Family Ties: Cousin Encourages Successful The UPS Store Operator

Name: Lauren Johnson
Title: Franchise Owner
Company: Quadcoast
No. of units by brand: 4 The UPS Store
Age: 41
Family: Four children, Elliott, 13, Gwyneth, 11, Ian, 9, and Keira, 7
Years in franchising: 5 Years in current position: 5

Lauren Johnson says she wouldn’t have become a successful multi-unit franchisee without the guidance and support of her cousin Bryce Bares.

After earning a master’s degree from Kent State University, Johnson started her career at an architecture firm in Northeast Ohio. The rigid, code-based work of the firm did not match her creative strengths, and she left the company when she gave birth to her first child. Johnson then started her own company. For years, she shot and edited wedding photos on the weekend while raising her four children as a single mother.

When Johnson was running her photography company, Bares became a franchisee with Dunkin’. The two always had a close relationship, and Bares invited her to attend the Multi-Unit Franchising Conference in 2017. Johnson says she fell hard and fast for franchising while making connections and gaining confidence in her ability to operate a franchise. 

“I am forever indebted to him for bringing me into this world of franchising and believing I would thrive,” Johnson says. “He saw me hustling with my photography business and thought if I was able to build a company from the ground up, I could handle owning a franchise. It was a priceless experience for him to guide me in this direction, and he has been an amazing mentor for me.” 

After weighing several franchise options, Johnson opened her first The UPS Store in late 2019. Four months later, Covid-19 shut down the country, and she was forced to navigate her new business amid a pandemic. Johnson says the situation was an “immersion into chaos.” She relied on her franchisor for safety guidelines by implementing Plexiglass barriers and social distancing restrictions.

Demand for shipping services increased dramatically during the pandemic, and people near her Ohio store sent packages of toilet paper and cleaning supplies to areas experiencing shortages around the country. Johnson credited the steady amount of business in the first year as the major reason she was able to add her second and third locations by the end of 2020. She opened a fourth store in 2023.

Johnson was recently named to the MUFC Advisory Board, and she hopes to be a positive influence on female entrepreneurs and emerging franchisees. Five years into franchising, she fondly looks back at the role Bares has played in her career and life.

“When I started, he offered me constant encouragement,” Johnson says. “Now we share the same perspective in operating a business, and it is great to have someone to be able to vent or go to for moral support. To have that support from my cousin is very special to me personally and professionally.” Read more about Bares on page X.

PERSONAL

First job: As a cashier in a movie theater when I was 16. 

Formative influences/events: Both of my parents were major influences on my life. I paid close attention to how my father treated others with patience and kindness in his job as a school treasurer. My mother is persistent and strong and worked her way up as a hospital executive while running the household. My cousin Bryce Bares introduced me to franchising and showed a strong belief in my ability to purchase a concept and deliver.

Key accomplishments: I have earned master’s degrees in architecture and early childhood education. I owned and operated a photography company to help raise my four children, which is the greatest accomplishment of my life. After growing to four The UPS Store units, I was elected president of the Northeast Ohio Marketing Co-Op Board and was appointed as a member of the MUFC Advisory Board last year. 

Biggest current challenge: Being in the zone of ownership, which requires me to oversee areas like human resources, finance, operations, and staffing alone rather than having the resources necessary to hire heads of these departments. 

Next big goal: Growth and diversification. I believe the future of franchising is with multi-brand ownership. My ultimate goal is to diversify into a multi-brand investment that works well with my personal interests and partnerships.

First turning point in your career: The most significant turning point of my career was when I was working professionally as an architect. I took maternity leave and decided that I would not return to that position on a full-time basis. I decided I would use my skill sets to start my own photography company so that I could be at home with my children. Working a 9-to-5 job is completely different than being an entrepreneur who makes their own schedule and decisions. By starting a business, I realized that I was able to run my own show. 

Best business decision: Hiring a primary operator, which is like a district manager in the UPS system. Once I opened my fourth store, I was stretched too thin. Our primary operator runs the daily operations of all our stores and reports back to me. That enabled me to work on my business rather than physically in my business. The business now runs more efficiently and has also freed up more time for me to spend with my family.

Hardest lesson learned: Realizing I absolutely can’t do it all.

Work week: I find myself popping around the stores when needed, and I am on no formal set schedule. When I am not on mom duty, I can be found bringing treats and making sure all is running smoothly. My team is comfortable calling me at any time they need. We have quarterly manager meetings, and my primary operator and I meet once a week.

Exercise/workout: I go to Pilates daily. Exercising is a necessary therapy for me.

