March 2014
| Business World Magazine | 73
S
ome people view the ideal franchi-
see candidate in terms of his or her
financial wherewithal. Some others
insist upon a requisite amount of experi-
ence in the field to which the franchise ap-
plies.
But as far as Leeward Bean is con-
cerned, there’s something else that’s just as
important, too.
“The first thing I look for is have they
been successful,” says Bean, who’s looking
to expand his Dunedin, Fla.-based com-
pany, Big Frog Custom T-Shirts, from 60
franchises to 300 by 2018.
“That’s a trait that people will carry
with them from place to place, no matter
what they’ve been involved in. If they’ve
been successful as a rule, the chances that
they’ll be successful doing this are quite
good, too. If people can get excited about
the opportunity and be genuine, they’ll do
well.”
Big Frog got its start in 2006 as an evo-
lution from an Internet company that spe-
cialized in “geek novelty” items like 3-D
puzzles, hourglasses and da Vinci models.
A plan to add T-shirts to the product
line with phrases like “The first rule of
