For many people, owning a business is something they’ve thought about for years. The appeal is easy to understand: more control over your future, the chance to build something of your own, and the ability to benefit directly from the effort you put in.

But the moment you move from thinking about business ownership to seriously considering it, the questions start piling up.

What if I’ve never owned a business before? Do I need industry experience? How do I find good staff and reliable suppliers? How do I market the business properly? And what happens when something doesn’t go to plan?

These are sensible questions, not signs you’re not cut out for it. Starting or buying any business involves risk, and franchising doesn’t remove that risk entirely. What a good franchise system can do is cut down how much you have to learn by trial and error, because someone has already made, and fixed, many of the early mistakes for you.

A business system before you open the doors

Rather than starting with a blank page, a franchise hands you an established operating model: a recognised brand, tested products, clear processes, existing supplier relationships, training and ongoing operational support.

That’s particularly valuable if you’re making the leap from employment into business ownership for the first time.

With Gloria Jean’s Coffees, previous café or coffee experience isn’t essential. The New Zealand franchise offering includes training and support covering the brand, the product range, the operating systems and the day-to-day realities of running a café, while still giving franchisees the flexibility to build a locally curated cabinet range that suits their community. You’ll still need to lead the business, build a strong team, look after customers and understand your numbers – you’re just not inventing the business model at the same time.

Experience matters – look behind the logo

When you’re weighing up a franchise, it’s worth asking a question that goes deeper than the branding: how much genuine, relevant experience actually sits behind the system I’m buying into?

Gloria Jean’s Coffees has been operating internationally since 1979. In New Zealand, the brand is run by Café Coffee & Bakery Systems (NZ) Ltd (CCBS), which has held the master franchise rights since 2019. This isn’t an international name with a local sticker slapped on it – Gloria Jean’s cafés are trading across Auckland, Waikato, the Bay of Plenty, Wellington and the South Island right now, with new sites available and in active development nationally. That gives new franchisees access to a model already proven across a genuine spread of New Zealand markets, formats and store types – from kiosk to full-service to drive-through.

Someone on the support team who’s actually been where you are

One of the most reassuring things for a first-time owner is knowing the people supporting them understand what ownership actually feels like – not just in theory.

Gary Macilwee, now National Operations Manager with CCBS, has lived that transition himself. Before stepping into business ownership, Gary spent his career in retail management. He and his wife Michelle then took the leap into café ownership, opening an Esquires café at Bayfair in Tauranga in 2007 part of the same wider CCBS group that operates Gloria Jean’s today.

They went in without prior café experience and without ever having owned a business before. The early years had their share of challenges, but they built a genuinely successful operation, picking up customer service and first-year excellence awards before being named Esquires Franchise of the Year. That café was later converted into a Gloria Jean’s, giving Gary firsthand experience of what it takes to bring a business into the Gloria Jean’s brand and system – much like the transition many prospective franchisees are weighing up today. Gary’s happy to candidly share his experience, the learning curve throughout: building the right team, learning to delegate, developing a loyal customer base, and realising that owning a business demands a different mindset to being an employee.

That experience now sits firmly on the other side of the table. Today, Gary’s role is helping prospective franchisees weigh up the opportunity and make that same transition  with someone alongside them who has genuinely lived it, from both sides of the brand, not just read about it.

Your business – but not entirely on your own

Owning your first business will always involve learning as you go. There will be decisions to make, people to lead and challenges to work through.

The real question is whether you want to face all of that while also building every system, process and product from zero, or start with a framework that’s already been developed, tested and refined.

For a first-time business owner, that distinction can make all the difference. If café ownership is something you’ve been considering, the next step doesn’t need to be a leap of faith, it can start with a conversation.

Learn about the business, meet the people behind it, talk to existing franchisees, and decide for yourself whether the Gloria Jean’s system is the right platform for your first step into business ownership.