Welcome And Big Next Step

Tom DuFore 0:01

Welcome to the Multiply Your Success podcast, where each week we help growth-minded entrepreneurs and franchise leaders take the next step in their expansion journey. I'm your host, Tom Dufour, CEO of Big Sky Franchise Team. And as we open today, I'm wondering what do you do when you're thinking about taking that next big step in your life or with your business? Do you take it? Well, our guest today is Carrie Quigley, and she shares with us how she has stitched together her company and growing a franchise system. Now, Carrie is the founder of the Fashion Class, a boutique children's enrichment franchise that teaches kids the art of sewing and the business of fashion through a proprietary, STEM-acredited curriculum. With a passion for creativity, education, and entrepreneurship, Carrie has built the fashion class into a growing franchise concept that empowers the next generation of designers and innovators. Her brand combines low overhead, flexible operations, and a deeply mission-driven model that resonates with franchise candidates and communities alike. And I'm so glad to have Carrie on. She's someone I had the good fortune to work with early on in helping her build and launch her franchise right from the get-go. And she's got an awesome story to share. You're going to love this interview. So let's go ahead and jump right into

Carrie’s Sewing Roots And Launch

Tom DuFore 1:20

it.

Kerri Quigley 1:20

Thank you for having me. My name is Carrie Quigley. I am the owner and founder of the Fashion Class.

Tom DuFore 1:27

Great. Well, I'm so enthused to have you on the show. It's rare that I get the opportunity to have a guest that I was able to be a part of your franchise journey from really early on and watch how you've grown and changed with the brand and grow the brand over this time. So I'd love for you just to talk a little bit about the fashion class. What you're doing is so amazing and fantastic. And what led you even to start the business in the first place?

Kerri Quigley 1:57

You know, I've been doing this for over 16 years now, which is wild to me to even say that. But I always loved fashion and creativity. My grandmother taught me to sew when I was super little. We're going way back now, six years old, but I was always creating, always making something. I wasn't a kid who was into like theater or being on stage or sports or anything like that. So to me, fashion design and sewing and making my own clothing was a confidence boost. You know, it was a way for me to go to school and say, I made this, you know, and have something to be proud of. I attended Parsons School of Design for Business. So it gave me a really good entrepreneurship kind of background. But I graduated right at the start of the recession. And fashion is already already notorious for being overworked and underpaid. So I couldn't find a real job. I was not getting hired. I was a gig worker designing dog clothing one day and, you know, women's handbags the next. And teaching had always been in the back of my mind because I remembered what fashion was to me and what a confidence boost it gave me. And I knew it would resonate with other kids. So I started the fashion class kind of on the side one summer and very quickly realized I had something cool. The classes were growing in size. Within about a year of launching, I was able to sign a lease on a 2,500 square foot studio in the Garment district of Manhattan. And I was 24 years old. And it's wild that they even rented to me that they did, thank God. And that is that is kind of how I started the whole business, how it all came about.

Tom DuFore 3:32

What is it that you're doing at the class and in the

What The Fashion Class Teaches

Tom DuFore 3:35

business?

Kerri Quigley 3:35

So we are a children's enrichment program. We do classes, camps, birthday parties, and other lessons, all themed around fashion design and sewing. We start actually as young as age two and we do some crafty things with toddlers. And then we actually have children on the sewing machines creating their own clothing as young as five years old, all the way through adults, but primarily we are children's enrichment brands and we're teaching fashion design and sewing. Kids are making their own clothing and then showcasing it all in a fashion show.

Tom DuFore 4:08

I'm sure a parent today might say, You really have five, six, seven-year-olds on a sewing machine. I can't even get them to put their laundry away.

Kerri Quigley 4:17

They, well, children are fearless. One. So they're actually my favorite age group to teach. Adults are very slow and perfectionists, but kids are like, Yeah, like let me let me have at this machine. It goes fast, it's fun. We actually equip ours with special safety features. So they sew very slowly, they have finger guards, and we break down every single sewing step. So we kind of don't get into super technical, boring things, and we keep everything very simple and safe. And class size is fairly small to, especially for those younger five and six-year-old ages. But you would be shocked at how quickly they pick it up and how good they are at sewing.