Best advice you ever got: My father once said to me while I was struggling through a rigorous architecture program, “You can do anything as long as you’ve got the right tools.”

What’s your passion in business? My passion has been enabling those who work for me to change their lives for the better.

How do you balance life and work? Work-life balance is a myth. Life is constantly in flux, and things are always changing. I read somewhere recently that attempting to seek balance can be like rocking at sea and constantly working toward an equilibrium that never comes. I need to provide for my family, so I do whatever it takes to keep everything running smoothly, tackling each piece as it comes. It’s a never-ending challenge.

Guilty pleasure: Very trashy reality TV.

Favorite book: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

Favorite movie: “The Three Amigos.”

What do most people not know about you? I am an artist.

Pet peeve: The way cell phones have changed the museum experience.

What did you want to be when you grew up? A veterinarian.

Last vacation: The Bahamas with my children and their cousins in March 2023.

Person you’d most like to have lunch with: Vincent Van Gogh. His life fascinates me, and he has the best quotes. There is one in particular that can be related to entrepreneurship: “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”

MANAGEMENT

Business philosophy: Change is the only constant you’ll face. I believe in hiring people who are comfortable in a world of change. Great businesses can grow in good times and bad largely because they are prepared for the unpredictable.

Management method or style: Collaborative. I like to make sure everyone knows they have an important place within the team.

Greatest challenge: Keeping up as a small business with rising costs and payroll demands.

How do others describe you? Busy. I am a single mother of four, a homeowner, and run four stores with plans on growing. I’m always doing something. 

Have you ever been in a mentor-mentee relationship? What did you learn? Yes. My cousin Bryce Bares is my mentor and introduced me to so many people in the industry who I am now proud to call friends. The ability to learn from such accomplished and innovative people has inspired me to grow and constantly reach toward what is next. 

One thing you’re looking to do better: I’d like to get better at identifying bad hires and replacing them quickly rather than leaning on the crutch of what’s easy or making excuses as to why it may not be working. Sometimes to my detriment, I’ve given people too many chances, and I need to be tougher about implementing stricter hiring and firing policies. 

How you give your team room to innovate and experiment: My team has come up with print product ideas that have sold really well. I’m always encouraging them to come up with things they think would fly off the shelves as impulse items. Recently, one of my managers designed a Mother’s Day greeting card designed as a coloring project and sold it with a small pack of crayons for kids. We were able to print them in-house on thick cardstock, and it was a really great and popular idea. It’s important that employees feel able to contribute in creative ways. 

How close are you to operations? I have recently hired a primary operator who takes care of most day-to-day operations.

What are the two most important things you rely on from your franchisor? Having our marketing help center, which is an internal online dashboard of marketing materials, and a financial reporting system.

What you need from vendors: Quality and price. I want our vendors to be aware of the current market, including supply and demand for certain items. The quality they provide needs to justify what we spend on products.

Have you changed your marketing strategy in response to the economy? How? We have changed our local in-store marketing strategy by being diligent about passing out bounce-back coupons to try to retain the foot traffic of Amazon returns customers to make them our shipping and printing customers. 

How is social media affecting your business? We spend a significant amount of our marketing budget on social media ads. This is because social media can help increase brand visibility and awareness as well as build brand loyalty. A positive customer experience can lead to increased social media engagement. A negative experience can also be shared rapidly, which can potentially be a huge detriment. People spend a lot of time on social media, so targeted advertising can get us more bang for our buck than more traditional advertising methods. 

In what ways are you using technology (like AI) to manage your business? We can utilize software to benchmark and track the support team’s performance to demonstrate their impact on revenue, identify growth opportunities, and capture customer feedback. These real-time reports provide a holistic view of the team’s social care efforts, including key metrics like customer volume, handle and reply time, and performance benchmarks, including customer service ratings. We also have implemented a self-serve kiosk that is currently handling about 20% of our Amazon returns across my stores. 

How do you hire and fire? With hiring, I try to promote from within. I have found the best way to hire is by bringing on friends or family of my current team. I have not had to fire many team members, but when I do, I always schedule an exit interview so that I can ensure that I can take the time to hear any issues I may be able to improve upon in the future. I also like to fill the most important positions on my team with staffers who have worked their way up and shown dedication. My district manager was with me as an hourly employee when I bought my stores and has grown into a phenomenal leader. 

