Franchise Opportunities
Discovery Process
Steps to Become a Ben & Jerry's Scoop Shop Franchisee
We have developed a comprehensive Discovery Process to facilitate your exploration of our franchise opportunity and our evaluation of your candidacy.
Throughout our process we will be providing you with lots of information and answering your questions. We will also learn as much as we can about you, your background, your business acumen, and goals. Below, we have outlined the specific steps in our discovery process:
PHASE ONE (Initial Interest)
- Initial inquiry received by Ben & Jerry’s
- If your area of interest is open, and the information you submitted meets some basic criteria, a representative from Ben & Jerry’s will contact you and potentially schedule an initial call.
- An initial call will be scheduled and conducted for qualified candidates.
- If mutual interest to move forward exists, then our application package must be completed.
- Upon receiving a completed and qualified application, we will mail you our current Franchise Disclosure Document.
- An application review call will be conducted to review your background and business acumen.
- If strong mutual interest continues, we will open up our entire franchise network to you. You will be able to contact as many of our franchisees as you choose. This will give you an opportunity to hear “first-hand” what it is like to be a Ben & Jerry’s franchisee.
PHASE TWO (You Are Now Considered A Serious Candidate)
- An in-depth interview is scheduled to review the outcome of your calls with our franchisees, as well as to further discuss your strategy and business plans as it pertains to operating and marketing the shop. Time is also spent answering questions pertaining to our FDD.
- We will schedule a visit to a Scoop Shop so you can have an in-depth conversation with an existing operator about the business and to observe a slice of the life of a franchisee. Following this visit, we will review your notes on the experience.
- If the “mutual fit”, qualifications, and interest level are strong, we will invite you to join us at an upcoming Discovery Day, held at our company headquarters in South Burlington, VT.
PHASE THREE (Final Step In Our Process)
- Attend Discovery Day. You will spend the day meeting with some key people at Ben & Jerry’s Franchising. This will be a chance for you to confirm your impression of Ben & Jerry’s and get some final questions answered. Part of the day will be face-to-face interviews with members of our management team. Final approval will be heavily based on these interviews. Within 24 hours of attending Discovery Day, the executive team at Ben & Jerry’s Franchising will decide if an approval will be extended to you to become a franchisee. Also, you should now be able to make a fully-informed decision on whether or not Ben & Jerry’s is a great “fit” for you.
- You will be notified of our decision within 48 hours of attending Discovery Day.
- If you decide to join our franchise network, you will need to sign a Preliminary Agreement within 30 days of your formal approval.
- Our support team will assist you from this point forward, through grand opening and beyond.
