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Franchise Articles

Browse our selection of franchise articles and features to help further your knowledge in opening and operating a franchise business. Our exclusive features cover the , , , , , , and site of the franchise business. Written by the editorial team that produces Franchise Update Magazine and Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine, the franchise industries premier magazines.

Gaining access to and securing capital is more important for franchisees today than ever. Every week we talk with multi-unit franchisees about how they are growing and the kind of financing it takes for them to achieve their goals. It's an important topic and sometimes we get some very candid responses.
  • Multi-Unit Franchisee
  • 5,881 Reads
Looking for a franchise opportunity in a "booming" industry? You might want to check out home health care for seniors. That baby boom blip that first appeared following World War II is now dipping into the golden years. As a result, the need for elderly care in America is on the rise and will remain in high demand for years to come.
  • Multi-Unit Franchisee
  • 2,864 Reads 1 Shares
Getting to know a little more about you as a prospect is one of the first things franchises are interested in. The initial franchise application process is a screening mechanism by which franchisors begin to determine your interest and qualifications. Today, it is common to find initial franchise application forms on franchisors' websites - but most will be happy to send you one as well. This is a good stepping off point for beginning the communication process. You should not only take this very seriously, but also expect to spend some time gathering the information and completing the application.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 91,792 Reads 37 Shares
At some level, there's a growing realization that the current economic "decline" is not just a speed bump. The assumption that a return to the "status quo" is sure to come--that it's merely a matter of time--also appears to be quickly fading. The emerging conclusion: Things typically don't come this unhinged only to revert to what existed before.
  • Carol Clark
  • 3,435 Reads 3 Shares
Franchising is a great business model and with so many concepts and brands out there to choose from, research and due diligence are a big part of your assignment. Of course you'll receive a wealth of information from the franchisor detailing and outlining almost every facet of the system and operations, but there is one other area of research that you owe it to yourself to uncover (many franchises even require that you do this). Once you've narrowed your franchise brand choice, you'll want to talk to some existing - and even former - franchisees about what it's really like out there in the trenches every day running the business. This is part of your due diligence and it's imperatively important.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 36,190 Reads 1 Shares
These are adverse times for franchise industry executives and operators. Everywhere they turn it seems they are faced with weakening markets. The "get big" strategy of the last decade, which was driven by low interest rates and growing markets, is collapsing under the pressure of shrinking consumer demand.
  • Jack Mackey
  • 5,726 Reads 1,014 Shares
In the late 1990s, Jeff Reetz was a head coach at Pizza Hut, helping to inspire a group of regional coaches to winning records at dozens of restaurants in eight Southwestern markets. "I helped them make their operations as successful as possible," recalls Reetz. However, like many working in a corporate environment, he dreamed of the day when he could manage his own business.
  • John Carroll
  • 6,335 Reads 1 Shares
Life has not been easy--personally or professionally--for Chris Haque (pronounced Hawk), who was born in Dinajpur, Bangladesh. He was only 15 when his sister came to the U.S. for medical treatment for leukemia. Thanks to his gift of his bone marrow donation, she lived three more years before the disease took her.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 7,497 Reads 2 Shares
Everybody loves lists. Whether it's a year-end "best of" list in the entertainment world or a list of business-performance rankings, we see them everywhere. Lists give us insight and a benchmark for all kinds of comparisons. Readers continue to tell us that the lists found in the pages of Multi-Unit Franchisee magazine each issue are informative--and sometimes provocative--and provide a perspective that often allows for self-assessment and operational adjustments.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 10,863 Reads 1,023 Shares
Joe Drury's personal history reads like a rags-to-riches movie script. Born in Canton, Ohio, he was on his own at 14 and "chose to survive," he says. "Everything I did, I attacked it like it was my last meal." He started out working in a Wendy's. He excelled and worked his way into the corporate office, where his mentor and "best friend," Wendy's founder Dave Thomas, taught him everything he knew about running a franchise and being a successful franchisee. He rose to vice president of operations at Wendy's, but left the company in the early 1990s to form the Carolina Restaurant Group, which bought 26 distressed Wendy's restaurants. By 2000, that number was up to 100 and sales had risen significantly.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 11,884 Reads 11 Shares
What do these questions have in common? Each relates to how changes in costs, volume, and pricing affect your bottom line. By the end of this article, we'll have given you a single analysis model to help you answer these questions more accurately than ever before.
