For the past 19 years, we have been offering our expertise in blind repair and installation to the Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas areas. Our experience of adapting and thriving during difficult economic situations has created a tight-knit team of experts ready to help our franchisees go the distance and succeed.
We founded Bloomin’ Blinds on September 11, 2001, only two hours before planes hit the Twin Towers in New York. A challenging economic climate soon followed in the wake of the national tragedy, and although it wasn’t an ideal time to launch a business, we decided to move forward anyway.
Our team learned to adapt and thrive in volatile economic markets – and our resilience is fundamental to how we run Bloomin’ Blinds today.
The Experiences That Shape Our Brand
Kelsey Stuart, CEO of Bloomin’ Blinds, spent most of his youth in the restaurant industry in customer-facing positions, including as a bartender and front of house staff. For Kelsey, that experience allowed him to thrive on personal interaction but also refined his ability to multitask while still providing top-notch service to customers.
“Being in the restaurant business, I learned how to work under pressure and stay calm,” explained Kelsey. “When you’re in the weeds, you just move faster – you can’t panic. The only solution is to just grab it and go.”
While Kelsey learned how to calmly operate under pressure from his time within the restaurant industry, his first job out of high school cold-calling for an event planning company helped give him confidence in offering his services to potential clients and prospective franchise owners.
The Building Blocks of a Successful Family Business
Kelsey, along with his two brothers, Kristopher and Kevin, run Bloomin’ Blinds as a family and were blessed with two incredibly forward-thinking, entrepreneurial parents that paved the way for them.
“My parents had big entrepreneurial instincts. They had multiple businesses – and they had some really good ideas before they were big ideas in the business world,” explained Kelsey. “My mom and grandmother started a takeout pizza restaurant chain – the guy who started Papa Murphy’s bought his first set of equipment from my mom when she closed down the chain as they were moving out of the area. She also had a children’s resale clothing store that offered in-store credits for gently used clothes – she wanted to open up dog washes ten years before they got big.”
Watching their parents turn their business dreams into reality, the brothers received a first-hand education of the realities of business, as well as a strong sense of money and financial literacy – making them a dream team of business owners.
Kelsey recognized that there’s no way he could run a home service franchise without the help of his brothers. Each member of the trio has his own strengths to lend to one another – from Kelsey’s strong people skills to Kris’s planning and structural thinking and Kevin’s ability to provide a middle ground within important decisions.
“Honestly, my brothers keep me more organized than I keep myself,” said Kelsey. “There are three of us with three incredibly different personalities. We have a unique dynamic because we’ve been working shoulder-to-shoulder for the past 16 years.”
Successfully Running a Business During Any Challenge
Bloomin’ Blinds came into existence only hours before a national tragedy would shake the nation – and our experience navigating our business through economic crises has given us the distinct capacity to stay steady while others may be forced to permanently shut their doors.
When COVID-19 hit the United States in March 2020, we decided to invest in the metaphorical storm that was brewing overhead instead of closing our doors and attempting to “wait it out.” We continued to invest in marketing and technology to support our franchisees – putting us in a better position to come out of the “storm” even stronger than we were before.
“It’s like when you’re biking in the Tour De France. When everyone’s going downhill – that’s the easy part,” said Kelsey. “It’s really hard to catch the leader because everyone’s moving as fast as they can and it’s hard to make up ground. But when you start going uphill – if you can be the one guy that gears down and grinds up that hill, you can find yourself at the front of the pack if you’re willing to put in the work when it’s the hardest.”
Not only are we big believers in working through the toughest times, we never stop evolving our business and what we can offer. We’re constantly looking for tools, technology and marketing to make the business better – there is nothing about Bloomin’ Blinds that is ever just comfortable and stagnant. It’s what has made us the sturdy, resilient business we are today.
Get to Know the Bloomin’ Blinds Franchise Opportunity
While no business is truly immune to recessions, we have survived and thrived through the challenges of 2001, the housing crisis and Great Recession from 2008-2010 and now COVID-19 – making us a recession-resistant investment for prospective entrepreneurs.