Franchise Articles

Guillermo Perales, the largest Latino franchise operator in the U.S., has been tapped to head up the 2017 Multi-Unit Franchising Conference. He'll serve as chair for franchising's premier event for multi-unit franchisees, franchisors, and suppliers. The conference will be held April 23-26, 2017 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
Perales is the founder and CEO of Sun Holdings, which operates more than 700 restaurant and retail units across 8 states. His brands include Burger King, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Arby's, Golden Corral, Krispy Kreme, Cicis, GNC, and T-Mobile. He takes the helm from last year's chair, Michael Kulp, president of KBP Foods, operator of more than 350 restaurants in 14 states.
Perales is no stranger to franchising or leadership...

Sibling partnerships create a dynamic environment - especially when managing relationships in a highly competitive multi-unit franchisee organization. Everything can feel personal because nothing can be "just business."
It is common to have varying opinions and differences in your personal relationships, and this is especially true with siblings. Growing up together, you share common memories and history. If your history resembles closeness, and reflects a deep and trusting bond, this can play into partner dynamics both positively and negatively. Sure, you all work together wonderfully, and are able to accomplish great things as a team. However, on the outside, to non-family members, your bond and togetherness might be intimidating and work against you in gaining the trust and respect of your other team members...

In today's environment, franchise buyers continue to require more from us. And they should! After the unsettling shock and awe of our Great Recession, prospective franchisees are more careful and their expectations noticeably higher. Buyers are more cautious and security-conscious, seeking investments that provide greater assurances and a greater comfort level.

Times have changed

When looking at the past in our rearview mirror, we can see that franchise recruiters could more easily capture a prospect's attention, build camaraderie, and foster a personable connection with prospective buyers. Our sales prescription called for a dose of likeability, stir in some engaging conversations, and present a nice, pleasant personality...

We asked Jim DiRugeris, Vice President of Franchise Development at Goddard Systems, how he analyzes, integrates, and applies key data in his franchise recruiting and development process. Here's what he had to say

When working with current and prospective franchisees, a great deal goes into recruiting and development efforts. A major obstacle for many franchisors is identifying the right franchisees who will help grow the brand. As a franchise, it's crucial to comprehend what makes a franchisee successful and then apply that information to development efforts.

The Goddard School uses a wide variety of tools to analyze key customer data, which we use to assist us in future recruiting efforts. Recently we introduced a Predictive Index Survey to the franchise awarding process...

One of the strategies multi-unit franchisees Brooke and Les Wilson practice to keep both their marriage and their business on track is to keep each in its proper place.
"After the first year of marriage and work, I wondered if we had more than a business partner relationship," says Brooke. "We had to draw a line. No business talk at home. If that means we stay at the office late to work through an issue, we do." That also meant no venting about business in their off hours, and no late night work emails, "a sacrifice we felt was important to keep work out of the house," she says.
The Wilsons, who own and operate five Two Men and a Truck territories in North Carolina and Georgia, are the recipient of this year's MVP Influencer Award for a Husband & Wife Team...

Franchising has proven to be a successful and popular business model since its mainstream inception many decades ago. Three constants have fueled its growth: the desire to expand, the need for capital to fuel that expansion, and the goal of operating seamlessly across large geographical distances. While the earliest uses of franchising can be traced to the Middle Ages when the church was seeking to broaden its central government control, credit for developing the restaurant franchising model we know today belongs to Ray Kroc, who discovered McDonald's when it was still a small California hamburger stand.
This enticing operating platform has grown massively in scale since the 1950s, becoming one of the most prominent and favored business models for those with a desire for self-employment...

A new study finds that college students are no longer satisfied with eating cheap food on the go. These kids were raised on well-prepared foods with a variety of cultural influences and trained to seek deals given economic uncertainty. Today's campus consumers expect more from quick-service restaurants (QSRs), according to the findings of a new survey from leading college marketing and insights agency Fluent.
"The next wave of consumers starts with a higher set of expectations for engagement than past generations: food that is tasty yet affordable, made with quality ingredients, and a social environment," says Fluent EVP Michael Carey. "In changing strategies over the past few years, QSRs set a new bar for themselves. Even a quick meal is an opportunity to relax, gather, engage or find quiet time, and enjoy...

