We met the Price “Pack” as Donna affectionately calls her family of 6 kids under 15 when we operated as a brick & mortar candy store in Middletown, DE. If you ask Donna, her connection to the Candy Connections brand happened because it reminded her of “home”. Like franchisors Anthony and Daneya Jacobs, Donna is originally from NYC and has nostalgic memories of the candy store that she would visit in her childhood neighborhood.

Selling our first franchise is a consistent reminder to stick with your goals, have a vision, and be optimistic about your future. After we completed our FDD in September of 2021 we didn’t start promoting our franchise opportunity immediately.  An ounce of fear dripped in, and we sort of paused while we figured out how to move our brand forward as a franchise. 

In January of 2022 we worked up the courage and process to promote our opportunity. Mainly focusing on customers, we have served. It took us six months of active promotion and engagement to close our first deal and we couldn’t be more grateful. As a new franchisor we can say with confidence that fear is only a tool for motivation and never a debilitating disruption of our dreams!  

Donna has always been one of Candy Connections standout customers. She attended all of our events big or small and consistently displayed an unwavering amount of support. A natural entrepreneur herself with experience running other businesses with her husband we had several mompreneur conversations throughout the years. When we started the franchise process, she was one of the few people I mentioned it to, she said “when you have some information, send it to me”.

I did, and the conversations naturally started to happen after she attended our first “Franchising Friday” zoom call in January of 2022. Donna was asking all the right questions and was fully engaged. After our 2nd or 3rd call, I knew she would be our first franchisee and it would take patience and diligence our part to get her to signing day! 

In June of 2022 we completed Brookfield’s Property- Partner to Empower Program. As graduates of the program, Brookfield has welcomed us to open Candy Connections in any of the malls in their vast portfolio throughout the United States including Hawaii, each location will receive a custom build out and signage fully funded! We cannot wait to grow our franchise portfolio within Brookfield Properties. Our goal is 10 locations by 2025.