Trainer, Train Thyself!

When the dog-training franchise Zoom Room stumbled, CEO Mark Van Wye took a step back to assess. Now he has the business standing back on all fours-and leaping.

- By Madeline Garfinkle

Mark Van Wye is in the dog-training business. But to thrive, he needed to do a better job training his own business.

"We made a lot of the classic mistakes that many new franchises do," he admits now. His business, Zoom Room, offers dog-training classes, as well as "a fun, sporty place" where owners can play with their pups. It was inspired by a sport called dog agility, where dogs run through obstacle courses. "We wanted to demystify dog training completely," Van Wye says, and dog owners jumped at the opportunity. His company started franchising in 2009 and grew to 20 units in five years, but then those early franchisees started failing. By 2019, Zoom Room was down to six franchised units-and Van Wye had put a two-year moratorium on new locations, giving himself time to fix the business. Now he's up to 24 units currently open and 60 units opening soon across 21 states. Here's what he did to get tails wagging again.

What were those early years like?