Q+A With sweetFrog Franchise Owner James Sherrill

Creating a Memorable Destination with Franchise Owner James Sherrill

Get ready to dive into the sweet world of frozen treats with James Sherrill, the mastermind behind three sweetFrog franchises in Fayetteville, North Carolina. With his finger on the pulse of the local dessert scene and a passion for creating sweet memories, James is the ultimate guru of all things fro-yo. Join us for a scoop of fun as we chat with James about his journey as a sweetFrog franchise owner.

How did you become a franchise owner with sweetFrog?

I was a commercial real estate broker before I purchased my sweetFrog locations. I was the commercial broker that placed the previous franchise owners in their buildings, and became friends with them over the years. They lived out of town, so I became their eyes and ears and started to learn about the business. In 2018, it came time for them to sell, and they asked me if I would be interested, knowing what they’ve done and where they’ve been. That’s when I purchased and became a franchise owner.

What attracted you to sweetFrog?

At the time I didn’t know I wanted a frozen yogurt business, and I didn’t know anything about the yogurt side of the business. Understanding the building, the lease, and that kind of thing was my specialty. So I did a little research and looked into it. sweetFrog isn’t just a yogurt shop, it’s a brand with a huge following. It really focuses on the kids, with the colors and the life size mascots we have. I saw a lot of opportunities to take it to the next level from where they were, and thought it to be a good decision. And turns out it was a fantastic one.

What is the ongoing support like with sweetFrog?

A lot of times the support team will ask, ‘what are you interested in doing?’ And I have the freedom to expand and go back and forth with them. They have a marketing division where you can send ideas. In fact, I was just talking with the President and I was describing some of the posters that we have on the windows in the shops, and I literally just took a sheet of paper and drew the concept, then we sent it to marketing. I got a poster back, that was fantastic. It really captured what we were looking for. There is no way that I could do that on my own, but I had the idea, and then they supported that.

They’re really good about sharing ideas amongst the franchisees and letting us know, hey, this is really working over here, or this is something you might want to consider. We have a committee where owners come together to share ideas, so a lot of what the franchise is doing, from the corporate level, is fueled by the owners on the committee that had an opportunity to tear it apart, ask questions, that kind of thing.

In your experience, what makes a great sweetFrog franchise owner?

You know, I tell everybody, we’re not in the fro yo business, we’re in the people business. We don’t just have a fro yo shop, we have a destination people look forward to visiting. You need to be someone that takes pride in creating that destination, and someone who is going to focus. It’s all about the details, from the smallest detail all the way up.

I’m a firm believer in looking at everything when I come through. I want everything to be at a perfection level. I want every guest that comes in to feel like we just opened at any moment during the day, and they’re the first one coming through. Everybody that comes through here is a guest, not a customer, because when somebody comes to your home, and they’re a guest, you do extra, you make sure everything’s right, and that’s what I want the kids here to know, that they’re a guest. It’s just the mindset that we have. We have the motto here, we’re the happiest place in Fayetteville. So if you need a place, this can be your place. This can be your happy place.

How does sweetFrog help you in community involvement?

We are involved with a lot of fundraising events that people have here in our community. They know they can count on us to come, and we bring what we have at a wholesale rate. They can turn around and retail it to help them out. We try to accommodate with our mobile unit, we have a 32 foot mobile truck with three machines, six flavors total, plus the twist in the middle. We can accommodate probably 7000 cups out of that one vehicle in a single day. There is a lot of product and accessibility on the mobile truck for any event, and we can physically serve out of it.

Learn More about Franchising with sweetFrog

Ready to own a business creating an exciting and memorable environment in your community? Learn more about the sweetFrog franchise opportunity by visiting our research pages here. If you’re interested in starting a conversation with our franchise team about investing in the sweetFrog franchise opportunity, we look forward to hearing from you. Fill out our form here to get started.