Allie Mallad Bio:
Former Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award winner, Mallad has dedicated his professional career to encapsulating business ownership and franchising as his lifeblood. As the former world’s largest Little Caesars Pizza franchisee, Allie built an empire of over 159 individual restaurant locations with 2,000 employees that boasted in excess of $100 million in revenue.
With more than 30 years of business experience, Allie’s business acumen and entrepreneurial passion have led to unprecedented success and accolades. Having experience with over 10 national franchise concepts including Golden Corral Steakhouse, Applebee’s, Bruegger's Bagels, Jiffy Lube, Baskin Robbin’s and more, Mallad was named a Top 50 franchisee in 1998.
As a true motivator of people, Allie is a leader whose experience, success and passion have positioned him to direct Massage Green Spa to the top of today’s affordable luxury revolution. With his wealth of business experience, associations with industry leaders and a dedicated entrepreneurial passion, Allie has set the bar high to ensure the continued success and dedication to the Massage Green Spa franchise community.
Franchise Expo: What sets your company apart from others in the industry?
Allie Mallad: There are a couple of things that set us apart from others in this industry. First, we are an affordable luxury! We take great pride in not only offering our massages at a rate the masses can afford but also that we execute an amazing massage. Second, there is no one in our industry that has Full-Spectrum Infrared Saunas. This is huge! Someone can come in to get a 60-minute massage and then continue his or her relaxation for an additional 40-minutes with our infrared therapy.
FE: How is the company adapting to changes in the market?
AM: Our infrared saunas are a prime example of us adapting to changes in the market. We saw a need for our clients to get more out of their health and wellness experience with us so we took the steps to ensure we solidified the best infrared on the market. Additionally, we also started implementing Beautiful cascading water features in our lobby’s, tranquility rooms and couples suites to give our clients an even more relaxing and inviting environment.
FE: Who are your customers and how do you try to provide quality services for them?
AM: Our target demographic ranges from athletes, to business men/women, stay at home parents or a student. We make sure we personalize each person’s experience by getting to know what their wants and needs are before they even enter a massage room.
FE: Why and when did you decide to franchise the business?
AM: In 2008 I decided to start franchising Massage Green Spa after witnessing the success with only having a few locations. I’ve been a Franchisee for 10 different national brands in my past and I felt with my extensive experience I knew what it took be a successful Franchise Brand
FE: Why should someone invest in the franchise as opposed to another opportunity?
AM: You always want to be either the least expensive or the best. One of the great things about Massage Green Spa is that we have married these two concepts. Not only are we the least expensive but also we have beautiful locations, licensed massage therapists and outstanding customer service.
FE: What are some overall company or franchising challenges you’ve overcome?
AM: I think the most difficult challenge in Franchising is finding quality franchisees. As your business becomes more well-known you receive a lot more prospects and it can be difficult at times to ensure the Franchisee’s you bring on board are going to be good promoters of your brand.
FE: What territorial restrictions/protections do you offer?
AM: We are looking at about a hundred thousand population with 1-3 mile radius.
FE: What are some of the trends/developments in your industry that do affect or may affect the operations?
AM: The wonderful thing about the massage therapy industry is only about 10% of our population gets massages on a regular basis. This gives us the great opportunity to create awareness about health and wellness. Our job is to educate our clients that yes, massage feels good but it also helps you de-stress, relieve pain, relax and lower blood pressure.
FE: What is included in the start-up program for each franchisee? What do you offer them?
AM: Once a Franchisee signs onto the Massage Green Spa brand they immediately get welcomed from all the key players on our Corporate team, we put all of our Franchisee’s through a 2-week training course with our National Director of Training, they are offered guidance in site-selection from myself and our National Director of Real Estate, We also offer continued support in construction, recruiting and marketing.
FE: What are some major projects/developments the franchise is undertaking?
AM: One of the major projects we just recently undertook was changing our software system. We felt our old booking system wasn’t user friendly, didn’t generate the reports our franchise’s wanted and overall felt it wasn’t designed with us in mind. So after a lot of research we found a new Company that completely customized their software to our needs.
FE: What do you see for the future of the company/franchise? Geographic expansion/investments/etc?
AM: Over the course of the next 3 years we will see our biggest expansion in CA, TX and FL followed by IL, CO, and AZ where we have really strong area developers and franchisee’s. We’re really excited about the future growth in the NY and NJ market as well.
FE: What are you most proud of?
AM: It gives me great joy to be able to give our Franchisee’s a business that allows them to be an Entrepreneur under an established Brand. We supply our Franchisee’s with a proven model, formal training, marketing systems, technology and an outstanding network of vendors and other Franchisee’s to learn from. To see my Franchisee’s continue to grow, open new locations and be successful in business makes me proud and eager to move the Company forward.
