PICTURE Your Success with Top 100 New Franchise …CLIX!

How do you grow a great business? You give people what they want and, even better, you do it immediately.

Instant gratification, says David Asarnow, CEO and President, is just one of the ways CLIX, headquartered in Marietta, Georgia, serves its customers. “We are a society accustomed to instant gratification,” he says, “and with our studios you can go home from your session with beautiful portraits.”

Franchising since August 2005, CLIX already has 19 locations open or under construction with another 40 in process through Area Development Agreements. Current franchisees are located on both the east and west coasts and Asarnow sees California as being especially ripe for this unique business, although territories are available across the country.

“Our studios are definitely not the old-fashioned, stodgy places of days past,” says Asarnow. “We consider our business to be a hip, fun, high-end quality portrait studio but from the franchisee perspective, it’s a whole lot more.”

CLIX Portrait Studios offers three brands under one roof. “We are a portrait studio, a digital design center and we also go on location to do event photography, which gives our franchisees multiple revenue streams. We really look for opportunities that are being underserved.”

Event and on location photography can include such venues as preschools and sports leagues so the franchisee really becomes a part of the community he serves. “We often do our group shots as composites of individual shots,” says Asarnow. “That way a parent who has purchased only a group picture will be able to see their child’s individual portrait and will many times want to order more.” Prom pictures are delivered right to the school the Monday after an event, “close enough to the dance so that the couples are still together,” jokes Asarnow.

CLIX Portrait Studios are usually located in strip shopping centers and run about 1400 to 2000 sq ft. They have two camera rooms and an events business space. The business is not labor intensive and can be run by one full-time and three to four part-time employees to start. “We do very creative photography,” says Asarnow. “Our stylized lighting is movable and we have a large selection of backdrops. People can bring in their own props or even come in groups and there is never a per person charge.”

Besides color portraits, customers can get black and white, sepia toned or colorized pictures. “Retouching can be done on the spot, which,” says Asarnow, “some of our customers say is better than Botox® but a whole lot cheaper! We let our customers choose their own customized packages and there are always multiple portraits to choose from.

“We have that wow factor,” adds Asarnow. “We’re different than you’re used to.”

One of the growing and exciting areas of the CLIX studios is the Digital Design Center, which was created for assisted or self-guided use by the customer. Using either the pictures from the session or even bringing in pictures from home, a customer can make prints, enlargements and do retouching. They can even add custom photo effects to any picture. A very popular feature is the ability to create Digital Photo Scrapbooks, Video Scrapbooks and Photo Collages â€" which make great gifts.

“We welcome creative people as franchisees,” says Asarnow. “The more creative they want to get with the portraits the better. We even have one franchisee who will be hosting a birthday party for a group of girls who will be creating digital scrapbooks at the studio.”

Photography experience is not required in a potential franchisee because CLIX provides extensive training in all aspects of the business. “We have a diverse mix of franchisees, from pilots and IT managers to soon to be former military personnel and stay at home moms. What they have in common,” says Asarnow, “is a passion for growing a community-based business.”

CLIX provides hands-on training in their training center in Rochester, New York and assists with everything from operations to lease negotiations to marketing. “We want our franchisees to work on their businesses from day one so we take away the time-consuming parts of starting their business and make the process turn-key for them,” says Asarnow. “We offer large protected territories with a minimum of 100,000 people so they can have a huge events business. We believe we are only as good as our team and we want to help them succeed in every way possible.”Selected as one of Franchise Market Magazines Top 100 franchises for 2006, CLIX Portrait Studios is looking for potential franchisees with sparkle, fun, passion and the desire to succeed in a big way. “We are committed to innovation and world-class quality,” says Asarnow, “and we would love to talk to others who share our passion.”

Terrie Hall
Bison Advertising
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