The 2025 Franchisee of the Year award winners share the magical secrets to their success
By Alyssa Thulmann and Joelle Kidd
There’s a kind of alchemy that occurs, when the right entrepreneur is paired with the perfect franchise system, that turns passion into gold. This past April in Niagara Falls, the Canadian Franchise Association (CFA) celebrated this magic by recognizing eight franchisees who have found success and fulfillment by pursuing their dreams of business ownership through the power of franchising.
The Franchisee of the Year award celebrates the accomplishments of exceptional franchisees who have achieved a high level of business performance, engaged in meaningful community service, and have been pillars of their franchise brand. Read on to learn more about the 2025 Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners in traditional (brick-and-mortar) and non-traditional (remote/mobile business) categories, and what makes them the shining stars of their franchise communities.
Gold – Traditional Franchise
Sara Lisk, COBS Bread
London, Ontario
When Sara Lisk received the email congratulating her on being a finalist for the Franchisee of the Year award, she was just about to join a call with her franchisor, COBS Bread. She had never heard of the award, but when she joined the call and shared the news, everyone clapped in celebration. One month later, she was on stage at the CFA National Convention in Niagara Falls accepting the Gold award. “It was an incredibly special moment for me to be there with so many of the people from COBS head office who had supported me on my franchising journey,” Lisk says.
Lisk’s relationship with COBS began ten years ago when a family friend introduced her to the bakery and its bread-lined walls. After her first visit to a COBS Bread bakery in Vancouver, she was hooked, and worked at the Kerrisdale location while studying at the University of British Colombia.
She began as a sales associate, developed into a sales manager, and won a national sales award during her first few years with COBS. “At that point I was like, ‘I think I’m good at this. I think I found something that I love doing and that I’m actually seeing success with,’” recounts Lisk. She thought: “This is a company I can see myself [growing a career] with.”
At first she considered going into franchise compliance, but then she asked herself, “What if I, like, owned a bakery?” With a laugh, Lisk adds, “Which is a pretty bold statement from a 23-year-old.”
In this case, bold was gold. The COBS Bread team supported her desire to open her own location and she moved back to Ontario, where she got the chance to see what goes into a new bakery’s opening in Waterdown. “Learning what a new bakery is like to open: the struggles, the training, the wins, the innovative marketing. I really learned so much from that experience,” says Lisk. She then brought that knowledge with her to London, Ontario.
Her first COBS franchise opened in northwest London in November 2019. By April 2024, Lisk welcomed her second location in the southwest part of the city. “We decided to open Easter weekend,” she says, “which is famously one of the busiest times of the year, but I’m always up for a challenge.”
Lisk’s husband Jerry now works for her COBS business as well, and with the success of the first two franchises, they’re planning to open three more, making Lisk the brand’s first franchisee to operate five locations in Canada.
“For me, COBS is what allows me to make a difference in the world,” says Lisk. “Every customer that walks in that door, we’re brightening their day … we make them feel special and valued. Then at the end of the day we’re donating our unsold product to several different organizations within the community.”
Lisk’s COBS locations also do a lot of work with the Alzheimer Society, including an annual Doughnation Day campaign to raise money for the organization.
“But how do we take it one step further?” Lisk asks. The Alzheimer Society Southwest Partners has a three-hour recreation program called The Social which offers cognitive, physical, and social activities for those living with Alzheimer’s. Lisk has committed to running baking classes for The Social for one week each year, making scones and sandwiches, and teaching the guests about bread. “Honestly, it’s the highlight of my year,” Lisk shares.
Ronen Vilenski, director of operations (Eastern Canada) for COBS Bread shares that Lisk is committed to giving back to her community. “Sara has a growth mindset in every sense of the word. From building and developing her team into leaders, to her commitment to her customers and community. She is involved in many different charities and is a brand ambassador in her community.”
For Lisk, it’s the culture and people that are important: “People are your greatest asset; they should be your number one priority. Our goal and our mission is to make sure that all our employees feel valued, supported, and appreciated.”
