The Science of Business

WHAT STARTED AS A side gig of sorts in an incredibly niche market has now grown into a 75-unit franchise system with high-performing sales metrics and some of the most innovative practices in the industry.

When I started in retail in 2006, it was before “nerdy” was considered cool or mainstream — The Big Bang Theory wasn’t even a thing yet. But as scientists, my partners and I understood the niche appeal, and we started Uniquely Geek. It was an online market that sold items like 3-D DaVinci models and apparel with quippy sayings like, “The gene pool needs chlorine.” Our plan was to open similar online stores, in multiple niche markets and to start a mini e-commerce empire.

When we went to purchase the 100 T-shirt designs from a screen printer, unfamiliar phrases were used like color separation, art fees, vectorization, and minimum quantities. Because of minimums, we couldn’t afford or even store the initial inventory we would need to fulfill orders. This is when the foundation of Big Frog Custom T-Shirts & More really started, even if we hadn’t realized it yet. After attending a printing trade show, we purchased one of the first Brother DTG printers in the Southeast so we could print and fulfill orders on demand. Our product line was finally in place, but when we were featured on the morning news, things changed.

A local TV news outlet came to feature us in a community news segment. They wanted to tell the story of the three ex-scientists running a geek store and printing T-shirts. In the segment, we had a lot of fun with the DTG printer, printing shirts for the crew. After the segment aired, we were flooded with calls from people wanting to order T-shirts. We thought, “We sell this nerd stuff, not T-shirts!” But we quickly realized that this was about more than just the shirts themselves.

A Community Asking for Help

The people coming to us were fellow members of our community needed help with their branding, event shirts, athletic apparel, and more. It was plumbers running small businesses and small churches that needed just a few shirts made. We wanted to help and we wanted to do it right, so we started offering T-shirt printing services with free design, no extra fees, and no minimum order size requirements. We filled the niche for people who needed 100 shirts or less. The word got out, and it really took off. We decided that this might be a better business model than Uniquely Geek, so we opened our first T-shirt shop on the main strip in Clearwater, FL.

When we started our retail store, one of the first things we did was create online stores for some local pet rescues. People could purchase a shirt with their dog’s picture on it or get a free shirt when they adopted a dog. We would donate $5 per shirt sold via a rescue’s online website store back to the rescue itself. That was our passion anyway, so it really helped us build one of the foundational aspects of the larger Big Frog brand. Our franchisees today continue to make similar efforts, benefitting causes close to their hearts, like fundraisers for kids battling cancer or students with special needs.

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Big Frog’s Ongoing Growth

Over time, Big Frog’s give-back efforts have grown and developed alongside our printing methods and product offerings. Now, we have individual OrderMyGear sites that are easy for franchisees to set up. It’s not a challenge, it’s part of the fun. Owners can make money and pay their bills, but they’re also able to find fulfillment in being a Big Frog owner. We are one of the unique business opportunities that truly is community focused.

As we have grown in communities, we’ve also expanded our printing techniques. At first, our stores only had direct-to-garment printing, but we soon added vinyl so we could take orders for team gear like Little Leagues. As we got to know the market better, we slowly introduced screen printing, embroidery, and dye sublimation. It has been an evolution over the past 15 years. We slowly added these techniques, proving their viability and learning how to price and sell them. This year we introduced hard goods and promotional products like stress balls and Stanley Cups.

A new dye sublimation partner is helping us create the all-over, cut-and-sew pocket jerseys, like the NASCAR jerseys that have sponsorship logos all over them. Not all our stores offer this service, but it’s a new, untapped market for Big Frog. It’s an opportunity for us to offer a high-quality, niche product, and it’s especially exciting for franchisees who are passionate about sports and other industries that benefit from this decoration method.

Franchisee Accolades

Big Frog is a franchise that recently recognized five locations earning $1 million or more and commemorated many other revenue and business milestones at its annual Frog-A-Thon conference. Known for its “frog-tastic” custom apparel, the franchise has grown from one location in Florida in 2008 to nearly 80 independently owned locations in 25 states and Canada last year.

We are incredibly proud of our hard-working owners, but it’s especially important to celebrate the financial milestones of Big Frog franchisees who achieved $1 million or more in revenue.

The five stores that earned $1 million or more in 2023 included:

1. Big Frog of Northwest Arkansas – John and Mara Dougherty, Owners
2. Big Frog of San Diego Clairemont-Mesa – Steve Lui, Owner
3. Big Frog of Plano – Joe Mock, Owner
4. Big Frog of Green Hills – Dan and Janet Carmichael, and Lina Wagoner, Owners
5. Big Frog of South Austin – Susan Hitt, Owner

A Bright Future

Big Frog always had no barriers to entry for our customers: no set-up fees, no minimums, and 15–20 minutes of free design time for free. Someone can come in with something as simple as, “I want a heart with a bird,” and we’ll create that design. We’ve always offered 24-hour turnaround times, and now some of our stores offer same-day printing.

The entire system has made leaps and bounds in terms of the methods we use to deliver the customer experience and, at the leadership level, we’re only looking to continue that growth. This year, we’re working to make the business even easier to run with new technology, marketing, design centers, and e-commerce options.

Everything we do is to serve the customers. They should view us as their ultimate sales consultant, and we are here to equip local Big Frog teams to be great sales consultants. We want to give our customers the perfect product, and we’ll explain every step of the process along the way to make that happen.

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