From left, Donna Shaw holds the scissors as consultant Amber George and Cobb County Chamber of Commerce's Mark Stuckey look on. FranchiseMart held its official grand opening Monday.

VININGS — Liberty Tax, Sign-A-Rama, Precision Tune Auto Care, Wine Styles, Midas, Bark Busters, The Great Frame Up and Fantastic Sam’s. These are just a few of the 160 franchise businesses served by the just opened FranchiseMart store that could someday be yours. And if you’ve been laid off and have pondered the thought of owning your own business, that’s exactly what owner/operator Donna Shaw and her two consultants want to do with FranchiseMart – they want to serve you and help you turn big ideas into reality. 

“A lot of people are being thrown out there and don’t have their plan b and their exit strategies in order,” Shaw said of Georgia’s current high unemployment rate. “I hope to be able to fill that gap. One of my talents is facilitation so I thoroughly enjoy watching people grow into their dreams.”

The company’s Web site states that the new store, located in the Vinings Junction strip mall at 4355 Cobb Parkway, has “knowledgeable specialists that can help make your learning process both enjoyable and more informative.” To hear what FranchiseMart is in Shaw’s own words, click here.

Shaw said the advantage to utilizing FranchiseMart’s expertise is they can help you from the very beginning of the franchise process and take you through the concept phase all the way to implementation. She said there is no need for potential owners to go it alone anymore.

“When you do it on your own on the Internet, it’s hard to figure out. I think the advantage we have is we’re familiar with the industry,” she said. “We realize how many sectors are out there. Once we figure out what your wants, needs and desires are and your financial investment is, we can help craft that for you.”

FranchiseMart represents franchises that require little initial investment to some of the larger ones (like Precision Auto) that can require up to $250,000. Shaw said a lot of people don’t realize the realities of today’s market. She said there is a misnomer out there that getting a bank loan in today’s tough economic climate is impossible.

“Financing is not dried up. A lot of franchisers will do in house financing,” she said. “There are opportunities out there to assist people.”

FranchiseMart itself is a franchise, part of the West Palm Beach, Florida-based United Franchise Group. There’s another Atlanta location in Buckhead. Shaw said most people don’t realize that 79 percent of the working labor force pool works in the franchise industry. She also said in the first five years of business, 97 percent of franchises will succeed and grow as opposed to 52 percent of independent businesses which will fail.

Mark Stuckey, director of business development for the approximately 2,400 member Cobb Chamber of Commerce, was pleased with the new addition to the small business community.

“I think it’s fantastic,” Stuckey said. “I was looking around and there are a lot of interesting businesses and new concepts out there. I also gave them a few leads on start-ups here in Cobb County that might be interested in franchising.”

Gunnar Alagon liked what he saw at FranchiseMart, too. After a successful career in the technology industry, he and some partners were browsing potential high-end restaurant franchise opportunities.

“I think this is a good concept because normally someone looking for a franchise needs to go to the franchisee and a separate office as opposed to this stand-alone store,” Alagon said. “This is a concept everyone should warm up to.”

And that’s exactly what Shaw and her consultants are hoping for.

From right, consultant and sales manager Monica Scott shows onlookers potential franchise opportunities. FranchiseMart offers unique franchise opportunties in all different industry sectors, some of which are not even in Atlanta yet.

“This country was founded on entrepreneurship. We’re not all in corporate America. We’re in small businesses,” Shaw said. “That’s where we make our bread and butter and grow our communities.”

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