Jesse and Charles Keyser
Brands/Units: 14 Sport Clips; 5 Little Caesars;5 Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning vans

Business philosophy:"Up-N-Out" is the philosophy we have developed where we are constantly developing people to move up in our organization--or out of our organization to pursue great opportunities with another organization. They never leave to work for a competitor because the skills we teach them are so applicable that the opportunities with us are huge for them. If you think of how an organization is structured, almost always like a pyramid, everyone at one level can't move up to the next level--there isn't room for everyone. So we have the culture that if you give us your best while you are with us, we will invest in you the same as someone who professes to be a lifer...

When an EF4 tornado ripped through the northeastern Dallas suburb of Rowlett the day after Christmas last year, the people at a McAlister's Deli a mile away knew just what to do.
"Our manager was feeding first responders free, handing out food to anyone who needed it," says Adam Saxton, chief business officer at The Saxton Group. "He knew it was the right thing to do and that the company would support that decision without question. You can't do that if your people don't know your culture."
Employees of The Saxton Group, the country's largest McAlister's Deli franchisee, are card-carrying members of the company's culture--literally. Every employee receives a business-sized laminated card that outlines the franchisee organization's vision, mission, and values--with a special emphasis on contributing to the communities where they operate...

Ashley Morris and childhood friend Jason Smylie were not afraid to take on the world when they graduated from college in their early 20s. While attending the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) both had been such raving fans of Capriotti's Sandwich Shop that they broke an apartment lease to move closer to a store.
Morris began as a financial advisor at Wells Fargo and Smylie as a software engineer at Bechtel Nevada before they purchased a Capriotti's in 2004. Four years later, they assembled an investor group and bought the whole company from Lois and Alan Margolet, who founded the company 40 years ago in Wilmington, Del. Today, Morris is CEO and Smylie is president--and that youthful passion, which continues today, is one of the cornerstones of their success...

If your business is on a calendar year, you've finished your first-quarter operations. Hopefully, your accountant or bookkeeper gave you your financial reports by April 15--both an income statement and a balance sheet--and you spent time reviewing them.
So, how did you do???
If you set up your financial information for maximum "management intelligence," you now have a very accurate picture of how your business is performing. Your financial statement should have given you your 2016 first-quarter results compared with your 2015 first-quarter results, and also compared your results with your annual plan for the first quarter of 2016.

Let's talk trends

Your media strategy and plan is complete and now it's time to execute.What steps do you take to ensure each layer of your media plan is carried out effectively?

Maryellen Torres
Chief Brand Officer
Front Burner Brands (The Melting Pot)
With today's highly savvy consumers, the marketing landscape is constantly changing and requires a comprehensive, multi-layered approach to help a business achieve its goals and objectives. New technology has created more "noise" in the media landscape, making it more complex for marketers to create a relevant message for both the vehicle and the target audience. From marketing messages sent to our email inboxes to our social media channel newsfeeds, this constant bombardment of communication can lead to months of hard work going unnoticed, if not planned strategically...

Capriotti's Sandwich Shop now has two Lincoln, Nebraska locations open for business thanks to multi-unit franchisee Corey Tallman. He just opened his second location in downtown Lincoln earlier this month and has plans to open one more in the near future.
Tallman became familiar with the sandwich brand while he was living in and going to school in Phoenix. He says he fell in love with the subs after just one visit. So when he returned home to Nebraska he decided he wanted to own his own business. While researching business opportunities, he recalled his time in Arizona and the Capriotti's sandwiches he loved so much. He ultimately decided to bring the brand to Lincoln and opened his first restaurant in August of 2015.
"The new Capriotti's restaurant is located in the center of downtown, just steps away from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln," says Tallman...