Tom DuFore 4:54

Amazing. Well, one of the things that I recall as part of your model is that, for example, some of the courses or classes in programming that the students are able to go through, I always found the conclusion or the main event. I'd love for you to talk about kind of what that cycle looks like. So I always found that so fascinating.

Kerri Quigley 5:13

It is really cool. And if you've ever had a kid who takes dance class, they end with a recital, right? And sometimes it's three hours long and you wait, and your kid comes out for five minutes, and you know, it's still just an amazing experience. So we do that with fashion design, where our students are with us for about a 12-week season. They're making four garments or accessories, so real usable things that they can wear. And then at the end of the 12 weeks, we set up a large runway. We give out tickets, the parents come, they take their front row seats, and the students walk out on the runway wearing the items that they made. So we put on a real professional fashion show for the parents so that they can be involved and kind of see the progression and see what their kids are making. The kids love it, but I think the parents love it even more. We do it about three times a year. So it's a it's a pretty cool event.

Tom DuFore 6:02

I always found that fascinating because exactly what you said. It's like the recital or a sports team that might be the end-of-season tournament or whatever

The 12-Week Runway Season

Tom DuFore 6:10

might happen. It it kind of a nice little punctuation to the end of the program.

Kerri Quigley 6:15

It is, and it's only about 30 minutes. So it's another thing parents appreciate it. It's quick.

Tom DuFore 6:21

So you start the business and then franchising comes into mind. What is it that led you to think about franchising? Talk through that process.

Kerri Quigley 6:31

I'm a big believer in work-life balance, right? I personally just, you know, never wanted to own more than a couple of studios, right? I want to live my life. I have little kids now. So I want to be a business owner, but also, you know, be a mom and a wife and a friend and all those, all those good things. So franchising seemed like the only viable way for growth for the fashion class. And I I built this strong brand and I've written out and built all this curriculum. So why not share it? Why not grow it and bring it to other markets? So I started the franchise journey all the way back in what was that, 2007, 18, 19? Yeah, it was it was a long time ago that I started this journey. And then obviously the pandemic came and we took a pause for a little bit, but I'm I'm excited to be back at it.

Tom DuFore 7:18

Wonderful. Wonderful. Well, I'd love for you to talk about where are you in your franchise journey now? Where are you taking your business and what's your vision?

Kerri Quigley 7:27

So we're I'm very lucky that things are starting to really happen and move and grow. And that's very exciting to me. We opened a franchisee opened a studio on Virginia Beach, and I sold my two New York City stores to a franchisee. So the Upper East and Upper West Sides of Manhattan are franchise locations. I just opened a corporate store in northern New Jersey that's absolutely beautiful, and I love it. I love not commuting to Manhattan either because now I'm a Jersey girl. And we just sold quite a few licenses, three in in around the Dallas area and South Carolina. We we have one over there and St. Louis, Missouri. So now I'm in the kind of point where I'm, you know, all these systems and processes that have been put in place, we're testing them. You know, let's let's see how well they work. Let's, you know, grow these, let's train everybody and make some really successful studios.

Tom DuFore 8:21

One thing that's always interesting, I always like to ask franchisors the type of candidate or franchisees that maybe you're looking for that you think will find success in a in a franchise like yours.

Kerri Quigley 8:34

You know, it's definitely varied because every person has their strengths and weaknesses. I believe someone who's led a team who has some team leading experience would be an amazing candidate because you do have to motivate teaching staff. Franchisees do not need to know how to sew, they're hiring that part out. So they're, you know, you are hiring skilled staff and

Choosing Franchising For Balance

Kerri Quigley 8:55

teachers, and you need to train them and motivate them. So someone with some team leading experience is great. Community engagement is a big one. You know, you're dealing with families, a lot of moms, you're reaching out to the local PTA or PTO groups. So you need to have that ability or desire to talk to people and say, hey, this is who I am, this is what I'm doing, this is what I'm opening. You'd be surprised that, you know, not everybody has that skill set naturally. And then we're finding a lot of candidates who have who have kids who would attend these classes or even older kids who want to work at the studio. That seems to be a bit of a trend that we're experiencing, which is super cool to see because it's then it's like a whole family involved in opening this great local business.

