Gina Caruso spent most of her working life helping others, first in HR and later on an oncology ward.
As she sat with patients nearing the end of their lives, she witnessed many of them filled with deep regret over the things they wished they had done. Seeing this sparked a question that slowly began to brew in her own mind. “Would I one day be sitting here with regrets too?”
While Gina thrives in environments that allow her help others, she began to realise she wanted more control over her future and the opportunity to build something of her own. The idea of business ownership, once a distant thought, became something she felt compelled to explore.
As she researched her options, franchising stood out as a way to step into entrepreneurship with the support of an established system. Looking for guidance, she connected with franchise consultant Scott Thompson at Your Future Franchise. Together, Gina and Scott carved out a path forward that gave her the opportunity to own her own business and make an impact in her community. Here’s Gina’s story about why she chose to invest in a Sola Salons franchise.
Key Takeaways
- A career spent helping others can reach a breaking point. When it does, it’s worth asking what you actually want to do next with your life.
- Working alongside patients facing the end of their lives clarified Gina’s priorities.
- Franchising isn’t just food and retail, and diverse investment ranges allow for low-cost market entry.
- The right franchise consultant focuses on your needs, not selling franchises.
- Staying in a role you have outgrown carries its own very real risk.
Gina Built A Career Built on Helping People
Gina will be the first to admit that her career hasn’t followed the typical trajectory most careers do.
She graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in political science, certain she was heading to law school. Then that plan changed as she needed to earn money first. She fell into human resources, and what she expected to be a stopgap turned into a 15-year career.
She climbed fast and moved across industries, from nonprofit to environmental services to public relations to high tech, picking up management experience at every stop. She was good at it, but she kept bumping into the same ceiling.
“You jump into the same situation time and time again without realizing it,” she says, “because it’s safe and easy and it’s what you know.”
Eventually, she made a decision that surprised people. She walked away from HR and became a nurse.
She started in a fast-paced cardiac step-down unit, but the adrenaline wore her down quickly. She moved into pharmaceuticals, working in patient education for people with multiple sclerosis. That was rewarding for a while, then corporate life crept back in. She moved into management, climbed the ladder again, and burnt out again.
So she stepped back to bedside nursing, the direct, one-on-one work she had always been drawn to. Today she works as an oncology nurse while building her first franchise.
What the Oncology Ward Taught Gina About Risk
The job Gina came back to was not quite the one she had left.
When she started nursing, the part she loved most was the educational side. Sitting with a patient who had a chronic illness, understanding their situation and helping them stay out of hospital as long as possible. That kind of care takes time, and the system doesn’t have much of it anymore.
“It’s a turn and burn industry,” Gina explains. “As soon as that patient leaves, the room is cleaned and there’s another patient ready to come in.”
Working in oncology added something else entirely. These seriously ill people didn’t have much time left. In all her conversations with them, the same thing kept coming up: regret.
“You start to realize that if you don’t take advantage of the things you want to do now, there’s no guarantee that tomorrow will be there,” she says. “I’ve seen too many people with too much regret say they didn’t take the chance when they really should have.”
Gina grew up watching her father run his own fire alarm and sprinkler company. She helped him grow it while she was in nursing school, hiring staff, building a benefits package, and putting real systems in place. She had always felt an entrepreneurial pull.
“I’ve always known in the back of my mind that I wanted to do something myself,” she says. “I’m one of those people that if I am in an environment long enough, I can start to see the flaws and think, I can do that a little bit better.”
The question was what to do to fulfil her own ambitions.
Why Franchise Ownership Started Making Sense for Gina’s Life
Like most people, Gina’s first mental image of a franchise was a fast food restaurant.
“I definitely didn’t want food industry,” she says. “In my brain, franchises were like fast food. I didn’t realize the breadth of what was available.”
She had admired Scott Thompson’s work in the franchise world for years and knew his reputation for matching people with the right fit. When she felt ready to seriously explore franchise ownership, she reached out to him.
