We're creating a community of learning. The first principle of growth at Great Harvest is that expansion comes from experimentation. When new owners sign on as franchisees, they don't have to wade through a thick document of regulations. Staffers teach many of those sessions. But an experienced owner is always on hand to provide examples and to act as a role model.
New owners learn more from their peers than they do from bureaucrats.
I don't own a bakery. I sit at a desk. Before they opened their bakery in Larchmont, New York, Zealie Van Raalte visited stores in Birmingham, Michigan and Alexandria, Virginia. But in Alexandria, they don't do things the same way. Great Harvest wants its owners to keep learning.