  • Steve LeFever and Dave Ashcraft
  • 15,554 Reads 6 Shares
Marco's Pizza®
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Sam had developed and owned a successful retail operation during his business career. He also tried to be diligent by having what he thought was a sound estate plan executed before he died. He and his wife Sally felt they had everything taken care of. So when Sam died unexpectedly, Sally was dismayed to see the vehement dispute that developed between her two sons as to who would operate the company going forward. Apparently Sam had spoken to both of them about running the company if something happened to him, but he had failed to make this decision. Sally ultimately found her only choice to resolve the dispute was to just sell the business.
  • Andrew D. Horowitz, CPhD, and Nicholas K. Niemann, Esq.
  • 3,431 Reads 66 Shares
John Hotchkiss was born in Pontiac, Mich., and grew up in San Antonio, Texas. But he likes to say he "was born" into franchising. "I started working in our stores when I was 9 years old and really enjoyed it. I learned in high school that it was a good business to own when I came home exhausted from a crazy, busy night at one of our stores and my dad was relaxing and reading a book on the back porch," he recalls. "He had 700-plus employees working hard that night making him money.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 11,191 Reads 1 Shares
Iced coffee seems to be gaining tremendous popularity as the summer months bring on the heat. And according to data from NPD Group's Consumer Reports on Eating Share Trends (CREST), servings of iced and frozen coffee drinks have shown a 20 percent increase during the first months of 2009 over the same time period last year. The company's research also found young adults between the ages 18 and 34 make up 39 percent of the iced beverage's consumption. Even the National Coffee Association has data procaliming coffee consumption among 18 to 34-year-olds has recently hit record highs.
  • Multi-Unit Franchisee
  • 5,278 Reads 436 Shares
Jett Mehta knew early in his life that franchising would be a good fit for him. "I grew up in the business," says Mehta. "My dad is a Ponderosa franchisee and was the largest franchisee in the country at one point. He was investing in multi-family real estate and got into the restaurant business in the '80s. When I finished school I hooked up with him." It wasn't long before Mehta drew up some ambitious plans of his own. First came a motel deal, and then the food industry beckoned.
  • John Carroll
  • 11,911 Reads
Gurvinder Singh is, in many ways, a "normal" 24-year-old guy. A former wrestler, he's into martial arts and spends an inordinate amount of time training in the gym. Despite his high energy level, he can go "couch potato" with the best of them, and he loves TV (his favorite show is "Lost"). He also loves cars, and jokes that the health of his business can be measured by the impressiveness of his ride.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 3,389 Reads 13 Shares
It all began with a single Golden Corral restaurant in 1997. In just over a dozen years, Guillermo Perales has grown to operate 142 franchise locations, spread across 5 brands throughout Texas and Florida. It's quite an accomplishment for this native of Mexico, and he's not even close to finished. "I'd like to double the size of my business over the next decade," says Perales. Based on his track record, it's a good bet he'll succeed. He just inked a deal with T-Mobile for some new units, and he's negotiating with a yogurt and seafood franchisor--and that doesn't even include his planned hotel project in Dallas.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 10,446 Reads 1,015 Shares
Long before they met and married, Donna and Jim Wade grew up working in their respective family businesses--Donna in Southeast Texas, and Jim in a small town in West Tennessee. Both families owned restaurants and grocery stores. Their paths crossed when Jim, a University of Memphis graduate who went to work in accounting for Binswanger Glass, was transferred to Houston as a controller. She was selling copiers for Xerox, and he called one day for a quote. "Not long after he completed the purchase, we started dating," recalls Donna. "We realized instantly that we shared a passion for business."
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 3,827 Reads 5 Shares
Dennis Hitzeman has had some legendary mentors in his life. First there was McDonald's founder Ray Kroc, who hired the 16-year-old Hitzeman as a crew member for his third location. Later, as a West Point Cadet, he played football for assistant coach Bill Parcells and studied under Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.
