What began as a niche business in Clearwater, Florida in 2006, the Big Frog franchise, has leapt across the country into the Smithridge Shopping Center off of South McCarran Boulevard.
Spearheading the leap is Penny Gifford, a former Phoenix resident of 17 years before moving to Reno 2 years ago. Surprisingly, Gifford’s line of work transformed from being a technology product manager and working in banking to Big Frog’s innovative retail franchise of customizable screen-print designs.
“It had a great business model,” said Gifford, “good people, and we did tons of analysis with Rod [Jorgensen].”
Gifford sought the advising of the Nevada Small Business Center at the University of Nevada in order to do a marketing evaluation of Reno’s shopping centers, to make financial projections and to have a “sanity check”, joked Gifford.
Gifford and her husband, Tim Evans, researched Big Frog back in January of 2013, and recently launched their grand opening party on Thursday, June 19, 2014.
Big Frog is a strong competitor within the customizable t-shirt design market with their open and interactive storefront, allowing customers to move comfortably around the store to purchase pre-made, popular merchandise; or to create their own designs by working one-on-one with a Big Frog employee on a computer monitor. With 24-hour turn around, Big Frog’s digital printing technology and software amps up the dynamic nature of merchandise customization from manufacturing the simplest tote bag to mass-producing a bundle of t-shirts for a large organization.
“To start a good business, you need to have good product management,” said Gifford.
As Gifford advised, the products are well managed thanks to not only the franchise’s “Big Frog University”, a week’s training seminar covering all aspects of the business, but influential investors such as Gifford herself.
Reno’s Big Frog is located at 5057 South McCarran Blvd. Reno, NV 89502.
To inquire more about Big Frog, visit their website at: www.bigfrog.com.