Meet Tricia Sluder! She’s one of the six members of the HoneyBaked Franchise Advisory Council. The Franchise Advisory Council, or FAC, serves as a liaison between the nationwide network of HoneyBaked franchisees and the Georgia-based HoneyBaked corporate team. Read on to learn more about Tricia, how the FAC works and the impact Tricia and her fellow council members have had on the entire HoneyBaked brand.
Get to Know Tricia
Franchisee Tricia Sluder’s path to HoneyBaked started with a passion for our unbeatable product. “I’d never done anything with food, I’d never owned my own business. My husband and I worked for a chemical company for 35 years,” Tricia says. “I was such a fan of the product because I served it and bought it every year.” Tricia became a HoneyBaked franchisee in 2012 and has been a member of the HoneyBaked FAC since 2016. Tricia represents the HoneyBaked franchisees with stores in Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
How the Franchise Advisory Council Works
The HoneyBaked FAC is a group of six experienced HoneyBaked franchisees representing the franchisees in their region in communications with HoneyBaked’s corporate office. Representatives are either elected for a three-year term or appointed for a two-year term. “Owners know who their representative is, so if they have an issue, they reach out to us,” Tricia says. “We bring anything the franchisees want to voice to the corporate office on their behalf. Everyone knows they can go to their FAC representatives with their concerns.”
And the communication isn’t a one-way street. FAC representatives reach out to their franchisees for information to help the corporate HoneyBaked team make systemwide changes and decisions. “There’s always work to do to improve the brand,” Tricia says. “There’s always something you can do to help the brand and help it grow.”
Impact of the Franchise Advisory Council
During Tricia’s tenure on the FAC, she’s been part of instrumental changes within the HoneyBaked franchise system. “We started working on an initiative about two years ago when it came to light there were 40,000 products being sold in HoneyBaked stores,” Tricia says. “Horace Williams (our Vice President of Franchise) empowered and enabled us to go out and get feedback from those stores. We were able to whittle it down from 40,000 items to 40 items.”
This initiative united the HoneyBaked brand and helped franchisees return to the proven, simple operational model that makes HoneyBaked an attractive franchise opportunity. This unity was made possible through dedicated collaboration between the corporate office, FAC members like Tricia, and franchisees.
Tricia has also played a crucial role in the rollout of our recent lunch menu improvements, connecting with franchisees in a variety of markets and collecting their feedback on the initiative.
Do you want to learn more about the relationship HoneyBaked franchisees have with their FAC? If so, reach out to our team. We can also help you start your journey to becoming a HoneyBaked franchisee yourself!