She recommends that all franchisees invest in and respect their employees. “Put your people first … That’s where I think I’ve seen so much of my success from, it’s because I’ve had those key people, I’ve invested in them and supported them in building their careers.”
Gold – Non-Traditional Franchise
Greg O’Brien, Hickory Dickory Decks
Halifax, Nova Scotia
When Greg O’Brien finally hit the button that said “Send me more information,” a Hickory Dickory Decks (HDD) franchise became more than just an interest of Greg’s—it became a reality. Within 24 hours he was on the phone with the CEO, Tom Jacques, talking about the franchise and sharing their stories.
O’Brien graduated from university in the early 1990s and went directly into business for himself in the food industry. Back then, some of his friends opened franchises and he saw how they were able to grow and scale in these solid, proven systems. Despite his success as a young entrepreneur, he saw the value of the franchise model.
In the decades that followed, he’d owned numerous independent businesses, as well as having successful careers in the recruitment and medical technology fields. By the time he was in his 50s and looking for a new career path, O’Brien remembered his friends’ experiences with franchising. “When I decided that I wanted to get back into business for myself, being at the age that I’m at … I really wanted to find something that would give me an opportunity to get started [quickly] and maybe accelerate the growth,” O’Brien says. Carpentry was a passion of his, and the HDD franchise spoke to him: “It was a slam dunk for me. I honestly didn’t look at anything else after [Jacques and I] had a conversation.”
Jacques shares a similar sentiment to O’Brien when it comes the beginning of their professional relationship. “We met over the phone and instantly made a connection. Greg is well spoken and confident and, you can tell from first speaking to him, a man of honesty and integrity,” Jacques says. “I liked him instantly.”
From that first phone call sprung a meeting, with Jacques himself picking up O’Brien from Pearson International Airport to show him around the head office, showroom, and the Deck Yard down the road. Afterwards, O’Brien returned home with the franchise agreement and franchise disclosure document in-hand. Shortly after the 15-day waiting period, O’Brien officially became part of the HDD family, shares Jacques. He opened his first franchise in Halifax in the fall of 2022.
“It’s funny because this is technically considered a seasonal business,” says O’Brien, “but we never stop. We have never put our hammers down.” It’s through this hard work that O’Brien has grown into an award-winning franchisee, in his third year of operation. He’s since purchased a second area in the South Shore and, according to Jacques, has helped grow the HDD group in Nova Scotia from two to five franchises.
The success with HDD has snowballed into new opportunities for O’Brien; he, Jacques, and Kevin Lake, an executive with HDD, are starting a spinoff handiwork franchise, Handy Bee. Additionally, O’Brien has started a seamless gutter business, Atlantic Premier Gutters, with a family member. “If you can provide excellent service at a fair price, there’s really no limit to what opportunities are out there,” O’Brien says.
When O’Brien found out he’d been nominated for the CFA’s Franchisee of the Year award, he shares, “I was just blown away. Then to win was even crazier after that … It’s been good to share that with my team and clients. You know, validates our hard work and really emphasizes that we’re doing the right things.”
For O’Brien, satisfaction comes from supporting his community. “When I looked at the award there was a reference to community, and I think community is critical,” he shares. His franchise sponsors numerous sports teams and recently sponsored an event for six classes of children between the ages of five and seven to visit the local Discovery Centre’s dinosaur exhibit.
O’Brien emphasizes, “I think each franchisee—especially as you grow your business and you get to a certain level of success—I think you owe it to your community to give something back, so it’s something that I really love to do.”
Silver – Traditional Franchise
Sophia Stiperski and Jean-Sébastien Carré – OrangeTheory Fitness
Montreal, Quebec
When their franchisor, OrangeTheory Fitness, called with “big news,” franchisees and married couple Sophia Stiperski and Jean-Sébastien Carré had no idea they were about to be surprised with a Franchisee of the Year nomination.
