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Even 10,000-unit gorillas have an Achilles' heel. For Curves, the number-one women's fitness and weight loss franchise, its own success is now biting it in the ankle. Competitors of all sizes and shapes have sprung up, offering women an ever-increasing array of options for losing weight and staying fit.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 3,334 Reads 117 Shares
It's fitting that Guillermo Perales does business in the state of Texas--a place where things are known for being large. Fitting because Perales heads the largest Hispanic-operated multiunit franchise company in the U.S., with more than 140 units across five brands. And he's looking to expand.
  • Area Developer Magazine
  • 9,549 Reads 3 Shares
In today's business environment, the mystery shopper - the person who pretends to be a customer or potential client while noting every conceivable plus and minus of their shopping or consumer experience - is a fact of life.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 3,918 Reads 19 Shares
Brian Wigutow had always dreamed of operating his own restaurant. But after more than a dozen years in the industry he realized that for him -- and his family, which includes three young daughters -- it was just not going to be the right career choice. That's when he turned to a franchise broker and discovered, to his surprise, one of the franchise matches that best suited him…Handyman Matters.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 2,683 Reads
Five careers. That's how 65-year-old Charles Smithgall, III, categorizes his business life. And that's not even including his service in the military. Or rustling cattle on Canadian ranches as a young man in the late 1960s.
  • Area Developer Magazine
  • 5,970 Reads 1 Shares
Earlier this year, a franchise magazine that shall remain nameless here focused upon the issue of "cleavage in the marketplace" - a subject no man in his right mind would ever touch. However, I found it interesting that this subject had garnered discussion in one of the leading publications on franchising, or for that matter, in any reputable publication.
  • Rupert M. Barkoff
  • 3,378 Reads 1 Shares
Most people would trade their day job anytime for Bob Stucker's problem a few years back: "I retired too young."
  • Kerry Pipes & Eddy Goldberg
  • 4,942 Reads 11 Shares
"I don't care about numbers and notes on a piece of paper; it only matters if you actually close the sale."
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 3,375 Reads 5 Shares
Becoming a "Mega Franchisee" is a high-risk, high-reward endeavor. For a third year, Area Developer has measured and highlighted those franchisees bold enough, smart enough - and fortunate enough - to succeed in the rapidly growing and lucrative market of multiunit and multi-concept development.
  • Kerry Pipes & Eddy Goldberg
  • 5,565 Reads 1,023 Shares
Financing is the lifeblood of expansion for franchisors and multiunit owners alike. Whether for advertising and marketing to sell additional franchises, or whether to remodel or build more company stores, without financing there is no growth and development. And, despite the rapid growth of new concepts and new units in the aftermath of the dot.com crash in 2000 and 2001, many forecasts of the economic climate and its effect on business growth in 2008 range from gloomy to dim--especially when it comes to credit and lending.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 3,599 Reads 1,014 Shares
What was once a humble grassroots movement to "Save the Planet" has now become big business, with consumers a major part of the push. Seems everywhere you look these days, more and more companies are touting their "green" initiatives as they scramble to implement various ways to recycle, reuse, and renew. Green is in.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 5,181 Reads 7 Shares
Tropical Smoothie Cafe
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Tropical Smoothie Cafe
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Tropical Smoothie Cafe
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My first entry into the franchise business was in 1986 when I acquired 24 Dairy Queen restaurants in Texas. In less than a year, I was up to 55 stores and had become one of the largest franchisees in the entire Dairy Queen system. I had more credit than sense.
  • Bill Hall
  • 3,498 Reads 3 Shares
Franchise UPDATE recently sat in on a seminar for aspiring franchisees. One of about 150 such events held each year in the U.S. held by Francorp Consulting, this session was led by veteran industry consultant Don Boroian, who founded Francorp 31 years ago.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 13,095 Reads 1 Shares
Conventional wisdom would say the best franchise operators are individuals with past business experience - or even better, previous franchising experience. But that may not be the case any longer. A youth movement is under way in the world of multiunit franchising.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 6,048 Reads 98 Shares
Season's Greetings! As we all wind down the old year and ring in the new, franchising.com has a New Year's resolution of our own for 2008: to be your premier franchising resource. Not only for the analysis and profiles we've brought you over the years, but also for the timely news and events you need to keep informed of the most current, up-to-the-minute developments in the world of franchising.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 2,056 Reads 2 Shares
In an ideal universe, companies grow and achieve vital corporate initiatives through ever-increasing cash flow. But the reality for most franchisors, public or private, is that expansions and capital expenditures require an infusion of cash.
