Featured Interview: Suzy Nettles and Julie Burleson,Young Chefs Academy

By startupprincess | Published November 8, 2007

It is our pleasure to introduce Startup Princesses Suzy Nettles and Julie Burleson, Founders of the successful Young Chefs Academy (YCA) with over 155 children’s cooking school franchises sold since June 2005.

Suzy and Julie’s 3rd business venture together (partners for 10 years) and aren’t looking for a 4th anytime soon. Their first bu siness was “Backyard Basil” a live plant, culinary, and bath herb shop, which won best business plan at Baylor in 1998 but they soon realized it didn’t’ fit with their lifestyle and family responsibilities so they quit. Their second business was a unique hair clip company however, unfortunately someone helping them with it duplicated the concept. When they told me this as I asked them, “How do you keep your cool?” they replied, HUMOR! Their next business was a catering business but when their kids wanted to help make the food they realized Young Chef’s Academy was the PERFECT business for Julie’s experience as a Chef and Suzy’s experience in elementary education, fulfilled a need in the community (the country!) plus provided an opportunity for their whole family to help. (Now both of their husbands work for them in merchandise production and at the warehouse) not to mention their kids all know when “National Roasted Marshmallow Day” is and enjoy participating in events, including the Disney ones they recently featured for the release of Ratatouille and partnered with Disney for the “Big Cheese Tour” which included free movie tickets, special “Disney approved” recipes, French lessons and a themed Rataouille party for 95 YCA locations.

This special event helped them to turn a corner from some challenges their young company faced and the timing couldn’t have been better for the company’s morale. Initially Suzy and Julie had a third partner and after a year into the relationship realized there was a conflict of interest and bought him out as of May 2007. They also learned the hard way that it’s best to sell your own franchises and not rely on a broker. Since the partner buy-out there has been many tough decisions to make, reinforcing compliant issues and restructuring to do, yet they remain very optimistic and know they can turn things around. One thing that is on their side is they really understand how to run the franchise themselves they were owner-operators of a YCA in Waco, Texas for 2 years before they started franchising.

One of the many key ingredients to making YCA successful is that it isn’t just “how to frost a cupcake” it’s a solid curriculum, where children learn facts about ingredients–where it’s grown, how it’s been used historically and culturally. Suzy’s the brain behind the curriculum and manages the 10-person curriculum staff as a former elementary ed teacher she wants kids to experience cooking and feel joy in preparing and learning. Julie is the COO, over business operations. They describe their partnership with Julie as the “Baker” (concept-driven and detail oriented, refined style) and Suzy as the “Cook” (fearless, creative style).

images.jpgSuzy and Julie’s Magic Wand Tip: “Choose your partners wisely, get to know them well and find someone that compliments your personality and skills who can fill in the gaps.”

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