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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.

Domino's Pizza and Checker's Drive-In Restaurants are off to the races following the waving of the green flag. Both fast-food companies are capitalizing on NASCAR and other professional racing tie-ins that build awareness and increase sales.
  • 3,168 Reads 1 Shares
At February's Franchise UPDATE Multi-Unit Conference in Dallas, attendees dug into their pockets to help Rocco Fiorentino's Little Rock Foundation. Multi-unit operators are known for generosity to charities, but the record for amounts may well go to Batteries Plus. Batteries Plus Multi-Unit Franchisee Leonard Cyphers, who owns three Atlanta-area Batteries Plus stores, was diagnosed with Young Onset Parkinson's disease in 1997 at age 48. He is managing his disease with diet, medication, and exercise, and the help of a pioneer in Parkinson's research, Dr. Ray Watts.
  • 2,854 Reads 7 Shares
An Italian proverb says, "One attains fortune through knowledge. One attains knowledge through mentors." Many real estate franchise companies are taking that proverb to heart. Training and retention of the very best sales associates and staff is crucial to the success of any real estate brokerage. Subsequently, real estate franchising companies such as Century 21, RE/MAX, Coldwell Banker, and ERA have begun implementing coaching and mentoring initiatives for their franchisees. Typically, these programs involve coaches or mentors who have extensive experience and successful track records as top producers. The programs arm franchisees with proven scripts and dialogues that help them deal with obstacles. Franchisees can also gain access to marketing and advertising materials that have been successful.
  • 2,213 Reads 3 Shares
Guess who the biggest rival to Starbucks is? Would you think Dunkin Donuts? You should, says Jett Mehta, a Dunkin Donuts multi-unit franchisee in New York. "Starbucks may own their experience, but Dunkin is nipping at their heels," he says. "Starbucks can't touch Dunkin in new England." In fact, Mehta says, it's not about the donuts: "Dunkin Donuts is a beverage business-it's all about coffee. In western New York, 50% of our sales are beverage-based, or premium things like bulk beans. Donuts are only about 25%."
  • 5,879 Reads 490 Shares
Do franchisors create more value and perform better financially than their non-franchise competitors? A resounding yes, according to a new study by The William Rosenberg International Center of Franchising at the University of New Hampshire.
  • 6,101 Reads 432 Shares
Area Developer, the only magazine dedicated exclusively to multi-unit franchising, will take an indepth look at the expanding multi-unit franchise landscape. This industry first drill-down will identify those franchise systems that have substantial numbers of multi unit franchisees and meet specific baseline standards.
  • 4,369 Reads 2 Shares
Jim Hagan was a successful salesman selling battery backups for communications systems when he got the idea to get into the restaurant business. It changed his life-though not quite in the way he expected.
  • Ripley Hotch
  • 4,412 Reads 132 Shares
It's one thing to have a dream and a want; it's another thing to have an organization to support that dream and want. I've always said that growing the organization is a full-time job for those who want to grow multi-units.
  • Thomas J. Winninger
  • 3,162 Reads 5 Shares
Mary Carol McDaniel and her husband Frank own three (soon to be four) Pump It Up franchises in Alabama and Tennessee. But unlike most multiple unit franchisees, they didn't do a lot of research or planning or interviewing of franchisors to decide on a concept. It walked up to them.
  • 4,755 Reads 177 Shares
Capital fuels growth, and multi-unit operators know how important growth is to their success. One finance company making growth happen for many area developers is GE Commercial Finance, Franchise Finance (GEFF). With more than $12 billion in served assets, GEFF has more than 6,000 customers and 21,000 property locations, mainly in the restaurant, hospitality, branded beverage, storage, and automotive industries.
  • Joan Szabo
  • 3,923 Reads 1 Shares
Sometimes you get a notice from your franchisor that a potential franchisee wants to open a unit close to one of your own units. You're concerned about what might happen to sales. What can you do?
  • Ripley Hotch
  • 3,920 Reads 7 Shares
Doner Shack
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But with a father who was a barber-turned-businessman and franchise owner, and a mother who was a stylist herself, they knew something about the hair business.
  • Tom Steadman
  • 14,326 Reads 5 Shares
Who ever forgets those early embarrassments? The careless and overheard remark in high school that gets repeated for months, the ticket for running a stoplight the day after you got your license-everyone knows those.
  • Ripley Hotch
  • 11,233 Reads 1 Shares
Brad Bruckman owned 15 Krispy Kreme franchises in the Northern California/Sacramento area when he felt a desire to reexamine his career direction. "I didn't necessarily foresee any of the problems that were soon to begin affecting that franchise, but I did begin to wonder about other opportunities, and, ultimately, I feel like I got out at just the right time," says the 42-year-old entrepreneur.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 3,671 Reads 3 Shares
Frustration levels are bound to grow higher when back-office woes increase. As a result, you may end up spending valuable time and energy on making things right. Outsourcing accounting and other functions may be the way to go. If you are in the restaurant industry, one firm to consider is Wichita-based Savista-FSC.