Tom DuFore 9:41

One thing I found interesting, and we were talking pre-show a little bit about this, is STEM accreditation. When I hear STEM, I don't necessarily think of fashion. So I'd love for you to talk a little bit about that.

Kerri Quigley 9:53

I am super proud of our STEM accreditation. Sewing is is considered technology because they are using this machine and they are learning this new technology. So it kind of checks that box. But outside of sewing, what we have at the fashion class that I'm super proud of is all our other curriculum and lesson plans. So outside of making things, we teach lessons on textile science and fashion history and retail math, how to price your product, how to create a brand logo, who's your ideal customer. We don't do all these really cool things around fashion branding, the fashion industry itself. And many of them touch on different STEM principles. So our students are learning STEM, they're learning math, they're learning science, they're learning tech without even realizing it because it's all wrapped up in this, you know, pretty pink fashion class bow themed around, you know, hands-on lessons where they're making things.

Tom DuFore 10:51

Congratulations on that accreditation. That does not seem like that would

Where The Franchise Is Growing

Tom DuFore 10:55

be an easy task to accomplish. And what are some trends that you see happening right now in children's enrichment and in this space?

Kerri Quigley 11:05

There's there's definitely a lot happening in the maker movement, specifically to children's enrichment. So you see a lot of, you know, craft classes, art classes, jewelry making, things like that. There isn't a whole lot around fashion designer sewing. Just in general, we seem to be going towards a screen-free like desire for our children, right? As AI starts to kind of take over, and like my kindergartner has been on the laptop all year learning, having like a screen-free activity that they love, that your children love, I think is crucial. So they're huge, you know, big push towards that. And then for an older group, just being able to have a skill, a lifelong skill where you can make something and do something with your own two hands. And I don't mean necessarily just sewing, just as a trend in general, you know, whether it's pottery or gardening or, you know, mahjong, pickleball, sewing, fashion design. I think that's kind of a big trend right now is people try to get away from all the tech, you know.

Tom DuFore 12:07

Carrie, if someone listens into this and they say, This sounds really interesting, or I know someone that might have an interest, or I'd love to introduce somebody I know to the fashion class, how can someone get in touch with you or learn a little bit more about what you're doing?

Kerri Quigley 12:22

We have a website, start a fashionschool.com, or you can reach us at thefashionclass.com and kind of get a feel for what we do, or email franchise at the fashionclass.com.

Tom DuFore 12:34

Perfect. Well, we'll make sure we include that in the show notes. And Carrie, this is a great time in the show. We make a little transition and we ask every guest the same four questions before they go. And the first question we ask is have you had a miss or two on your journey and something you learned from it?

Kerri Quigley 12:49

From a business, not a franchise perspective, but just a business miss. We just had so many interesting things happen. As I I know you we worked together at this time, but I had a fire once in the neighboring restaurant had a fire and my studio was shut down for quite some time. And it it's not necessarily a miss because it wasn't directly because of something I did, but I learned a lot from it. I learned how to quickly pick myself back up, get the business back running, how to effectively communicate with clients and staff to kind of get through this really tough time.

Who Makes A Great Franchisee

Kerri Quigley 13:25

Because as a business owner, as you know, things happen. There are tough times, and being able to navigate them successfully is very, very difficult. So having that fire experience, really having that pressure on, I feel like it just I learned so much about how to navigate, how to not lose my cool, and how to just keep pushing forward.

Tom DuFore 13:46

Well, we were working together when that happened. I remember the conversation, the phone calls, and just shock the way you handled it, managed it. I'm watching it a far distance, right? You know, I'm involved in occasional phone calls, and you've got lots of other people you're talking to. It was extremely impressive to watch you do that as a leader, as an owner, and gave living proof of how you would be able to support a franchisee in those situations, right? And be able to work through. And things like that are bound to happen at some point in time. So it was really impressive.

Kerri Quigley 14:23

Thank you. Thank you. And I just want to add nobody was hurt. Uh, you know, everybody was fine. It was, it was more of a business interruption type of situation. Yeah. Within a couple of days, I had a new location just around the corner. We were at the Bryant Park Hotel overlooking Bryant Park. It was gorgeous. So it was actually almost like a win in a way. We got to finish out our summer camp there.

