The latest Florida Travel Blog rates Tallahassee as one of the state's top three locations for young business professionals. And it seems the city is also the ideal site for a rapidly growing national franchise business, according to the founder and CEO of Natural Life Franchise Corporation.
Gabriel Suarez didn't start off with the goal of going into the franchise business. He's got a degree in Fine Arts from Florida State, a big leap from the business and entreprenurship sector. But Suarez said his pivot began with an effort to help a sibling. A brother who Suarez says had been afflicted with a serious illness.
"My youngest brother was born with juvenile arthritis. It's an incurable disease that children are rarely born with. So he's dealt with that his whole life growing up and I've tried dozens and dozens of the world's most renowned treatments for controlling this the best it can be controlled because it's non-curable. And in his teenage years, after trying everything, found the most relief through natural solutions."
Which is how Suarez became sold on these kinds of products, including marijuana plant-derived CBD herbals, along with kratom and kava.
"And that really opened up my eyes to the power and benefit of natural healing, controlled botanicals and just plants in general."
Today, Natural Life stores stock an extensive array of these products, as well as other plant-based health and beauty aids, plus clothing and sundry items.
Suarez opened his first Natural Life store in Tallahassee in 2017. It quickly became a chain of stores.
"We opened up a second one in Jacksonville, then came back to Tallahassee for one on Thomasville Road. Then bounced back and forth between Tallahassee and Jacksonville opening store after store for about 2 years. And I was working on my 6th store - my 3rd store in Tallahassee on Capital Circle - and decided that even this mission wasn't going to help enough people. And if we really wanted to help everyone and make natural solutions accessible to every community, it has to scale faster than we can do it on our own."
So Suarez turned to the franchise concept, allowing other entrepreneurs to buy into the Natural Life idea and open their own stores. He says that business model has kicked store growth into overdrive.
"Since 2020 to 2023, we went from 6 territories to 27 territories that we have today. Just in the next few days, we have another franchisee joining the family that will extend us into our 11th state, New Jersey."
Back in Tallahassee, Gabriel Suarez, the founder of Natural Life, expects that rapid growth to continue throughout 2024 and beyond.
