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When she was working a corporate job, Toya L. Evans told people that paydays were the days she hated most.
She came to see her fat paycheck as a set of golden handcuffs, stifling her entrepreneurial spirit. Not only that, but “I knew that no matter what I did, by way of effort, the paycheck was always going to be the same,” she says.
Evans and her former husband had owned several businesses at various times while raising their two daughters. When her children were adults and working demanding corporate jobs, the three of them decided to take a leap together and become franchisees.
That was 11 years ago. They now own three locations of Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa and one Vio Med Spa in metro Washington, D.C. They recently divested from their ownership of six Tropical Smoothie Cafes and are looking for other brands to invest in.
“We are equal partners,” Evans says. “People think that, just because I'm the mom, I have more say, but I don't. My kids were adults when we decided to go into business together, so we all put up the same amount of cash to do this."
For Evans, going into business with her daughters was an easy decision.
“I recognize that who you select as your partner matters, not just going in, but coming out and all the time in between,” she says.
Plus, they all had the same goal: to build family wealth.
“I thought, what if we could put something together that would really make a difference?” Evans says. “For me, it was always to build something in which my 33 percent would actually be going to my grandkids.”
“Mimi,” as her grandchildren call her, was looking ahead to her family’s future. “If you ask them, 'Who does Mimi work for?' They say, 'Mimi works for us,'” Evans says.
The transition from a parent-child relationship to business partners has been seamless for Evans and her daughters, Lauren Williamson and Chanel Grant.
“We have an amazing relationship as mother and daughters. The two sisters have a great relationship. We talk all the time. So, in terms of being in alignment and things of that nature, it makes it so much easier. We can resolve things sometimes with a quick phone call.”
It works because they all stay in their lanes.
“We set boundaries early on of who was going to do what in the business,” Evans says. “I'd say, 99 percent of the time, we stay in those roles.”
She finds the money and is generally the person who engages with the franchisors as the single point of contact.
“I build the stores, make sure they stay operating, and if I'm needed elsewhere, I can fill in, especially for my daughter who's still working” in the corporate world.
That daughter, Lauren, doesn’t live in the D.C. area, so she “took a role that could be done remotely, like HR, payroll, and recruiting, but is still very critical to the business,” Evans says.
Chanel, who had a career in pharmaceutical sales, handles marketing and day-to-day operations. She also finds franchises that the trio might be interested in.
“That works for us,” Evans says. “Just let someone have responsibility, let them run with it, and trust that they're doing what's best for the business.”
It also works for another reason. “We say that business was business and personal was personal," she says. "At the end of the day, we're still mom and daughters, and they’re still sisters. That's the most important thing, to not let anything that we're doing in business impact those relationships. That's how we entered it, and it's been that way.”
Her advice for franchisees considering bringing their kids into a business or going into business with a child always starts with "Why?"
“It sounds good to say. ‘I should be in business with my kids, or I should bring them in.’ But what are their talents? What are their interests? Why would they want to be doing this versus something else?" she says. "When those things can be answered in a way that makes sense for the family and for the business, then I say go do it.”