  • John Carroll
  • 7,164 Reads 4 Shares
The current recession and credit crunch are putting the hurt on franchise businesses, says a new report by the International Franchise Association (IFA). There's no question that the franchising's economic growth and ability to create jobs has been hamstrung by the lack of available credit.
  • Multi-Unit Franchisee
  • 3,320 Reads 5 Shares
Gross sales? Target revenue? Break even? No, this figure is more important than all those. These days, as we're all looking at ways to cut costs, figuring out where and how to cut is extremely important. Using break-even analysis allows you to go in with a scalpel instead of a hatchet.
  • Steve LeFever and Dave Ashcraft
  • 8,941 Reads 775 Shares
Movita Juice Bar
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John had come to us with high expectations for the price he thought his company would sell for. He was certain of this because he had seen other companies sell for a similar multiple of gross revenue. However, what John had failed to understand was that buyers are only partly interested in top line revenue. More important to negotiating the selling price of most companies is the net cash flow the company produces. John's bottom line failed to live up to industry standards, which meant he wasn't likely to achieve the exit he had envisioned.
  • Andrew D. Horowitz, CPhD, and Nicholas K. Niemann, Esq.
  • 3,907 Reads 118 Shares
Franchise Update Media Group (FUMG), the leading industry resource for franchise development, reports that for the first time, multi-unit franchises are the new industry majority, providing growth opportunities in these times of economic uncertainty.
  • Press Release
  • 4,069 Reads 1 Shares
Charles Loflin started climbing the ladder of success from the bottom rung, and he hasn't stopped yet. "I've been in food and beverage all my life, starting when I was washing dishes at the age of 15," says the 40-year-old multi-brand franchisee.
  • John Carroll
  • 4,213 Reads 7 Shares
Retail franchising is the kind of business operation that most people are familiar with today. After all, everybody knows McDonald's and Taco Bell, but there's much more to know about retail franchising. Like its counterpart, service franchising, retail franchising offers its own set of pros and cons. There are advantages and disadvantages that make it unique. In the right circumstances, retail franchising can make a very good career choice and provide a healthy income for many people. But you'll want to do your homework and make careful considerations.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 32,946 Reads 5 Shares
After years of building his company by acquiring distressed franchise units and real estate, John Metz bought a distressed franchisor. That's right, a franchisor. On December 17, 2008, Metz took over Hurricane Grill & Wings. And he's from Buffalo.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 5,580 Reads 2 Shares
Anyone seriously considering the purchase of a franchise will ultimately have to decide if a "service" franchise or a "retail" franchise is a better fit. It's an important distinction in terms of both entry requirements and operational realities, and it's a decision that can determine your ultimate effectiveness as a franchise operator. First, a basic summary of some typical service franchise opportunities available today, here are just a few: trade and handyman (electricians, plumbers), lawn maintenance, landscape services, childcare, tutoring, education, business coaches accounting, bookkeeping real estate agents, travel agents, commercial, domestic cleaning, automotive-related services, computer-related services, and interior design/decorating.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 38,566 Reads 11 Shares
Just to let you know where I'm coming from when I talk about the five biggest mistakes I see franchisors making in today's tough economic times, I've been plying my trade for more than 20 years now, and well over 50 percent of my clients have been among the nation's foremost franchise organizations. I've been in the trenches with them during all kinds of economic scenarios--inflation, recession, expansion, steady-as-she-goes, and a couple of booms and busts.
  • Mel Kleiman
  • 8,280 Reads 286 Shares
We weren't surprised by our meeting with Art. We had seen it many times before. Art and his son had founded and built a very successful retail business. They had operations across the country which were consistently producing significant year-to-year net cash flow. Art had decided recently that he was ready to sell the company and that he wanted to get this done right away.
  • Andrew D. Horowitz, CPhD, and Nicholas K. Niemann, Esq.
  • 3,220 Reads 12 Shares
For a man in the hospitality business who's traveled widely, Ted Torres didn't fall far from the tree, nor did he want to. "My father, a first-generation hotelier, was my mentor, teacher, coach, and partner," says Torres, who at 43 has been in the business for 20 years. His most far-flung project, building hotels for Hilton across Russia, never came to fruition--through no lack of willingness on his part--but it was a fabulous month-long adventure just the same.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 4,800 Reads 49 Shares
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