“It was a very nice surprise!” says Stiperski. “We felt …”
“Honoured!” Carré supplies. “We were up against a lot of people, not just in the OrangeTheory community.” (Which is already a big community, as the brand boasts more than 100 locations in Canada.)
While the recognition might have been a surprise, success is not—the couple has been working hard for it since opening their first OrangeTheory Fitness location eight years ago. “We spend a lot of time in the studios—we go there every day,” notes Stiperski. “We are very close to our staff, our members. It’s not something that we bought just to make money and retire one day. We’re very hands-on.”
When they opened their first location, the couple worked 60 or 70 hour weeks, Carré estimates; Stiperski guesses they took a total of two days off over the first two years. Even eight years later, Stiperski still manages the entire team of trainers at all three locations, and the couple spends time in each location every week. They’re always on call to help their staff.
These franchisees come by this dedication honestly. The couple met while working in Las Vegas, Stiperski with Cirque du Soleil and Carré on stage with Céline Dion’s Vegas residency. Their backgrounds as performers, while perhaps not the typical entrepreneurial path, instilled them with a sense that “the show must go on,” Carré says.
“It’s our drive,” adds Stiperski. “We both come from a background where you have to give 100 per cent, 150 per cent, every night on stage. Even if you’re sick, you’re tired, there are no excuses—you have to go on and perform.” In business, she says, that translates to always looking forward to the next milestone of success. “We have this drive of wanting to be the best, to be different, to bring something that other people don’t bring. [We’re always asking,] ‘How can we be better?’”
Today, Stiperski and Carré own three locations, and are actively looking for real estate to open their fourth.
“The biggest thing is the community we build,” says Stiperski. “I love this business because it’s a people business.” Everyone from staff to members know one another by name at the couple’s studios, and many members come early to classes just to chat. “Yes, it’s fitness, but it’s about changing lives, it’s about making people feel better,” says Stiperski. There’s nothing more fulfilling than seeing a customer turn their life around, she says—physically and mentally. They have even seen multiple couples meet in their studios who are now married.
The secret to success, they say, is loving what you do—being passionate about your product or service—as well as learning to delegate and surrounding yourself with a good team.
“It’s hard work—it’s very stressful, and there are nights that we don’t sleep,” she says of running the business. “But in the end, you see these things and you think, I do make a change. It matters, what we do.”
“We love the brand, we love the people that started it,” Stiperski adds. “And I think that now, looking at where we are today? We definitely made the right choice.”
Silver – Non-Traditional Franchise
Robert Daigle, InXpress
Halifax, Nova Scotia
When Robert Daigle first bought his InXpress franchise in 2020, he thought he was buying himself a side hustle.
“I stumbled upon it, believe it or not, and then called them up. I really liked the idea—I liked the business model,” he says. At first, he ran the business in the evenings after coming home from his corporate job as a sales VP, working with clients in B.C. and Alberta to take advantage of the time difference from his home in Halifax, Nova Scotia. But soon, the lure of the freedom and independence the franchise offered became enough that he quit his job and began working on his InXpress franchise full time.
InXpress is a shipping logistics company that offers a streamlined small parcel service for both individuals and small e-commerce businesses in addition to services for larger, more complex freight and cargo shipping. Daigle says he was drawn to the business because it offered him the chance to work on what he loves—sales and building long-term client relationships—with back-end support that takes care of the administrative tasks he doesn’t care for, like invoicing and collections.
“The growth in my business is in larger-scale projects, [and] that lends itself to my background, things that I like to do,” he says. “Other franchisees focus on other areas of the business that they like to do—it gives you the opportunity to find the niche that makes sense, and grow that niche. You can operate as a one-man show, as an independent salesperson, or … build your own mini-empire within the empire.”
On the heels of a year with strong sales growth, Daigle has begun building a team with hopes of having five account managers and customer support employees in the next year and a half. “I’m focusing less on working in the business and more on, ‘How can I take this to the next level?’” he says.