How do you train and retain? Consistency in training has been a project that we are constantly trying to improve. It isn’t due to a lack of resources but potentially to the varied training style of each manager. I like to teach my team to have the mentality that training is never over. Our business is constantly evolving with new accounts and new methods for the way we do things, and we are always learning and assisting each other with being creative and coming up with better or more efficient methods. Retaining employees seems to be directly proportional to the abilities and attitudes of my team leaders. The moment I see high turnover, it’s a red flag.

How do you deal with problem employees? It is important to investigate the situation to identify the real source of the issue. If it’s something involving misconduct or theft or something obvious, we let them go. If it is a performance issue, the next action depends on whether they are willing to improve. If there is no growth potential or they are losing the store money, we let them go. 

Fastest way into your doghouse: Disrespect—whether toward a member of my team or a customer, it’s not tolerated.

BOTTOM LINE

Annual revenue: $3.2 million.

2025 goals: Growth to a fifth store and diversify into multi-brand ownership.

Growth meter: How do you measure your growth? Aside from the obvious answers of increasing revenue and consistently improving my store numbers, I try to measure my growth beyond the metrics. Am I being a thoughtful leader? Am I creating enough time to grow my company? Do my leadership abilities improve employee engagement? This company is only able to grow as much as I make it grow. 

Vision meter: Where do you want to be in five years? 10 years? In five years, I want to have diversified into multi-brand ownership and real estate investments. I want my investments to generate $5 million in revenue. In 10 years, I’d like to generate $10 million in revenue.

Do you have brands in different segments? Why/why not? Working on it currently. It has taken me some time to get to the point where I can invest in other concepts financially, but it also takes years of learning about franchising and what concepts are appropriate to invest in.

How is the economy in your region(s) affecting you, your employees, your customers? My customers have less money to spend, and my cost of goods has risen. Fortunately, I own an essential business that has proven in the past to be recession proof and pandemic proof. People are shipping, and people are making their online shopping returns. The key is retaining the customers who come in the door. 

Are you experiencing economic growth in your market? Yes, the market continues to grow. 

How do changes in the economy affect the way you do business? The labor market has been resilient compared to the past couple of years. Every year, there is huge turnover in the population of small businesses as some go out of business and new firms start up. Most entrants fail, but proven brands just work. The consumers are still coming to the store but are spending less. We need to make sure we are still providing the best customer service possible to retain those customers through this time in the economy. 

How do you forecast for your business? We have tools that analyze our metrics and allow us to see good or bad trends. This allows us to adjust accordingly. It’s often hard to forecast with the uncertainty of what accounts our corporate team will add or remove or what deals and fair compensation our corporate team are solidifying, so this is why we put faith in our franchisor. 

What are the best sources for capital expansion? Other than debt financing from commercial banks and loan officers and state or government lending, there is always seller financing or utilizing your own savings/capital. Currently, I am interested in investing my capital in partnerships with vested mutual interest in growth and success.

Experience with private equity, local banks, national banks, other institutions? Why/why not? I work with my local branch of a national bank. I began my company with SBA loans. This option helped me as a new entrepreneur to launch the businesses and compete in the marketplace. 

What are you doing to take care of your employees? I am constantly trying to make sure my employees are a priority and feel taken care of. I pay my employees fairly, I offer bonuses, and I offer as much PTO as I can afford to give management. I try to create an environment that makes every day fun for them. They spend so much time with our team that the goal is to make work a place that is fulfilling and a place where it feels good to spend time every day. 

How are you handling rising employee costs (payroll, minimum wage, healthcare, etc.)? This has been a big challenge for me to navigate. My small business is competing with bigger companies that can afford to start new hires at a much higher wage than I can and who can offer more shiny benefits than I can. This creates competition that effectively makes it difficult to hire and retain. What I can do is stay grounded in what I can afford to pay and be confident about the strong perks of working for our team. 

What laws and regulations are affecting your business, and how are you dealing with them? The new laws regarding overtime are going to change the way I can pay my people. I run a seasonal company in which we are the busiest around the holiday season. With our salaried employees potentially working some extra hours during peak times and the new regulation requiring salary numbers, the new law would force an increase in payroll costs and possible adjustments to employee classifications. This would significantly change the structure of my company. 

How do you reward/recognize top-performing employees? I am working on an incentivized bonus program. Throughout the years, I have cycled through things that have worked and not worked. It’s important to keep trying to incentivize good performance and constantly show appreciation. I’m always bringing in treats or holiday surprises, whatever it takes to make everyone’s day a little brighter at work. 

What kind of exit strategy do you have in place? My exit strategy is to transition to a new phase or end while maximizing profits or minimizing losses. Hopefully, I’ll sell eventually and use those funds to invest passively in other concepts.