The first call wasn’t what she’d expected. “It truly was all about me and what I needed,” she says.
Scott’s process started with Gina, not with franchises. He asked about her career history, her goals, her fears, and the things she was done tolerating. He asked what she did not want in her next chapter, not just what she wanted. That matters because buying a franchise means making a franchise investment in an established system, not just choosing a brand, so the upfront research has to be about fit as much as opportunity.
“I found that to be really, really helpful,” she says. “Changing careers, I’ve done it a million times. But I’ve never taken the time to actually decide what meets all of the things I need in my life, not just salary, but what’s going to bring me joy.”
She kept solving the same problems in different environments. Scott asked the right questions and helped her break the pattern. The quality of franchise systems varies by brand, which is why careful evaluation matters.
“Sometimes it’s really hard to decide what you want if you don’t know the things you don’t want,” she says. “Because sometimes you jump into the same situation time and time again without realizing it.”
Finding the Right Franchise Fit and Understanding the Franchise Fee
As Gina worked through the franchising options with Scott, she moved toward the beauty and wellness space and it began to make sense. It was a world she already spent money in, having her hair done and booking treatments.
There was one beauty franchise she got quite excited about. It specialized in facials and treatments, and on paper it looked like a strong match. Then she got into the details, however.
The model required a high level of direct customer interaction, with long hours in front of clients. Very little of the behind-the-scenes, management-led work she had described wanting from the start.
“Once we got into it and I had the evaluation call, I realized it wasn’t what I wanted,” she says.
Scott brought her back to the conversations they had already had. What did she actually want her day to look like? What level of involvement made sense in her life?
“He kept bringing me back to my why,” she says.
That’s when Sola Salons came into focus. Sola is a beauty franchise built on a studio suite model. Instead of operating a traditional salon, Gina would operate a franchise business centered on leasing individual studio spaces to independent beauty professionals, hairstylists, nail technicians, aestheticians, and others, rather than directly serving salon customers.
The concept clicked in a way nothing else had.
“It’s helping people on multiple levels,” she says. “Not only by leasing to pros, but then they can have their business and help people too. So it’s helping people on multiple levels and giving people that opportunity to be their own employer.”
She visited a local outlet as part of her research, and the firsthand insight sealed it for her.
“Once you see it in person and you realize you could see yourself doing it,” she says, “it made a big difference. It gave me the confidence. I can do this.”
Scott Knows That The Right Franchise Opportunity Makes All the Difference
Gina is clear about what working with a franchise consultant like Scott gave her that she could not have found on her own. He didn’t merely present her with franchise options; he explained both the financial and operational sides of franchise ownership.
“I would say having someone to go to with questions and to talk you through some of those fears or misconceptions,” she says. “I think people naturally think of a broker as working for the franchise. I don’t feel that way at all.”
Every time a new concern came up, Scott helped her to take one step at a time.
“He was able to slow me down, give me specific information about my concerns, but also help me get over that fear to the next level,” she says. “Because a lot of it is irrational. You worry so much about all these what ifs. When there are solutions to those things, especially in the franchise world, there’s a proven plan.”
The financial fear was real. Gina had always invested, but in stocks and retirement accounts. Franchising somehow felt bigger and more tangible, so Scott helped her determine what level of franchise investment was realistic for her situation.
“It looks really scary,” she says. “You make this assumption that it’s going to take a ridiculous amount of money to get started. You put up these roadblocks before you even get started.”
Scott walked her through financing options, including tools she had not known existed, while helping her balance financial readiness with the operational commitment involved.
“I’m like, this actually is very doable,” she says. “You don’t have to buy an enormous, well-known franchise. There are so many out there for every budget.”
A lot of people sit with that fear before they make the call. The worry that the moment they pick up the phone, someone is going to push them into something. Gina’s answer to that is short.