Ed Wolak
Brands: 96 Dunkin' Donut locations

Explain the role of community involvement to you and your company:The Wolak Group has earned a strong reputation for social responsibility and community involvement. As our business continues to grow, so do our community commitments. We continue to grow existing relationships with local and national charitable organizations, such as the Junior Diabetes Research Foundation, the Make-A-Wish Foundation (Central New York and Maine chapters), the Maine State Society for the Protection of Animals, and many more. We have also formed relationships with multiple cutting-edge companies to reduce our carbon footprint, reduce and re-channel our waste stream, and become an innovative "green" and sustainable business.

We all have a company or two that we can't fathom life without. If I told you, "You can no longer do business with these companies ever again?" what are the few companies you would become extremely upset about losing? When I ask my audiences this question, the same brands always get mentioned: Apple, Starbucks, Nordstrom, and Amazon, along with numerous local mom-and-pop shops.

Now the important part is to think about what they have done and what they consistently do to make you so loyal, to make you feel that you cannot live without them. That is power. That is brand loyalty. The more people you can make feel like they cannot live without your brand, the closer you are to making price irrelevant.

The key deciding factors to being a business people cannot live without are: 1) great service/product; 2) consistency; 3) ease of doing business; 4) employee evangelists; 5) educate versus sell; and 6) personalized experience...

Growing to 10 units is a cherished milestone for franchisees. Different obstacles and opportunities crop up along the way, some expected, others not. A while back, we spoke with multi-unit, multi-brand franchisee Sean Falk about his own journey to 10 units, which at the time included four brands: Great American Cookies, Pretzelmaker, Mrs. Fields Cookies, and Salsarita's Fresh Cantina. Since then, he's had a few more journeys: serving as chair of the Multi-Unit Franchising Conference, testifying before Congress on the Affordable Care Act, and vice president of franchising at Safeway Driving School. Today, in addition to his franchise business, he's franchise development leader and client executive at Hylant Insurance.
Looking to grow to 10 units or more?Here's some advice you can take to the bank...

Getting Verified Accounts on Twitter Just Got Easier
Twitter has made it easier for more users to attain verified status on the service. Verified accounts on Twitter allow users to be sure that the people and organizations they follow are really who they say they are. Up to now, verified account status has been awarded strictly at Twitter's discretion, based on the company's judgment that the account is of genuine public interest. Verified accounts have tended to belong to public figures and organizations in media, government, politics, sports, and business, among other areas. Now Twitter offers an online application process anyone may use to request account verification.

Snapchat Geofilters for Local Businesses Now Available
A Snapchat geofilter is a transparent overlay that sits on top of snaps...

Tshimanga "Tim" Biakabutuka, born in Kinshasa, Republic of Zaire in 1974, came to the U.S. with his family when he was just 6 years old. The family settled in Canada, in the Montreal area. Adapting to a new country and culture meant a lot of adjustments for him and his family, but they made the transition and built a new life for themselves. And, it turned out, the young boy had a hidden natural gift that was just a few years from being revealed.
Biakabutuka never played football until he was in high school. That's when he discovered he could run with a football and was good enough to earn the nickname "Touchdown Tim." His on-field abilities landed him a scholarship at the University of Michigan where he was a running back from 1993 until 1995...

Any big initiative, project, or revolution must have the support of the senior leadership team; otherwise it will be considered "flavor of the month" or "management by bestseller."
Customer service must be as important as finance, sales, operations, and technology. It must be discussed at board meetings and strategic planning sessions with leaders and everyone else in the company, including front-line employees. To create long-lasting change, the senior leadership team must provide the necessary resources. That doesn't mean just increasing the budget for customer service. It is having someone in charge of the project--that is, a chief experience officer (CXO)--who is dedicated and loses sleep over the customer experience program and the results...

Attracting customers in 2016 takes many forms--and platforms--sometimes all at the same time. Here are a few tactics franchise brands are using to drive customers into their stores, keep them there, and reward them.