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<No.551>
Growing Business Offers Paint with a Twist of Wine
It is the grand opening of the latest franchise studio of Painting with a Twist.

Co-founders, Cathy Deano and Renee Maloney flew into Ashburn, Virginia, for the event.

"We thought we just had one studio in our home town in Mandeville, Louisiana.

And it’s now grown to 173 franchises and grown in 26 states."

The stay-at-home mothers first met at their children’s kindergarten class seven years ago.

"We were looking for a way to bring some color back into our community.

We were still reeling from Hurricane Katrina.

And we came up with this idea of speed painting classes.

And it was a lot of fun and people loved it.

And so we decided to start up a little business."

Their studio provides art supplies - paint, canvas, brushes, and art instructors.

Pairing that with wine or beer is optional.

"The beauty of this is you don’t have to be an artist.

You can come and know nothing about painting.

And there is an artist who will teach you how to paint a painting in two to three hours.

That’s a twist."

Their first class in 2007 had only seven people.

But it grew steadily and two years later the entrepreneurs decided to franchise their business.

"Our frequent customers are asking us for these studios in their towns.

They think we should franchise.

So, our first three franchises came out of our customers."

Today there are about 200 companies offering so-called paint and sip parties, and Entrepreneur magazine named Painting with a Twist the top franchise in the industry this year.

As Painting with a Twist expands, the entrepreneurs are proud that they are creating jobs.

"We are the largest employer of artists in the United States outside the school system.

At this point, we have close to a thousand artists working in our franchises."

Maloney and Deano expect to add 50 new locations across the nation by the end of the year.

And they are working on opening up internationally soon.

Amy Katz, VOA News
 

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