Meet Marc and Jill Sieber, WOW 1 DAY PAINTING's Franchise Partners for St. Paul, Minnesota. Their journey as business owners began with a bad day at work - and a desire to reignite a passion for their working lives. But why did they choose franchising? And what are they looking forward to most on this new path?
So what made you want to own your own business? Why now?
Marc: I got tired of building on someone else's dream. You know what I mean? We both were in corporate jobs for forever. I'm just looking for something to be passionate about again. And invest in again. Not just monetarily, but emotionally and physically invest in. It's something we'd been thinking about for a considerable amount of time, but we finally got bold enough to do it last summer.
What do you think led to that moment?
Jill: A bad day at work.
Marc: She had a really bad day at work, yeah. We have a pool at home and we were supposed to have just a Marc and Jill day at the pool - but Jill had to deal with a load of work stuff instead.
Jill: It ruined my day, and I realised that it was time to make the change that we'd been thinking about for about 5 years.
Marc: She said: "I'm done! I'm just done. Let's do it. I'm ready!" So then we finally got in touch with a franchise broker.
What was it about WOW 1 DAY PAINTING that caught your attention? What was it that made you feel like this might be the one for you?
Jill: The integrity and the values that come from the brand being so totally customer service oriented. It had nothing to do with the fact it was a painting business at all. It was about the brand, and the people behind the brand - right from the very start of the interview process, it just felt like a fit.
Marc: When I was originally looking at the website, and what you guys look for, I think the second or third item was "you have a strong backbone of integrity" or something like that. And that's something that's very important to me. I was checking these boxes as I went down this list of what WOW 1 DAY PAINTING was looking for in a franchise partner, and then we actually cancelled appointments with other franchises, because this one just felt so right.
Why franchising?
Marc: I mean, I think the same as the reasons everybody else says. It's a proven system, and you're going to make mistakes, but you have the people behind you that help you avoid those, or walk you through how to overcome them. It's the the support aspect of it the fact that they have proven that the systems work. "Do it this way and you'll be successful". That's it in a nutshell.
What are you looking forward to most about being business owners?
Jill: Obviously building something that is successful, but I think we're also looking for a way to give back to our community too. Providing jobs and new careers for people, but things like donating our time and services to paint a church, or something like that.
Marc: Yeah, the DAY TO WOW you guys do every year was something that was impressive to us, and made us know we were making the right decision. But as Jill said, we'd like to give back in the future - do something like sponsor a scholarship for kids at school, or paint a church, or see a family in need and help them with that.
Jill: And it's our name, it's not through somebody else. This is ours, this is us.
What motivates you most in life?
Jill: Well having a passion for what you're doing is huge.
Marc: I'm a little bit of a people pleaser. So that's another reason why this was exciting to me. Because it's all about leaving customers with a feeling that they want to refer you to their friends and family. Just taking care of that customer to help build the brand and making WOW 1 DAY PAINTING become the painter of choice nationwide. You know what I mean? I think that's an inevitability really. And if you can believe in that...
Jill: That's the passion!
Finally, how are you involved in your community? What are your passions outside of work?
Marc: Volleyball, volleyball, volleyball.
Jill: Both of our daughters play - or our one daughter is a senior now, so she's done with volleyball, but our youngest is just a ninth grade freshman, and plays volleyball, so we're very active in that!
Marc: I mean we're high school sweethearts, so we've lived in the same town for our whole lives, really. We're townies, I guess you could say. We never left. So we're very community involved people - I'd like to think well-respected around the town. Got a good name out there.
Congratulations Marc and Jill, and we're so happy to have you on board!