fell in love with the children’s hair salon. A CPA and controller at a Rhode Island financing company, she went home, did her homework, and four months later signed an agreement with the Natick-based franchise to develop three new locations.
For Gina and Gregg Monastiero, it was a five-year journey of investigation and negotiation on the road to opening the region’s first Sonic Drive-in restaurant, which has obliterated company sales records since it opened in late August.
Mehran Atoufi translated the customer service and management skills he learned working for Hilton Hotels into running a revived Subway restaurant near Northeastern that he hopes is the first of many.
Not only has the recession not stopped these entrepreneurs, but in some cases, it helped them. Historically, the number of new businesses spikes during economic downturns, in part because people who lose their jobs are motivated to control their own destinies, small business specialists say. But taking the plunge into franchising by starting up new ventures based on solid brands, proven track records, and corporate support can take some of the uncertainty out of the equation.
“When you have increasing unemployment, a lot of people look at starting a business as a way to provide for themselves,’’ said Robert Nelson, district director for Massachusetts in the Small Business Administration. “Franchising is one aspect of entrepreneurship that people can try to help get their business off the ground.’’
It’s too early to say how many new franchises were opened this year, but the International Franchise Association predicted a 1 percent drop in new franchises based on tighter lending, reversing a trend of annual increases since 2001. In Massachusetts, the proportion of Small Business Administration loans to new franchises was 3.3 percent for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, compared with 3.9 percent the year before, which ended just as the economy was crashing and lending was stalling. Nelson called the dip small and unlikely to deepen after the SBA waived fees and increased its loan guarantees earlier this year.
Franchises are attractive for some entrepreneurs because they can offer opportunities for those with an appetite for some risk - just not as much as starting an entirely new venture, new owners and industry observers say. Depending on the type of business, franchises offer different levels of training and support. According to the International Franchise Association, prospective franchisees should research a company’s financial health, ask if it helps them find and develop a location, and determine how to get inventory and supplies once they’re up and running. Franchisees can also draw on peers for help, said Les Winograd, a spokesman for Subway Restaurants. “They join a team of like-minded individuals,’’ Winograd said. “They are able to learn from a group of previously established franchisees from the same system.’’
Atoufi, the new Subway franchisee, reasoned that his chances for success were greater than if he had started from scratch. “The reason I opened a franchise was I couldn’t afford losing my first business,’’ said Atoufi, who got a loan from his family that he used to buy an existing franchise in Boston, which opened in February. “I wanted to minimize the risk as much as I can.’’
He said Subway’s marketing complemented customer service and management skills that he honed while working at the Hilton while still a student. Originally from Iran, Atoufi came to Boston from Budapest to attend Boston Architectural Center. “Being a franchisee, I don’t have to go out there and advertise,’’ he said.
Gerry Pellissier agrees that having the support of an established company is key. In July, he bought a new franchise: selling advertising for hand-drawn Resort Maps on Cape Cod that are distributed free of charge. “Back when I was 28 years old, I had the drive and the entrepreneurship in my blood,’’ said Pellissier, who once had a drive-in gourmet coffee business. “I just turned 50 this year and I said to myself, ‘Let’s not create a new wheel.’ There’s a lot less risk in purchasing an existing franchise.’’
For the Monastieros, their purchase was made easier by the poor economic climate. They began pursuing a Sonic franchise before the chain was ready to expand into the state. When the deal was finally done, the cost of both buying land and building on it had come down dramatically because of the downturn, Gregg Monastiero said.
Gina Monastiero already runs her own real estate development business and Gregg Monastiero works on mergers and acquisitions in high technology, so they were looking for an investment that would give them a good return.
Even with their management and financial acumen, they’re still relying on Sonic’s support to eventually expand beyond Peabody.
“We didn’t look at this as a mom-and-pop opportunity. Building 20 to 25 restaurants is a very large, $50 to $60 million operation,’’ he said. “To do that, we need strong management.’’
Trish Harrington, the Snip-its kids’ hair salon franchisee, said it’s exciting to think about the growth potential of her new business. In March, she was ready to sign a lease on a store next to Linens ‘N Things in Seekonk when the big-box retailer went out of business; fearing the loss of traffic, she decided not to sign. Now, she’s ready again, reviewing another lease for the same space, now that an electronics retailer will be her neighbor in the formerly vacant 33,000-square-foot space. She’ll keep working part time at Shamrock Financial Corp. in East Providence, but her plan is to expand.