If founders, chefs and other creatives are the beating heart of the restaurant industry, then franchisees are the veins delivering their ideas to all corners of the globe. Franchising is critical to the success of the industry, allowing brands to quickly scale their big ideas using other people’s capital. And whether it’s a mom-and-pop restaurant owner with one or two franchised restaurants or a seasoned veteran whose influence in the industry is well-known, franchisees — with all their individual attributes, styles and personalities — make a huge impact on the success of a business.
In this week’s installment of Franchisee Spotlight, we spoke with retail and foodservice franchisee Mohammed Omar, who owns multiple Crumbl Cookies stores and pickleball venues in Southern California, and is just about to open his first stores with gourmet toast franchise, Toastique. We spoke with Omar about his path to franchising, tales of his success, and future goals.
Store count: 4 Crumbl Cookie stores, 18 Ace pickleball leases signed, committed 5-unit franchising deal with Toastique all in Southern California
The road to franchising
My background is mostly in business development…. I was at the gym with one of my buddies, and he kept talking about a bakery, and he was like ‘You need to get into this Crumbl.’ And I didn’t know what Crumbl Cookies was. He had just opened one up in Utah, and said it’s a great tech-based business model…. So, then I was looking into franchises, and I really fell in love with the whole business model, where someone paves the path for you and it’s scalable…. With franchises, it’s super simple. They have the level of support there already, and everything’s mapped out. All you have to do is just hire a team, as long as you can read demographics and understand the concept of the business.
Challenging traditional expectations
I come from a traditional Middle Eastern background -- my parents are originally from Afghanistan, and I was born first generation here. Growing up, the only acceptable career paths were doctor, lawyer, or engineer. Everything else was looked down upon, and I never had a passion for any of that stuff. It was a back-and-forth battle with my parents -- upsetting them and letting them down. I never had any kind of support with my business or anything like that. It was demoralizing for a long period of time, until I founded my first successful business that wasn't ecommerce, everyone in the family was against me, telling me I’m wasting my time. Now I have cousins that graduated from MIT and Harvard asking me how I got into the franchising Industry, because they all hate their jobs. I always chased what I loved. The money came later.
Why pickleball and cookies
If I don't have some sort of synergy with what I'm jumping into, I will never touch it, because I have to have passion for what I’m jumping into. Pickleball was a strange sport….but then the first time I played it, I played for four hours straight and it felt like 15 minutes. It’s really user-friendly….The same with Crumbl Cookies. I went to different stores, great product, and they all had the same consistency. Then I started asking them questions about ingredients and tech, because nowadays, tech goes hand in hand with consistency. Getting into the trendy stuff just happened because I like trying new things. Even if it looks a little goofy. I’ll go for it.
Science of cookies
Every week, there's a new set of flavors, which can be difficult at times, especially with supply chain issues. People think Crumbl is just a basic bakery, but there’s a science behind it. We have three different shifts, and we’re required to have about 40 employees per store…there’s four different areas for mixing and baking, and there is a science behind the cookies, down to the seconds where we have them sitting out for five minutes, and if you have it sit out past five minutes, it’s done. We check the temperature and altitude of cities we’re in, so there's a lot of science to it.
How Toastique came into the picture
I first about them from a friend that lives in DC. So I looked up their concept, and the first things I look at are the tech and marketing, and the aesthetics of the brand. the first thing I look at now as well, like I said, the tech and part of the tech is a marketing right, their social, social media marketing and stuff. And I really liked the aesthetics of the brand. Health is one of those things people are really looking into recently, like people are avoiding all the preservatives. I loved the QSR express model, with all the different acai bowls, gourmet toasts, and a rotating table… I love that because people get bored of the same flavor profiles. Plus, it was huge for me that everything is made in-house, and it all tasted great…all you have to do is worry about hiring the right team.
Hiring all employees under age 35
[I hired all young people because] it keeps everyone in tune with what's going on in the world and to know what’s actually trendy and what's happening. I think that adds on to that trendiness [of our stores] as well.
Long-term goals
I'm actually in the process of acquiring two more Crumbl cookie stores, and the five-unit contract with Toastique is just starting up. We’re looking to potentially expand down south to San Diego next. We’d like to open up at least 20 Toastiques by 2030.
**This interview has been edited for clarity and consistency.
