Tance Hughes began franchising with coffee concept PJ’s Coffee of New Orleans in 2021, opening his first unit in a small Mississippi town two years later. Hughes’ grassroots marketing efforts have been a driver for success since day one, when his store broke the brand’s franchise record for opening day sales.
Tance Hughes knows his way around a small town.
Hughes hails from Vidalia, Louisiana, a town bordering the Mississippi River with less than 4,000 people.
On the opposite side of the river lies Natchez, Mississippi, a city with a little more than 14,000 people. While some may overlook a town of this size for business development, Hughes saw an opportunity and took it in 2021, when he signed his first franchise agreement with coffee concept PJ’s Coffee of New Orleans.
He hasn’t looked back since.
“In terms of franchising, I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel. I didn’t have experience in restaurants or coffee or anything like that … but I’m good at marketing and executing on a plan,” Hughes said. “I figured since those are my strengths, why don’t I spend my time doing that and follow a playbook that’s already been established? I feel like that would give me a leg up instead of trying to figure out what kind of machine to purchase, where I source this product, that product. Leveraging all the resources they already have is worth that royalty fee.”
Prior to franchising, Hughes ran his own manufacturing company in Natchez for 13 years. He credited that job with teaching him about business operations and marketing, which are skills he leverages as a franchisee.
Marketing, in particular, has been the catalyst for his first unit’s success—even before doors opened in March 2023. Starting early on brand awareness has made the difference in Natchez, where Hughes saw a “blue ocean opportunity” with the town then devoid of coffee chains.
Hughes said he took inspiration from Apple’s marketing tactics with the iPhone, building hype well in advance of launching the product.
Tance Hughes operates one PJ’s Coffee unit in Natchez, Mississippi.
“They make it a big deal for so long that by the time opening day comes, people can’t help but go experience it or buy it. This is opposed to quietly opening a business, not talking about it until it’s ready and then opening your doors and just hoping people show up. Things don’t usually work that way,” he said. “Instead, for a year before we opened, we announced we were coming. We talked about the products, the drinks, local ownership, the location and showed how we were building out the space.”
Hughes kept residents up to date with digital marketing and progress updates on platforms like Facebook. He managed giveaways, distributing PJ’s products he bought from other stores to familiarize the community with the brand and its menu offerings.
“Anything I do is going to be tailored around making a franchise location feel as local to the community as possible,” he said, “no matter where I’m at.”
The work paid off, with the unit’s grand opening drawing a line out to the highway at 6 a.m. Opening day generated a little more than $6,000 in sales—a record-breaking opening day for PJ’s franchise units.
The café’s annual sales landed around $750,000 in 2023 as well as in 2024, Hughes said.
Related: PJ’s Coffee Finds Success in Café and Drive-Thru Hybrid Model
Nearly three years after opening, Hughes’ community-led marketing efforts are far from depleting.
“Localized marketing is the key,” Hughes said. “While PJ’s is a great company and comes with lots of national ad concepts and programs, anytime we focus our efforts on highlighting people and events and things going on in our community, we see so much more success because that’s what makes it still feel very locally owned and operated and very unique to the community as opposed to just another corporate location.”
The store’s Facebook page, its main social media tool, has around 4,300 followers—nearly a third of the town’s population.
In addition to traditional posts about menu offerings and promotions, the page features posts about local events and highlights community members as part of its “People of PJ’s” initiative—Hughes’ idea—which posts about and awards $20 gift cards to those doing good in the community.
Hughes also makes the company visible for events and distributes products to businesses throughout Natchez. The grassroots efforts are worth it, said Hughes, who has plans to open more PJ’s locations in the near future.
His advice for franchisees in a similar position with marketing? “Not assume what corporate gives you is going to get you by.”
“You have to be involved. You have to put in the work, and you have to spend money and time and effort on your marketing strategy and marketing the correct way,” he said. “So many brands copy and paste their strategy in every community, and we found a lot of leverage in putting that extra effort into personalizing our location while still following brand standards. We see that unlocking strong performance for us.”
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