Now, you're about three weeks from opening. We go over a long final checklist to be sure nothing important is left undone or unpurchased. This ensures that when your training team arrives, their full energy goes to teaching, not problem solving. You hire your employees, following a specific hiring method we've found works best. We go over the first week's schedule and make a plan for training.

During training, two themes are central: the quality of the bread and building bakery morale. We want a business that will shine. That means, first and foremost, taking care of people: employees, owners, and customers. Profits follow directly from that. We try to leave you with an upbeat, well-trained crew, while also helping you fine-tune your skills. We want to make sure you'll be prepared for the day you'll have to train some future employees on your own. Our goal is to lay a solid foundation of product quality, excellent customer service, strong marketing efforts, happy employees, and tight business systems.

You work closely with your Training and Development Specialist to get everything ready for opening. When all is in place, your on-site training occurs over a three week period.

Week One: A trainer arrives to help you with the finishing touches the week before your opening day. The focus will be on setting up systems and making sure everything is ready. Your employees will be trained on baking and preparing sandwiches.

Week Two: We will send three trainers the week you open your bakery. We will help you win the hearts of your community with a strong opening day!

Week Three: A new trainer arrives with a fresh set of eyes for your second week in business. The focus will be fine-tuning your business and production systems.

Nothing makes us more proud than watching you open those doors on your grand opening day. You did it, and you're now in the business of baking great whole wheat bread for your neighbors.

After your bakery is open you will work with a a Post-Tracker to solidify the foundation established during your opening. Your Post-Tracker will become your main contact with the home office. Their mission is to help you grow your bakery.

We will continue to provide you with marketing support, production guidance, training materials for employees, recipe development, high quality wheat, practical business advice, expert field visits and a supply chain management program. Our annual convention, the Great Harvest secure web site (the "Breadboard"), newsletters, and e-mail bulletins from the Field Reps are some great examples of ongoing communication between the home office and bakery owners. Our Learning Community provides a constant stream of production innovation.

When neighboring Great Harvest owners desire to work cooperatively on marketing and other issues, we are available to help organize and facilitate. We also provide you with the best bread-baking wheat available by identifying suppliers who meet our strict standards for wheat quality and business practices. The Franchise Agreement requires you to buy wheat only from our approved suppliers, which maintains quality standards and helps you produce the freshest, most nutritionally rich and phenomenal-tasting bread!

In talking with candidates and new owners over the years, we've often heard that the marketing aspect of this business is one of the most valuable and exciting, yet intimidating fundamental. In response, we've built systems of turnkey marketing kits that can be used for special events and holidays, as well as for each month. We work closely with a marketing board composed of experienced bakery owners who share their ideas and offer guidance from the field.

We don't collect an advertising fee, so you have the freedom and responsibility to spend your marketing dollars wisely at the local level to reinforce your status within your community as a locally owned and operated business. Within the overall brand umbrella, you create an authentic and personalized representation of the Great Harvest brand in your market. As a member of the Freedom Franchise, you receive the benefit of professional tools developed at the national level, combined with your own experience and that of our learning community, to execute your marketing plan.

Listen to this interview with Kate Ord, Director of Marketing, for more details about Great Harvest's marketing support system for bakery owners.