Both Matt and Brian, as well as a younger sister, grew up ambitious – with an eye on business ownership, thanks to coaching from their supportive father. Though they ended up taking different routes to get there, franchising turned out to be the answer to their entrepreneurial dreams. Below, both Matt and Brian talk about the different paths in their business ownership journey.
With the assistance of FranNet of Houston and the Gulf Coast Region, Matt and Brian became Pet Supplies Plus multi-unit franchise owners – a retail pet products and services concept. Below, in their own words, both brothers share their inspirational entrepreneurial stories…
Background
MATT:
“We both grew up in Kingwood, Texas – a northern suburb of Houston. I attended Baylor University and graduated with a B.A. in business for management information systems. Immediately afterward, I got into software development and stayed there for more than a decade. It was around 2010 that I ended up moving back to Houston. I’m happily married, with two young children and a six-pound Poodle mix named Harper.”
BRIAN:
“I’m two years younger than Matt, but along with our sister, we’ve always been a very close family of siblings. My route to entrepreneurship was a little less direct, as I bounced around for a while. I ended up graduating from Texas State with a degree in finance back in 2009. But the job market was really tight back then, so I ended up doing contract jobs for the energy department and even sales for a few years. I decided to follow my passion for music and became a touring musician until I was 30 years old. That life led me to my first taste of entrepreneurism and my buddies, and I started a lighting and sound rental company for corporate productions and weddings. I’m also happily married with two young children. And we have two pets – Riley, an old terrier mix, as well as a four-year-old Husky named Finn.”
Why They Chose the Entrepreneurial Route
MATT:
“Like Brian said, we grew up close and used to talk about owning a business together some day. Our father was very supportive and used to coach us along with how to think like business owners. He’d tell us if we really wanted to control our own destiny, we’d have to take things into our own hands.”
BRIAN:
“We ended up taking different paths to get there, but we both eventually arrived at the same destination. You could say that Matt went right to work, but that I took a little extra time to chase my music dreams. To catch up to Matt, I felt it was time to take a risk and get moving on our business ownership dreams.”
Why Franchising?
MATT:
“We talked to our family about our business ownership dreams and the consensus was that we both needed a bit more of an education on how to go about it. There was a new business seminar in Houston, and we happened to catch Diana Trondsen that day, who was giving a presentation on franchising. At the time, I thought franchising was just Subway sandwich shops, and I was blown away by how many different concepts are actually out there. I took a real liking to the business models of franchising, and we decided to take a meeting with Diana soon afterward.”
BRIAN:
“Yeah, that seminar was pretty eye-opening. Around this same time, our sister was looking into franchising and decided to open a Goddard School location – an early childhood educational concept. I felt like I had a slight advantage in this, having run my own business for about four years. And I remember that when things went wrong, it was on us. Franchising was different, thanks to the comprehensive support and ongoing training they offered.”
On Getting Started…
MATT:
“Diana helped us review and vet several different franchise concepts. We were attracted to the Pet Supplies Plus opportunity because of the great company culture. It seemed very family oriented – which appealed to us. They had a happy and fun atmosphere, but they were also really big on customer service. We decided that opening multiple stores was the most advantageous way to go about our franchising journey with Pet Supplies Plus.”
BRIAN:
“When we were investigating Pet Supplies Plus, we had a lot of conversations with existing franchise owners in the system. These sessions were very convincing to us. We knew that if we were going to do this together, it was going to have to be a full-time job for both of us. We really wanted to make this family business thing happen together. The plan was to start off as hands-on owner-operators, then shift to semi-absentee owners once we got things up and running smoothly.”
On Their Successes to Date…
MATT:
“Even though franchising offers a lot of advantages for first-time business owners – like me – that first store was still a bit of a struggle. We just didn’t have a background in retail and had to learn things along the way. Thankfully, we had a great corporate guide, and we hired a great general manager. Pretty soon, we’d doubled our sales and that got the ball rolling. Over the next few years, we either opened or acquired one new location each year, the last of which occurred in Dec. 2022, as we built a new store in Corpus Christi.”
BRIAN:
“It’s been interesting to watch how each of our stores have performed over the years. Our first locations were the slowest to grow – and our most recent store in Corpus is currently doing more business than the others. But the whole operation is really going well. The corporate office of Pet Supplies Plus asked us to be on both the marketing committee and their franchise advisory board. A lot of prospective candidates end up speaking with us and our advice is simple – if you don’t want to end up a permanent owner-operator, you should go the multi-unit route. Thankfully, all five of our stores are flourishing now.”
How FranNet Helped
MATT:
“Having Diana Trondsen’s help as a franchise consultant was invaluable. There was just no downside to her involvement. She gave us all of the information we needed and presented us with opportunities that matched up with our strengths and preferences. At the same time, she never pressured us to make a decision on anything. As for the future, it really feels like anything is possible. We want to maintain our stores and keep them as profitable as possible. We may expand even further one day, but all of our options are open right now. We meant for this to be a family legacy business and that goal hasn’t changed.”
BRIAN:
“Matt summed that up pretty well. I remember being so impressed with the FranNet process. It really felt like Diana was interviewing us – not the other way around. She was interested in getting a feel for what we wanted. She took the time to listen to both of us. She came across as very trustworthy – she wanted whatever was best for the two of us. As for the future, we’re doing well right now and that gives us options. We just want to put ourselves in the best possible position for whatever we decide to do from here. But safe to say, we love our jobs.”
For more information and insight, watch this entertaining video with the Barrett Brothers. Matt & Brian own Pet Supplies Plus franchises in the following areas:
Houston (Cypress) – 7401 Barker Cypress Road, Cypress, TX 77433
Houston (League City) – 1357 E. League City Pkwy. Ste. 200, League City, TX 77573
Houston (Memorial & Kirkwood) – 14056 Memorial Drive, Houston, TX 77079
Corpus Christi – 5425 S. Padre Island Drive, Ste. 133B, Corpus Christi, TX 78411