With InXpress’s cloud-based platforms, the business can be run from anywhere. For Daigle, it means working from home, getting to spend more time with his wife, his 19-year-old daughter, and his 15-year-old son. “I want to build something for me and my family that my kids might like, that I could hand down.”
Unlike having a job, owning your own business means a lot more soul-searching about the reasons you’re choosing to work in a chosen career, Daigle notes. “You really do have to get up every morning and go, ‘Why do I want to do this?’”
That’s why he says its important for potential franchisees to know what they want and plan ahead. “The first thing is, know thyself. What gets you going? What do you think you’re good at? … Look for a franchise that plays to your strengths. And think five or 10 years ahead. Have a timeframe. Will it give me the lifestyle that I want if I put the effort in?”
Since turning his side hustle into a full-fledged business, Daigle has grown his InXpress franchise into a high-performing operation with plans to expand.
“For my age, I’m probably working harder than I expected to be working,” he says with a laugh. “The vision is in the next couple of years to build, to scale to the point where I’m working on—and less in—the business.” But it’s all worth it for the autonomy and freedom that comes with working for himself. “[You have to] look five years out and say, ‘Is that the kind of organization that I could develop into something that would make me happy?’”
He’s certainly found that with InXpress.
Bronze – Traditional Franchise
Frank Goldschleger, Mad Science Group
Toronto, Ontario
When Frank Goldschleger received the email telling him he was nominated for the CFA’s Franchisee of the Year award, he nearly deleted it, thinking it was spam. In actuality, his franchise system, Mad Science, meant the nomination to be a surprise.
“When the shock wore off and I realized it was real, I was touched,” Goldschleger says. “It’s nice to be honoured, to be recognized.”
This sentiment aligns with Goldschleger’s humble attitude toward his longstanding Mad Science business. He was the brand’s first franchisee when he bought his Toronto-based location in 1994. “I’ve been working in and on my business for over 30 years—you start to lose track of the fact that owning a franchise, that’s an impressive accomplishment,” he says. “There’s not a lot of businesses that last that long, or succeed over that many years.”
Montreal-born Goldschleger had just finished his MBA and moved to Toronto when he heard about the Mad Science opportunity from a friend visiting from Montreal, where the brand was founded. “My [MBA] colleagues were all going into these high-paying finance jobs or working for big packaged-goods companies, and that never spoke to me. I thought there was something wrong with me,” says Goldschleger. But the idea of starting a Mad Science in Toronto excited him. “I’d never really worked for anyone—I was always doing something on my own, an entrepreneur at heart. I quickly realized that owning a franchise was a faster way to business ownership.”
When he bought the business in his 20s, Goldschleger says he first viewed franchising as a five-year plan. “I thought, five years then I’ll get a real job, you know?” he laughs. Instead, it’s been three decades—and in that time, he says he’s learned to move from working in his business to working on his business, from going out to run birthday parties and do science presentations to hiring and managing a team. “I realized I could have not only a good five years, but a good career, a good lifestyle.”
Mad Science runs birthday parties, after- and before-school care, day camps, and other educational presentations for kids that centre around scientific experiments. Goldschleger’s team includes eight full-time staff and 35 to 55 presenters and part-time instructors who work with them throughout the year. “We’re offering fun science for kids—we’re launching rockets, making fun slime with the kids. We’re doing really cool stuff,” he says. For Goldschleger, it feels good to introduce science to kids: “You feel like you’re making the world a better place.”
But his success is also a testament to the culture he’s created within his team. “I have four key people, including myself, and we have over 70 years of Mad Science experience [between us]. They like what they do, they obviously must like working for me, and they’ve been with me through thick and thin, 15 to 20 years.”