“I never, ever felt that I was being sold anything,” she says. “If anything, a lot of the questions were very deep about my thoughts and my feelings. It truly was all about me and what I needed.”
Scott checked in throughout the entire process, and for Gina this mattered more than she could easily put into words.
“It’s not just a simple sales pitch,” she says. “It’s really walking you through the steps, getting you prepared for what to expect. And checking in to make sure I’m doing okay. It can be overwhelming sometimes, especially for those of us who are working in a different career and transitioning. He’s always really good about centering me and focusing on what I need to do next.”
Scott has helped thousands of people in Gina’s position. Read Bryon Sergeant’s story about how Scott guided his path to the same sense of freedom Gina found, for instance.
What Successful Franchise Ownership Has Already Changed for Gina
Gina hasn’t opened her franchise yet. She is working through the onboarding process while still putting in shifts on the oncology ward. She admits that it’s a lot to carry all at once, but she now has a new sense of purpose and her view of risk has completely changed.
“Initially it was financial,” she says. “And once I got past that, it was more: I’m risking more by staying put in the safe role. Than extending myself, being a little uncomfortable at times, so that I can grow and do the things I ultimately want to do.”
Final Takeaway
In HR and nursing, Gina had sat across from employees facing redundancy, and cared for patients confronting far worse. She learned a lesson in both places that she kept putting off applying to her own life, until Scott demystified franchising for her.
“I didn’t even think it was a possibility for me,” she says. “I didn’t know that it was so accessible. I was blown away, honestly.”
The benefits of franchise ownership are real, but they are easy to overlook if you walk in with a fixed picture of what franchising looks like. A good franchise consultant doesn’t just hand you a list of options. They help you understand yourself well enough to know which one actually fits, to bring you financial freedom and self-fulfillment.
If you want to understand what this process has looked like for real people, and find reassurance around your investment decisions, you can read client reviews of Your Future Franchise to get an honest picture.
“This doesn’t cost you anything. It is truly an opportunity to talk to somebody who is very invested in your success. They’re not looking to sell you anything. It is literally just a conversation,” Gina explains.
Thinking About Buying Into Franchise Business?
Your Future Franchise works with candidates who want to honestly assess whether franchise ownership is the right move for them.
Scott is not here to sell you a franchise. His job is to help you work out whether you are a candidate, what kind of business fits your life, and whether the numbers actually make sense for your situation.
As Gina concludes: “I would encourage anybody, if it’s something you’re even slightly interested in, just have that phone call. Because I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.”
Frequently Asked Questions About Franchise Ownership
What is a franchise fee and how much does it typically cost?
A franchise fee is an upfront payment made by the franchisee to the franchisor for the right to use the brand and business model. This fee can range from tens of thousands to several hundred thousand dollars, depending on the franchise brand and industry. Upfront costs can also include inventory, and franchisees may pay ongoing fees beyond the initial franchise fee.
How long do franchise agreements usually last?
Franchise agreements typically last for a specified term, often up to 20 years. The exact length varies by franchise and is detailed in the contract. A Franchise Disclosure Document must be provided 14 days prior to signing. Renewal options may be available but are not guaranteed, and because termination can mean losing your investment, it is important to understand the agreement before you sign.
What kind of ongoing support and training do franchisors provide to franchise owners?
Franchisors usually offer initial training, operating manuals, and ongoing support such as workshops, newsletters, and marketing assistance. They may also help with site selection and provide guidance to maintain brand standards, serve customers consistently, and improve operational efficiency.
Are there restrictions on the products or services a franchisee can offer?
Yes, franchisors often impose restrictions to maintain brand consistency. This can include limits on the goods or services sold, approved suppliers, operating methods, and advertising content to protect the franchise brand.
Can franchisees be protected from competition within the same brand?
Many franchise agreements include protected territories, preventing the franchisor and other franchisees from opening competing outlets nearby. This helps safeguard your customer base and supports your franchise’s growth within your location.
