Color Me Mine
For Antima Jain and Pooja Choudhary, franchise ownership wasn’t part of a long-term plan. It grew out of a quieter question they kept asking themselves as their children got older and needed them less: What do we want our next chapter to look like?
In March 2025, they found their answer when they opened a Color Me Mine paint-your-own pottery studio in Edina, Minnesota. Neither woman had business ownership experience. Yet within just five months of opening, their studio earned a place among the brand’s Top 25 locations—a ranking it has maintained ever since.
For the two best friends, their achievement is about far more than business success. It’s proof that it’s never too late to reinvent yourself, pursue a new dream and show your children what courage looks like.
Stay-at-Home-Moms Reclaiming Their Careers Through Franchising
Long before they became business partners, Antima and Pooja were friends. The two women immigrated from India and relocated to Minnesota in 2014, where they met through a mutual friend. Drawn together by similar family values, backgrounds and interests, they quickly formed a close bond. Over the years, that friendship grew into something more akin to sisterhood.
Like many mothers, both spent years putting family first. Antima had worked as a preschool teacher in India before moving to the United States and later held a part-time position at a Kumon learning center. Pooja earned a master’s degree in engineering, but much of her adult life was focused on raising her two daughters.
As their children grew older, both women began looking for a new challenge—something that would allow them to engage with the community, pursue their creativity and build something of their own.
The pair explored several ideas, but nothing felt quite right, until they visited a Color Me Mine studio and immediately fell in love with the experience. They had never considered franchising before, as like many others, they associated the business model with gas stations and fast-food restaurants. Color Me Mine completely changed their perception, providing them with an opportunity to own a business that felt creative, meaningful and personal, while still benefitting from the support of an established brand.
Together, they decided to take the leap.
Growing a Woman-Owned Creative Business
Like most first-time business owners, Antima and Pooja quickly experienced a learning curve faced with the realities of entrepreneurship: staffing, inventory, scheduling and day-to-day operations were all entirely new. Yet rather than be discouraged by what they didn’t know, they embraced every challenge as an opportunity to learn.
They also found confidence in the support provided by the franchise system. Rather than having to build every process from scratch, they were able to lean on the proven systems, resources and guidance available through Color Me Mine while developing confidence as business owners.
At the same time, they focused relentlessly on creating an exceptional guest experience, with the goal to make every visitor feel welcomed and inspired. Combining that commitment with active involvement in the local community through the Chamber of Commerce, local art fairs and charitable donations helped the studio quickly build a loyal customer base and land them in the brand’s Top 25 performing locations within the first five months after opening.
Setting the Stage for a Family Legacy
The thing that motivates Antima and Pooja more than business growth is family – from the beginning, they wanted to show their daughters what was possible. Launching a business in their 40s allowed them to demonstrate that personal growth does not stop and that pursuing goals is possible at any stage of life.
Today, the business has become a true family affair. Antima’s daughter, currently pursuing graduate studies, works in the studio whenever she’s home and treats the business as if it were her own. Pooja’s daughters are equally enthusiastic: her oldest helps out at the studio and her youngest eagerly counts down the days until she is old enough to officially join the team.
They also see the potential for the studio to be passed down to the next generation – building not only a successful business, but a family legacy.
What began as a conversation between two friends searching for purpose has become a thriving community hub, a successful woman-owned business and a powerful example for their daughters. Their journey proves that sometimes the most rewarding opportunities can come from having the courage to embrace a new chapter.