It’s important to surround yourself with smart, capable people when hiring, Goldschleger says, but it’s just as important to step back and cede control. “Everyone in here knows more than me, which is great. I’ve surrounded myself with great people who are really smart and intelligent. But to do that I’ve really had to step back and say, ‘okay, here’s my baby, take care of my baby.’ And they’ve done a great job.”
Goldschleger says at this stage in his business, he’s focused on increasing equity—by updating and improving systems, introducing new tools, and staying on top of technology—and thinking about eventual succession plans. Nonetheless, he’s still going strong.
“Mad Science has a really strong leadership team at the head office in Montreal, so I’m really energized,” he adds. “I believe as soon as you find an industry or a franchisor that speaks to you, you’ll know it right away … I think you really have to choose something you really believe in, where you can look at yourself in the mirror and feel good about yourself.”
Bronze – Non-Traditional Franchise
Dejan and Olga Radulovic, JDI Cleaning
Waterloo, Ontario
When Dejan and Olga Radulovic found out they were nominated for Franchisee of the Year, they were surprised and grateful. But when they won … “I was totally blown away,” Olga says.
“Shocked,” adds Dejan.
“Yeah, totally shocked,” elaborates Olga. “It’s great to be nominated, but actually winning—I felt like I was at the Oscars. It was a great feeling.”
The Radulovics have a long history with JDI Cleaning, a janitorial services franchise that performs commercial cleaning. Dejan’s mom and his uncles owned a JDI franchise together, the first in the region, exposing Dejan and Olga directly to the business and its impact. “It felt like a natural fit for us and we knew the level of support and community JDI offers,” Olga explains. “It’s not just about running a business, it’s about continuing a legacy and being part of something that’s been successful and trusted for years.”
The couple opened their local JDI franchise in 2011, and in 2015, had the opportunity to purchase a larger region and become regional directors. Their southern Ontario territory covers Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Guelph, Brantford, and surrounding towns.
In running their service-based business, the Radulovics focus on the relationships and the people. “One philosophy we always carry with us is to treat people right. Whether it’s our clients, or our franchise owners or anyone that we work with, we believe that if you lead with honesty, do your best work, and take pride in what you do, good things will follow,” the Radulovics say. “At the end of the day, it’s about building trust and doing the kind of work we can all feel proud of.”
They’re also involved with the local community, sponsoring Team Howard Curling and the 15U Elite Girls Volleyball Team. Olga adds, “we also participate in local events like community cleanups, barbeques … giving back to the community is important to us and we love being part of events that bring people together and make a positive impact.”
“Whenever anything’s going on in the community or around the schools, or anything like that, we always try to get involved,” says the couple. When their kids’ school first opened, they made donations for the school to buy playground equipment and were given an award by the school in gratitude. “They called our kids to get the award and [the kids] were so proud. Because the kids were proud, the kids that knew our kids were proud. It was very cute.”
For the Radulovics, being part of JDI means being part of a team. Their favourite aspect of being franchisees with the brand is the support and sense of community they feel: “We never feel like we’re doing this alone, there’s always someone there to guide us, to answer questions, and to cheer us on.”
It’s not just the community and the energy that solidifies Dejan and Olga’s appreciation for JDI, though. They believe in the work they’re doing. “It’s also great to be part of a brand that values quality and integrity, which makes it easier to take pride in the work we do every day,” Olga says.
For those considering franchising as a career path for themselves, the Radulovics advise to “stay committed, to be patient, and don’t be afraid to ask for help. Success doesn’t happen overnight, but if you put in the work, you stay organized, and you really care about your customers and your team, it really pays off.” With all their experience and success as JDI regional directors they add, “lean into the support system that’s available; there’s a lot to learn and you don’t have to figure it all out on your own.”
As Dejan and Olga continue their work they plan to keep growing their territory, supporting their local franchisees and helping new owners just beginning their journey with JDI. “We’re focused on building strong relationships, making sure everyone has the tools they need to succeed, and maintaining the quality and care that JDI is known for. So, we’re excited to keep growing both as a team and as a business.”
