NTY Franchise’s Veterans Opportunities Featured in April Issue of Franchising USA

NTY Franchise Company COO Chad Olson on cover of Franchising USA standing in Device Pitstop store

NTY Franchise supports veterans with several opportunities and incentives for franchising its resale stores. Read the Franchising USA article about this topic below, or click here to see the article on franchisingusamagazine.com.

NTY Promises New Challenges, Opportunities for Veterans

One franchise that is in the business of turning the old into the new again wants to help entrepreneurial veterans start a new chapter of their lives.

NTY, standing for ‘New To You’ is a company that owns the franchising rights to five brands in the resale retail industry: Clothes Mentor, Children’s Orchard, Device Pit Stop, New Uses and NTY Clothing Exchange.

“Our main goal is to sell franchises and then support the franchisees that we sell them to,” NTY’s chief operating officer Chad Olson said during a recent interview from the company’s headquarters in Minneapolis.

Clothes Mentor, which buys and sells used women’s fashion and accessories, started franchising in 2007. Currently, it has 140 stores open and 43 stores sold and awaiting opening.

Acquired by NTY in early 2014, Children’s Orchard buys and sells gently used kids items. It currently has 27 stores open with two sold and awaiting opening.

Device Pit Stop, meanwhile, has 11 stores open with another 10 sold and awaiting opening. NTY acquired the brand’s franchise rights in the fall of 2013. It buys and sells used electronics.

Buying and selling used home goods like furniture, artwork and small appliances is the business model for New Uses. The brand has 11 stores open with one sold and awaiting opening and it’s been around since 2011.

And with two stores open and four sold and awaiting opening, NTY Clothing Exchange, which buys and sells clothes in the teen and young adult market, started franchising in Mid-2014.

The Need for Used to New

In a world that is increasingly looking for environmentally friendly ways to deal with everything, all of NTY’s brands offer that coveted green alternative for people’s old clothing and other items, Olson said, giving people the option of getting cash for the stuff they’re no longer using rather than just throwing it away.

And with consumers often being highly cost conscious, NTY also gives them a way to save money, with products selling for, on average, 70 percent less than they would be sold as new.

All of the NTY brands make sure the items people bring them have resale value. It has to be in good condition and, in the case of apparel, it also has to be in style. Each brand will evaluate a product and they all have a pricing matrix they use to make sure they’re selling items at a price that gives value to the customer and also the business.

In the Beginning

Clothes Mentor was founded in Columbus, OH. with a store in that city and another one in Canton, OH. Olson and his father, Ron Olson, decided to go into business together, both having Resale/Retail franchising experience with another company.

When they began looking at what opportunities were out there for their own business, they found out about Clothes Mentor and noted the two stores were doing quite well. From there, the father and son negotiated the franchising rights to that brand and have been adding to the NTY family since.

Entrepreneurial Spirit

While their franchisees come from all walks of life — from teachers to former professional bull riders — they all have one thing in common and that’s the one thing NTY wants in a franchisee.

“We want people who have that entrepreneurial spirit,” Olson said.

They must have motivation and they must also have accumulated some wealth in the past that they’re able to invest.

While the company has just a handful of veteran franchisees at the moment, Olson is looking to change that, as he knows veterans have a stellar reputation as franchisees.

Veterans’ dedication and commitment to carrying out the processes they’ve been taught is what makes them good franchisees, he noted.

“That’s what franchising is all about, taking the business model and the processes that we have proven to be profitable and teaching it to others,” Olson said. “People who have had that military experience following processes fit really well into a franchise system because they will take those processes that we have developed to run and execute a successful business model and follow those processes to a tee.”

NTY has just submitted its application to join veteran franchising organization VetFran. Currently, veterans receive a $2,500 discount off any NTY franchising fee.

As an added incentive — and this goes for any franchisee — three of NTY’s brands also offer a $40,000 jump start program.

Any franchisee that opens an NTY Clothing Exchange, a Children’s Orchard or a New Uses will receive a $20,000 marketing contribution from NTY when their store opens. In addition to that, every six months after their grand opening, they will receive an additional $5,000 marketing contribution from the parent company over a two-year period, totaling a $40,000 contribution toward marketing from NTY.

Training and Support

NTY helps franchisees find the right real estate, helps them procure financing, and brings them to Minneapolis for three weeks of comprehensive training in every aspect of running their business.

The company also offers support on site when franchisees are building out their store and getting it ready to open to ensure it’s being built out properly, they’re acquiring inventory properly and their employees are being trained properly. Then they’ll let the franchisee start running their store and come back out to help franchisees with their grand opening. NTY representatives will visit again 90 days after grand opening, a minimum of three times in that first year to check on inventory, customer service and if franchisees need any additional training.

