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Extra Innings | NWJ Jewelers | Repicci's Italian Ice

Extra Innings is a baseball and softball training franchise company headquartered in Middleton, Massachusetts. Its mission: to help baseball and softball players, young and old, enhance their playing skills. Extra Innings facilities include, at a minimum, batting tunnels, an equipment pro shop, a training room, and coin-operated indoor batting cages. Customers can either use these facilities to practice independently or to receive professional instruction on either an individual or group basis.

Joe Luis and Rob Nash, former professional baseball players, established Extra Innings in 1996. After retiring from their playing careers, they decided to stay involved in the sport they loved and started Extra Innings. They began with an 8,000 square-foot facility in Danvers, MA. Despite tough economic times, their sales grew every year, and they moved to a 19,000 square-foot facility in 1998.

Like many successful entrepreneurs, once their business concept proved itself viable, they considered what they wanted to accomplish next. “We pondered just opening another facility,” says co-owner Rob Nash. “But after talking to a lot of people, we decided to look into franchising our business. We believed our business concept was good and that people with an interest in baseball or softball might be willing to buy an Extra Innings franchise. But the challenge was to validate our beliefs before actually going down the path of franchising.”

So Rob and Joe began interviewing franchising consultants. When they met Bob Pirtle of International Expansion Experts, his depth of knowledge and his willingness to transfer that knowledge to them was immediately apparent. They also trusted him immediately. “We just knew right away Bob was someone we wanted to work with,” notes Rob.

“We really needed his support,” Rob adds. “We were very good at what we did, but we’d never set up a franchise company before. We knew it was important to set up a franchise system appropriate to our company and that once you had the system up and running, it was important to limit mistakes. It became clear that Bob would take the time to learn about our business, advise us on the best approach to franchising, and help us avoid mistakes along the way.”

“Once we decided to work with Bob, we began taking steps toward becoming a franchise organization. Bob showed us the various stages, and he guided us through every step. His access to franchise legal experts was invaluable during this process, as was the expertise of his team of marketing and operations experts. As we put together all the pieces, our key challenge was to figure out a way for all parties to make money. Bob’s advice was instrumental in our ability to meet this goal.”

From start to finish, the Extra Innings franchise development process took about eight months. According to Rob, they decided to roll out the new franchise company in a deliberate, localized fashion, in order to make sure the system was perfect before going national. Initially, Extra Innings created marketing buzz through IEC’s relationship with The Entrepreneur’s Source (TES). “Bob’s clients are eligible to become part of the TES franchise portfolio offered to prospective franchisees. With very little formal marketing, we received a number of qualified inquiries,” Rob said

Once Extra Innings began marketing more aggressively, it found buyer interest not only in its home states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey, but also in far-flung states such as Washington, Texas, and Missouri, among others.  Currently, Extra Innings has more than 36 franchises established across the U.S. and 14 more are about to open soon for a total of 50 locations in five years, with substantial future growth expected.

One reason for Extra Inning’s strong growth has been its ability to leverage the Internet to both recruit franchisees and to help them grow their businesses.  The franchisee application process is totally integrated on the Internet, Rob notes, and all of Extra Innings stores have robust web sites.  Given their success with Internet marketing, not much other marketing is needed except attending one or two franchise trade shows a year.

As Extra Innings has achieved national stature as a franchisor, Rob and his partner Joe Luis have experienced “an absolute career change.”  Gone are the days of greeting customers at the front counter.  Now their job is to run a multi-unit franchise organization—and to pass on to franchisees what they have learned over the years.  

But one thing hasn’t changed: International Expansion Experts continue to be an invaluable sounding board.  Says Rob, “Whenever I need an outside opinion, I call them. Bob helped us form our franchisee association last year which has impacted our franchisee relations. Lizette helped us with the selection of the automated operational system that keeps up with the entire business and which increased our profitability; she also assited us with finding the right tool to keep track of our franchise leads. It has saved us time and money; and it has ensured that we are on top of our leads. It really was a critical component to growing our franchise system. ”

“As we continue to grow, I’m sure problems will arise that International Expansion Experts can help us resolve. For the long-term growth of our company, our decision to work with Bob Pirtle and International Expansion Experts was a smart decision.”