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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.
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Nikki Sells has just been recognized as the 2005 recipient of the IFA's distinguished Bonnie Levine Award. The annual award honors individuals who further the cause of women in franchising. Sells, who is vice president of franchising for Express Personnel Services, in Oklahoma City, was presented the award during the recent IFA 45th annual franchise convention. "It's all about the journey," said Sells, a former school teacher, who has been vice president of franchising since January 2004 after being a longtime franchisee in the Express system. "To me, there's no such thing as a destination and this is where my journey has fortunately taken me. I've had a lot of wonderful opportunities and mentors along the way."
  • 2,802 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%."
  • 5,819 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.
  • 6,023 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.
  • 4,320 Reads 2 Shares
Ron Berger knows the advantage of buying an existing franchise concept and improving on it. That is what he has done with Figaro's Pizza, a Salem, Oregon-based chain that is growing at a rapid pace.
  • Joan Szabo
  • 3,970 Reads 7 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
  • 4,311 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
  • 3,075 Reads 5 Shares
Despite attempts by the FTC to encourage franchisors to use earnings claims-most notably in the 1995 change to the Rule, which made claims easier to make and defend-most franchisors avoid them. According to a 2003 FRANdata study, only18-20% of all franchisors make earnings claims and that percentage has not increased substantially in the last five years.
  • Lane Fisher
  • 3,536 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.
  • 4,662 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
  • 3,846 Reads 1 Shares
The Human Bean
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The Human Bean
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After 10 years in Atlanta, Phil Greifeld hasn't lost much of his New York accent. But after a stint as chief executive officer of the Huddle House chain, he has developed an appreciation for shirt-sleeve weather in winter, and for some of life's simpler pleasures -and smaller places.
  • Tom Steadman
  • 6,527 Reads
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
  • 3,833 Reads 6 Shares
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
  • 14,098 Reads 5 Shares
After years-five to be exact-of waiting, it is here: the FTC staff's report regarding proposed changes to its Rule governing the sales of franchises.
  • Rupert M. Barkoff
  • 3,485 Reads
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
  • 11,063 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
  • 3,570 Reads 3 Shares
Franchising is driven by expansion and growth. Creating leads and identifying prospects is an essential part of any corporate franchise operation. Franchise executives understand the importance of effective marketing and recruiting. They spend significant amounts of time, human resources, and financial resources to develop systems that help them optimize their recruiting.
  • 5,063 Reads 1,014 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
  • 4,157 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
  • 4,300 Reads 1 Shares
Finding the right type and mix of financing can mean the difference between success and failure for many franchisors. While your main choices are debt, equity, self-funding, and external funding, experts say the best-managed companies often mix their financing sources and choices, at different stages of development, to achieve the best business results.
  • Joan Szabo
  • 3,991 Reads 9 Shares
Potbelly Sandwich Works
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Potbelly Sandwich Works
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Potbelly Sandwich Works
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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.
  • 5,978 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
  • 3,020 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
  • 4,790 Reads
When Nikki Gahr Sells decided to forgo her school teaching job of eight years in 1983, a job in which her mother had spent a lifetime, she didn't know a lot about career paths for anyone, much less women, outside of teaching. She went to a staffing agency for help in finding a new job. In an unexpected twist, the staffing agency hired Sells. The agency, Express Personnel Services, was the first franchisee of Express Services Inc.
  • Karen Fritscher-Porter
  • 4,260 Reads 17 Shares
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
  • 3,435 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
  • 4,957 Reads 11 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. For now, I'll use a simple example.
  • Jack Mackey
  • 3,706 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
  • 3,197 Reads 7 Shares
In taking various licensed concepts to some 70 countries, we have seen numerous approaches to how licensors evaluate new countries. These approaches can be classified into three basic categories: the reactive approach, the shotgun approach and the predictive approach.
  • Kevin Ainsworth and Todd Anders
  • 3,382 Reads 9 Shares
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