  • Jeff Stone
  • 3,154 Reads 6 Shares
A really hard job for any franchise company's tech department is coordinating all the different systems in franchisee locations. As everyone gets more and more dependent on standardized machines and programs, it's easy to think that the basics are taken care of.
  • Ripley Hotch
  • 3,128 Reads 5 Shares
After 25 years devoted to finding work for other people, Nikki Sells just found herself a new job. Or, more exactly, a new job found her.
  • Franchise Update Magazine
  • 3,690 Reads 78 Shares
Finding an edge. Moving ahead of the competition. Emerging as a winner. These were all themes echoed throughout Franchise Update Media Group's 9th Annual Franchise Leadership & Development Conference.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 3,284 Reads 3 Shares
Unfortunately, few multiple-unit franchisees or managers fully understand working capital, how important it is for every business, how it is measured, or how to obtain needed working capital.
  • Mark E. Battersby
  • 5,481 Reads 2 Shares
There’s probably not a bigger franchise opportunity in America...literally. Weight loss franchises not only help individuals change their lives, live longer, and more healthfully, but also offer high earning potential for franchisees who are interested in a piece of the $46 billion weight loss franchise industry.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 2,182 Reads 3 Shares
MSA Worldwide
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MSA Worldwide
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MSA Worldwide
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Last Saturday, mom and dad packed the kids into the minivan and headed out to the fitness center (Curves for her and Athletic Republic for him). First they dropped the kids off (one at Huntington Learning Centers, the other at Abrakadoodle). Before they left, they'd made sure the woman from Bathfitters knew exactly what they wanted done with their new shower, and reminded the man from Spring-Green to cut the back lawn extra short this week.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 4,590 Reads 1 Shares
Troy Medley has had two major life-changing experiences. The first came when he was just a 19-year-old college student in Missouri.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 6,088 Reads 1 Shares
Even experienced area developers can get emotional about locations, says Jeremy Behar, president and CEO of Cirrus Tenant Services, a Toronto-based company specializing in real estate negotiations for various businesses, including franchises. As a consequence, he says, "They will do what it takes to sign the deal and get it done."
  • Ripley Hotch
  • 3,397 Reads 3 Shares
Sit-down restaurants, also known as casual restaurants, have re-established themselves in the world of franchising - a world more often associated with such fast-food standards as McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, KFC, Taco Bell, and Subway, for example.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 2,810 Reads 49 Shares
To those readers who are interested in legal affairs in the franchising context and are not subscribers to the American Bar Association's Forum on Franchising's listserv, you are missing one of the greatest shows in town. Listservs, chat rooms, blogs, and whatever else, are means to dialogue on the Internet and can turn into today's electronic equivalent of a lynch mob, as demonstrated by two recent exchanges on the forum's listserv on the subject of arbitration.
  • Rupert M. Barkoff
  • 3,674 Reads 16 Shares
Sure, you're measuring your advertising spending and marketing budget. But are you measuring the numbers that matter? Savvy franchisors who do are reaping bigger rewards at significantly lower costs.
  • Steve Olson
  • 8,723 Reads 1,023 Shares
A number of franchises now reaching a middle stage of life are facing issues they never anticipated when they first started selling franchises.
  • Ripley Hotch
  • 3,154 Reads 13 Shares
1987 was a good year for franchising. Up to then, franchising was young, brash, and not always professional. Franchises weren’t much concerned with history. They were built mostly by young entrepreneurs who saw an opportunity and grabbed it, looking forward, not backward. The first 30 years of modern business format franchising had the feeling of the Wild West (like the Internet of the last 10 years).
  • Eddy Goldberg & Ripley Hotch
  • 3,633 Reads 9 Shares
As the "franchise world" turns toward technology that allows us to respond automatically through emails, send links to articles, and educate customers through "mass information" emails, we may be looking past a simple premise of selling such as "building a relationship."
  • Marc Kiekenapp
  • 3,532 Reads 6 Shares
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