Franchisee Spotlight: Kerren Sargent, Cookies By Design

Kerren Sargent is as stubborn as they come. When she and her husband divorced several years ago, she refused to follow him to bankruptcy court, despite the huge mound of debt he left behind. Instead, she spent the next seven years paying back every penny they owed--including the $120,000 they had just invested in a Cookies By Design (www.cookiedesigns.com) franchise in Mission Valley, Calif.

"It got ugly," she admits of the split. "But he gave me a lot of adrenaline to keep going." Today, Sargent's cookie shop, located in a San Diego suburb, ranks ninth out of 200 Cookies By Design franchises. Not only that, but her tenacity and creative approach to marketing recently earned her the International Franchise Association's (www.franchise.org) Franchisee of the Year award.

Sargent's achievements did not come easily. In 1990, her first year in business, disasters plagued the new store. Her air conditioner and delivery truck kept breaking down, her baker quit just before Christmas and her mixer died just before Valentine's Day. And Sargent had to constantly remind customers that she was part of a chain, not an independent shop. Cookies By Design had just 22 stores at that time and little name recognition. But she persevered. She took her cookies to local radio stations and offered to donate them as contest prizes.

"They took my product and soon everybody was calling, asking if I would work with them," she says. "I just keep doing that, even to this day." Each week she gets a mention on the air and the winner gets a customized cookie basket to share with his coworkers. Airlines have received airplane-shaped cookies and computer firms have gotten ones that look like PCs. Sargent even made cookies into sunshine and sunflowers for a psychiatrist. "It's fun to be creative," she says.

It is also smart. Sargent gets a tremendous amount of free publicity by donating her cookies to radio stations, the local chamber of commerce and children's homes. And for the past five years she has donated several thousand cookies to the San Diego Chargers blood drive. For that, the football team flashes Cookies By Design--Mission Valley up on their scoreboard.

"When the community needs something, I feel it's important to be there," says Sargent. "The money has not been the important thing. I love my product and I enjoy showing it to people and getting it out there. And by coincidence, the business comes in return."

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