Each brand has its own regional operations managers, which are assigned to franchisees. Each regional manager has about 20 or 30 franchisees in their region and their main goal is to be a small business consultant. They have monthly consultation calls with franchisees and answer any questions they have and visit franchisees at least once per year.

Expansion and Experience

All of NTY’s brands are open to expanding anywhere in the United States. The collective experience of everyone who is involved with NTY is a huge incentive for any frachisee to choose one of the company’s brands for opening a business, Olson said. Each brand has a vice president in charge of it, he explained, and all of those vice presidents have over 20 years of experience in the retail resale sector. His father, who is president of the

company, has 30-plus years of experience in the sector and when you add in Olson’s 22 years of experience, that’s a lot of knowledge for new franchisees to draw from.

For veterans who are looking to make a new start in life, NTY gives them an opportunity to make that new start a success.

See more from Franchising USA.

NEW USES: Woodbury Store Showcased in Pioneer Press

New Uses Woodbury was featured in a colorful article  about the growing popularity of reuse stores. Check out the article by Bob Shaw with Pioneer Press:

Reuse Stores Popping Up in the Twin Cities

By Bob Shaw

Deb Hauer plopped a box of plates onto the store counter.

“Ooof!” she said. “I am downsizing, big time.”

Hauer is near retirement and moving into a townhome, a move that requires shedding a lifetime of accumulated stuff.

Instead of donating the plates to Goodwill, she was selling them at a for-profit store in Woodbury — New Uses.

The store is one of a wave of new used-goods stores, which sell almost everything that can be owned.

They are popping up in malls, often replacing stores that sell new merchandise. Three used-clothing stores are open in Woodbury — Once Upon a Child, Plato’s Closet and Clothes Mentor — in a mall with no other clothing shops except shoe stores.

“I would say the growth is increasing exponentially,” said Louise Kurzeka, chapter president of the National Association of Professional Organizers, which monitors household recycling stores.

Used goods in America are now a $16 billion industry, according to the data-generating firm First Research. This includes sales from 20,000 thrift stores, antique dealers and consignment shops but not sales at pawn shops or used car or boat dealers.

Kurzeka said the used-goods industry has been increasing by 7 percent annually for the past two years, far more than the retail industry overall.

She said that’s because the Great Recession put financial pressure on homeowners, who are selling their belongings to ease the crunch.

“People are brushing off their bruises and saying: ‘I am in financial trouble. I need to sell my stuff,’ ” Kurzeka said.

In addition, baby boomers are retiring and downsizing. This means selling off the contents of big suburban houses.

“They are moving out of a 3,500-square-foot house into a 1,200-square-foot condo,” Kurzeka said.

Established charities such as Goodwill have long accepted donations of clothing and housewares. Pawn shops pay cash for items with high resale value.

But they have been facing competition from stores selling used books, computers, musical instruments, exercise machines and sports equipment.

Also competing for used goods are the more than 200 consignment shops in the metro area, according to the website Yelp. These shops usually pay the donor when the item is resold.

There are new stores operated by other nonprofits. Savers has opened three warehouse-size stores in the Twin Cities metro area.

Another newcomer is the Found It Estate Store in Bloomington, a used furniture and household goods store. That store, which opened in August, and two others are run by Bridging, a nonprofit group that helps people living in poverty.

A unique type of used-goods store is the ReStore in New Brighton. It sells donated home construction materials such as lumber, tile, cabinets and carpet.

“It’s what you would find in a Menards or Home Depot,” said Pete O’Keefe, ReStore operations manager.

Only one item is not accepted. “We do not take used toilets. We could have filled the old Metrodome with old used toilets,” said O’Keefe.

He said ReStore saves money for consumers and helps the environment.

“This is a green solution to keep things out of landfills,” he said. “About 10 years ago, contractors did not care. Now, they have a green mind-set.”

ReStore is owned by Habitat for Humanity, and O’Keefe said revenue from one year of sales at the New Brighton location pays for the construction of five Habitat homes.

The biggest used-goods presence in suburban malls are the for-profit businesses. Many, including New Uses, pay customers cash in advance for their household items.

“We have a lot of people coming in and saying they are moving their parents into senior housing,” said Valeta Cornwell, co-owner of the Woodbury store.

In her store, about a third of the floor space is for furniture. The rest is devoted to small appliances, rugs, artwork, slow cookers and home decor items.

Store customer Hauer said she was downsizing, but she couldn’t resist buying a fireplace insert and a wooden stool before she left.

Before she left, she looked around appreciatively. “What a fun place!” she said.

New Uses franchisee and store manager organizing the showroom floor plan by moving furniture and artwork to different areas
Valeta Cornwell co-owner of new uses, a home resale store in Woodbury, moves items around on Wednesday, November 25, 2015. (Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi)