BC Business
Foxy Box founder and CEO Kyla Dufresne reflects on the lessons she learned franchising her first wax bar
In 2012, Kyla Dufresne started Foxy Box Laser and Wax Bar by offering hair removal services in the dining room of her house in Victoria. The business has grown tremendously since then: it now has a team of 200 supporting 18 locations across Canada, with three new sites set to open in March. “My goal has always been to take over the world, one box at a time,” says Dufresne. And while she seems to be succeeding in that mission today, her eagerness to expand Foxy Box got the best of her in her early years of entrepreneurship, when she hastily agreed to turn two employees into franchisees.
In 2015, two of my top estheticians came to me and said, “Ky, we want to be your first franchisees.” And I said, “That’s a great idea. Let’s do it.” I thought, I’m going to sell Foxy Boxes to waxers, they’ll run their Foxy Box, and we’re going to grow and franchise.
I didn’t have a franchise agreement or a franchise disclosure document (FDD) at that time, and those are the documents you need to sell a franchise. They cost anywhere from $15,000 to $30,000. But back then you could sell a licence without having to pay for that. In hindsight, I was doing myself a disservice without having those in place because expectations weren’t there—they didn’t understand what my role was, and in an FDD, everything is outlined so you can make strategic decisions.
I got a contract written up by a lawyer, my estheticians gave me $10,000 (which was the licencing fee to use my name) and we were off to the races.
Well, everything went south from that minute.
Number one, they were short on cash. They had maybe $50,000 in their bank, and $10,000 of that went to me for the licencing fee, and then they had to build out their space, market their business and have operating capital. That created a lot of stress right off the bat. Now we vet people—you have to have at least $75,000 in cash for us to even consider you as a franchisee. I didn’t understand that back then.
They opened in Langford, but if you walked into the store, you would have no idea it was a Foxy Box other than that they had a red wall and a sign outside. Now we have guides for everything you need to replicate a Foxy Box—the tile you use, the grout you use, the paint colour you use. I didn’t have that for them, so their tile was bevelled, all of their décor was vintage and they had a pin-up girl poster on the wall. Literally nothing screamed Foxy Box. It made my heart sink.
But I was young and I didn’t know how to use my voice or be a leader. A pivotal mind shift that I had to have was that the minute I sell a franchise, I am no longer in the business of running a wax bar. I’m in the business of selling franchises and supporting those franchisees in running their businesses. They were calling me to take on shifts at their store, like, “Kyla, can you come in? We need a waxer.” I’m like, no, no, no, that’s not what this is. We didn’t have expectations laid out as to what the relationship would look like, which, again, is what that $15,000 document is for.
They were stressed out. I was lost. So I reached out for help.
I hired a franchise business coach named Angela Coté. Her father started M&M Food Market, which grew to, like, 500 locations across Canada before he sold. I reached out to her and said, “I need help. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. These guys hate me.”
She gave me the pivotal mind shift of what my role is now. We worked on it all: I systemized everything; we put standard operating processes into place. She helped mediate conversations with my partners at that time. But we just couldn’t get back.
After about a year I said, “You know what? You guys are not happy. I’m not happy.” I put two offers in front of them: I’ll buy back your location, or you can keep your location and just change your name. Either way, we need to separate. And they chose the latter. They still operate in the Langford market today.
That experience made me think about what I’m looking for in franchisees. Are they a culture fit? Do they love the brand and the vision that I’ve built? Do they want to be a part of this? Are they coachable? The DNA of a franchisee is going to be very different from the DNA of a creative entrepreneur.
I learned to put my ego aside and reach out for help. Two resources that I wish I knew about back then was the Canadian Franchise Association and the International Franchise Association. If had I just attended one event, my god, it’s like an MBA for franchising in a weekend. It’s just such a supportive community, and it helps to wrap your head around the business of franchising. Because I had no clue. I had no clue.
This interview has been edited and condensed.