Best pet Franchises | Wild Birds Unlimited
For the past four decades, Wild Birds Unlimited (WBU) has been helping people pursue their hobby of backyard bird-feeding. WBU was founded by its CEO, Jim Carpenter. It began its operations in 1981 and opened its first franchise in 1983. The franchise is a retail brand focused on assisting every person who desires to live their hobby of backyard bird-feeding. People have a deep emotional connection to the birds and nature around them, and WBU aims to encourage and strengthen that connection. Its customers are backyard bird-feeding hobbyists. It has established itself as a special place in the community where people can come and bond with others over their love for bird-feeding. Retail customers who have questions about how to feed and draw different kinds of birds to their backyard can ask the WBU store staff, who can provide them with information that they cannot obtain from their big-box competitors. WBU also provides high-quality bird food, so buyers get a nice product to feed their birds. “As for all of us at the Franchise Support Center, it’s the joy of helping our franchisees do what they love and run a sustainable business,” says Paul Pickett, CDO/EVP of Franchising at WBU.
Why Wild Birds?
WBU does not sell pets. The National Wildlife Federation, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and all of its strategic partners have been crucial to the franchise’s growth by providing consumers with important information regarding backyard bird feeding.
The new franchisees are offered training at the Franchise Support Center before they open their own WBU store. While here, they spend time learning from their team of experts. Part of this training involves spending time in a local WBU store to gain valuable hands-on experience. They receive further in-store training from an experienced franchisee who can take them around a dedicated training store and explain day-to-day operations. Throughout their whole ownership, they can also collaborate with a business coach, who serves as a resource for them to contact if they have any problems or need assistance with their business. “Our FSC also hosts an Enterprise Leadership Conference every year,” highlights Paul. This is an opportunity for all of its franchisees and FSC staff to come together and share knowledge on how to run a successful business and connect with their local community to continue sharing the joy of bird feeding.
Poor-performing franchisees work closely with their business coach to identify opportunities and put systems in place to assist them in overcoming challenges. Paul claims that all of its marketing efforts are focused on promoting joy. Backyard bird-feeding has proven to bring so much joy and positivity to people and their backyards. Owning a WBU store is also a fantastic opportunity for people to find joy in business ownership and being an entrepreneur.
"Our corporate culture is well established and starts with our mission, vision, and values."
The right franchise
Paul describes operating a retail business as hard and complex. He and his team focus their efforts on creating systems and strategies for the franchise store owners to simplify and focus their efforts on finding and keeping customers and providing an outstanding experience in every one of the company’s stores. They offer various tools and take training measures for the owners to be experts in marketing, product assortment, pricing strategies, cost control, community involvement, budgeting, and goal planning, which are just some of the many support services that WBU’s franchise provides.
Paul says that WBU franchise business owners who are genuinely passionate about being entrepreneurs and backyard bird feeding are the most successful and content. He seeks people who are full of drive, determination, and grit to thrive at WBU. “We are looking for people who genuinely have a passion for people and want to connect with their local community in creative ways and are focused on building a business, creating a financial asset, and building generational wealth,” says Paul passionately. “When looking at locations for WBU stores, we are looking at population, income levels, and, of course, the backyard bird population.”
WBU does have a strong operating system in place, like any other franchise in the market, in regards to support, tools, and guidance in every discipline. Its annual marketing plan provides all of the marketing collateral for both new customer acquisition and existing customer retention. Additionally, and even more importantly, the team provides both the strategy and guidance to make these marketing efforts work to drive both in-store and online traffic with and for their franchise store owners. “Our corporate culture is well established and starts with our mission, vision, and values,” mentions Paul. The focus is on providing an outstanding customer experience, both for its franchise store owners as they start, grow, and operate their business and for their retail customers as they enjoy the hobby of backyard bird-feeding in their yards. The franchise also has a very strong focus on ‘How did we do?’ in its brand, constantly requesting feedback at every opportunity. “We survey our franchise store owners and our retail customers on their experience at every opportunity,” he adds. Moreover, the franchise store owners’ partner with many local nature-related organizations, including local bird clubs, local Audubon Societies, Humane Societies, local Native Plant Gardening clubs, and other like-minded organizations, to both support their efforts and educate their members and the general public on the joy of bird feeding, how to do it responsibly, and how to create backyard refuges.
Amidst difficult times
In the early years of franchising, WBU was not as focused on bringing in candidates who were focused on building a business enterprise and allowed a lot of variability in the customer experience from store to store. As the franchise has grown, the retail landscape has become more complex. The franchise realized they needed candidates who are passionate about birds, bird-feeding, and nature but also passionate about running a sustainable business. Paul’s advice to those who want to join WBU is that they need to do their research on franchising and the retail environment.
The franchise wants potential franchisees to have as much knowledge as possible about owning a business and the hobby of bird feeding. It gives them peace of mind knowing they are ready and certain that joining WBU is the best decision for them and their family. Paul emphasizes that managing a business and being an entrepreneur are challenging jobs and that people should be aware of the amount of work and energy required to operate a retail store.
Going forward
As with all businesses, Covid was a total disruptor. During the Covid era, WBU was able to shine brightly and had significant growth in sales. This is because people were spending a lot of time in their backyards, and feeding birds was one of the main ways that people found happiness during these trying times. The range of generations involved in the activity also experienced a notable increase. Feeding birds can be a great way to reduce stress, and stress affected all generations during the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, this has driven a younger age group to its stores and sparked their interest in the hobby.
In addition, to sustain and grow in the franchising industry, WBU is always looking for the best products, technology, and support for its franchisees that help them run their stores more efficiently and provide the best experience to their customers.