Tom DuFore 14:44

The next question we ask is have you had a win or a highlight or a make that you can share?

Kerri Quigley 14:49

Recently, I, as I said, things are starting to move and progress with the franchise system. I had my first Discovery Day in May, and it was just a great experience. I had three parties fly out from different parts of the country and just being

STEM Accreditation And Industry Trends

Kerri Quigley 15:05

able to put that on, presents, answer, you know, the fact that I had answers to everybody's questions, you know, that that's something I'm really, really proud of because bringing what once was a local business to other locations, to other cities and states, and writing everything down so other people can follow it and having answers to these questions. It's it's it's a hard thing to do. So I was very proud of myself for putting on the Discovery Day successfully, being able to answer the questions and having all three parties sign. So it's pretty cool.

Tom DuFore 15:38

Well, congratulations on that. That's a big, big moment for that Discovery Day. And then to have new franchisees join right from that. That's fantastic. Well, the next question we ask is have you used a multiplier to grow yourself personally, professionally, or any of the organizations you've run?

Kerri Quigley 15:56

I want to say I have two multipliers, and they're relevant for my time in my business right now. Um, first one is time. I've been in business for so long. I feel like I have been through so many situations where I can help a franchisee. Just the amount of time that I've been in business is a great just professional and personal growth multiplier because I have so much experience to draw back on. And then I'm gonna see my kids having my kids. They're three and five, about to be four and five. And there's something about having kids that just pushes you like nothing else has ever pushed you before. So those are my two multipliers.

Tom DuFore 16:37

That's wonderful. I echo the sentiment with kids for sure. Absolutely. Yes. Well, the final question we ask every guest is what does success mean to you?

Kerri Quigley 16:47

I would say success means that sewing is just a normal, acceptable part of a child's enrichment routine. So they take swimming, a language, sports, sewing. It's just just having I feel like I've done my job if across the country sewing is just kind of a thing kids do right now. I I think that would be just really cool to see and and really cool to set up a generation or two with this this lifelong skill and teach them how to work with their hands again.

Tom DuFore 17:23

Well, Carrie, as we bring this to a close, is there anything you were hoping to share or get across that you haven't had a chance to?

Kerri Quigley 17:30

I I think we've covered everything. I really enjoyed the interview. Thank you. But yeah, I I'm excited about what's to come. And and thank you. Thank you for your time today.

Tom DuFore 17:41

Carrie, thank you so much for a fantastic interview. And let's go ahead and jump into today's three key takeaways. So, takeaway number one is when she talked about finding a passion that she loved and pursuing that. And I thought that was wonderful. And she pursued this love of sewing and creativeness and figured out a way how to make a living doing it. And I thought that was just a great nugget. Takeaway

Fire Story Discovery Day Meaning

Tom DuFore 18:05

number two is when she decided to get the business STEM accredited. And what a great idea and validation for the business itself because of how she's teaching the students and teaching these kids that are coming through. Takeaway number three is when she talked about time being a multiplier for her. And I thought this idea was great because she said she found success in just having experiences of having run a business for a long time. And so I think that was a great takeaway. So whether you're thinking about starting a business of your own, maybe buying a franchise or franchising your business, getting started sooner gives you those experiences to be building upon that start to compound over time. And now it's time for today's win-win. So today's win-win was really a theme of uh the interview there. And that theme is uh perseverance. It's a beautiful, wonderful virtue that I think Carrie uh exemplified in uh all of the challenges that came her way. She just figured out a way to persevere, to get through it, from talking about making changes to her business, figuring out a way how to make a living, doing something she loved, the disruption to the business, sticking with franchising and going through all of these changes and just staying the course and figuring out a way to persevere. And I thought that was just a great win-win because when you do that, it's a win for you, it's a win for those involved and connected

Takeaways Win-Win And CTA

Tom DuFore 19:50

with you as well. And so that's the episode today, folks. Please make sure you subscribe to the podcast and give us a review. And remember, if you or anyone you know might be ready to franchise their business or take their franchise company to the next level, please connect with us at BigSkyFranchise Team.com where you can schedule your free no obligation consultation. Thanks for tuning in, and we look forward to having you back next week.