  • Joan Szabo
  • 4,224 Reads 1,014 Shares
Area Developer asked Darrell Johnson, president and CEO of FRANdata, what a multi-unit developer should look for when evaluating franchise opportunities. In a wide-ranging interview, Johnson sorts out the massive amount of available information into four basic categories and provides a tutorial-and dozens of relevant questions-on how to think things through when searching for the best brand to suit your business (and personal) needs.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 4,426 Reads 1 Shares
Mary Carol McDaniel and her husband Frank own three (soon to be four) Pump It Up franchises in Alabama and Tennessee. But unlike most multiple unit franchisees, they didn't do a lot of research or planning or interviewing of franchisors to decide on a concept. It walked up to them.
  • 6,071 Reads 215 Shares
Providing employment advice through franchisees can be a tricky business-and very expensive if not done correctly. Amounts awarded in damages for employment cases brought against employers are on the rise. Damages recovered against employers in litigation brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) rose from $52.8 million in 2002 to $148.7 million in 2003. Damages received per case also increased from an average recovery of approximately $140,000 in 2002 to almost triple that amount-$390,000-in 2003.
  • Nell Matthews
  • 3,100 Reads 6 Shares
I call it the 10-10-10 rule. You spend $10,000 on your building, FFE and advertising to attract a customer. In 10 seconds, you drive her away with a bad service experience. And you wait 10 years for another chance to win her back. Service success, or failure, is predictive of your future sales and profitability. A terrific Harvard Business Review article explains the business economics in detail and I'll tell how you can get that article at the end of this column.
  • Jack Mackey
  • 4,872 Reads
Franchisors are always looking for ways to boost cash flow and build greater trust with franchisees. One way to help accomplish those goals is to offer an effective purchasing program.
  • Joan Szabo
  • 3,505 Reads 11 Shares
For multi-unit owners, planning an exit strategy is something to consider long before investing in that first unit or concept. What are your long-term goals? Would you like to sell in five years? Ten? Pass the business to a family member? Make a clean break, or keep your hand in? Is trading your cash flow for a lump sum the best way to go? What about seller's remorse?
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 5,037 Reads 11 Shares
McAlister's Deli
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McAlister's Deli
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I call it the 10-10-10 rule. You spend $10,000 on your building, FFE and advertising to attract a customer. In 10 seconds, you drive her away with a bad service experience. And you wait 10 years for another chance to win her back. Service success, or failure, is predictive of your future sales and profitability. A terrific Harvard Business Review article explains the business economics in detail and I'll tell how you can get that article at the end of this column. For now, I'll use a simple example.
  • Jack Mackey
  • 3,788 Reads 36 Shares
Being a big fish always helps, especially in a big pond. But big fish still have problems-or opportunities as the more optimistic prefer to call them. And it certainly helps to have a positive outlook when you become an area developer. Topping the list of problems/opportunities are the usual items: location, hiring and retention, financing, etc.-but magnified by the number of units, as well as the number of concepts operating under one umbrella. Area Developer magazine asked four successful "Big Fish" to weigh in on what's tipping their scales as 2005 approaches.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 3,267 Reads 7 Shares
Franchisors find new opportunities in many places. An entrepreneurial spirit and business savvy can often turn an idea into reality. Take the case of Dan P. White, who is a marine biologist by education. His desire to protect the environment for future generations led him to start an environmentally-friendly franchise operation called Rapid Refill Ink.
  • Joan Szabo
  • 2,829 Reads 8 Shares
Seattle's Dennis Waldron is still in the early stages, but he's by no means an amateur. For 10 years he was president of Cinnabon, where he introduced franchises and grew the chain to 400 units. After Cinnabon was sold, "I looked at a number of opportunities and finally settled on being a franchisee," he says. More than that, Waldron set out to be a multi-unit franchisee.
  • 5,717 Reads 206 Shares
At this year's very successful International Franchise Association annual convention, we were bombarded with a plethora of laudatory statements about franchising. We were told that franchising accounts for more than 40% of retail sales in the U.S. economy, generating over a trillion dollars in sales per year, and that franchising companies provide the source of employment for more than eight million American workers. We heard success stories from both franchisors and franchisees.
  • Rupert M. Barkoff
  • 2,336 Reads 3 Shares
The multi-unit operator point of view is more of building an organization. From real estate, capital investment and people development, it is a very different environment. And the people development is the most critical aspect for success.
  • Mariel Miller
  • 3,532 Reads 2 Shares
Starting at the bottom has become a cliché, but this one really is true. Actually, Brian Greenley started as a customer of Maaco-sort of.
  • 7,611 Reads 807 Shares
Franchising's great strength has always been that it is adaptable. Combining two kinds of ownership, one general, the other close to the ground, has given these systems quick reflexes in an ever-changing economy.
  • Joseph Wheeler
  • 4,317 Reads 16 Shares
"We were coming off really strong sales increases. We had just remodeled all the restaurants, our cash flow had increased significantly over the past two or three years, and we had some very good growth opportunities. It was a perfect time to sell."
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 6,459 Reads 1 Shares
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