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Mobile Attic is on top these days, literally and figuratively. The Elba, Ala.-based firm is the winner of this year's Franchise Update Store Redesign contest. This entitles the five-year-old company to a redesign by Total Resource Group of Lincolnwood, Ill. We'll show you the new design when it's done.
  • Ripley Hotch
  • 4,835 Reads 59 Shares
As more franchise brands push outward from their local or regional base seeking growth on the national stage, choosing the right city or designated market area (DMA) is always a critical factor in success.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 4,047 Reads 14 Shares
Franchising can be a snap… or a click. Photography franchising is getting a lot of, er, exposure, and has developed rapidly in recent years.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 7,298 Reads
Franchising is founded on the concept of replicating success at the unit level. But Mary Rogers is taking that premise one better: she's replicating success at the franchisor level.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 4,759 Reads 22 Shares
Multi-unit operators are a sophisticated culture within the franchise industry. They typically are streamlined, aggressive, think big, plan ahead, and are focused on continual growth. So why would a successful area developer want to sell a particular brand or chain of units? Lots of reasons: retirement, health issues, liquidity, a change in direction, a more aggressive growth strategy, a better opportunity, or simply the desire to "try it again with another concept."
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 4,247 Reads 1,021 Shares
Keld Alstrup went to Canada in 1968 to see the world outside his native, tiny Denmark. He ended up working for Ford and then Volvo. So things, as he says "worked out."
  • Eddy Goldberg and Kerry Pipes
  • 2,836 Reads 5 Shares
I confess, I'm still guilty. I bet you are, too! Ever wish for a marketing miracle, hoping to discover the "magic bullet" that creates masses of buyers begging for your franchise? How 'bout fantasizing that your $300 newspaper ad just generated 50 leads, and your franchise Internet ads deliver 100 percent qualified candidates who return all your phone calls? Then suddenly, media reporters call you in sheer excitement about your press release, promising feature coverage in the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and on the major network channels. And just a second! It's your phone light flashing fiery red with 40 urgent messages from prospects you met at this weekend's franchise show!
  • Steve Olson
  • 2,918 Reads 5 Shares
California has long been a key market for franchising. Its consumer-oriented culture has also made it one of the most active venues for regulatory and legal issues. Legal developments over the past year affecting the franchise community include 1)...
  • Mary Beth Trice and Dawn Newton
  • 7,650 Reads 157 Shares
  • abanet.org
  • 3,374 Reads 1,014 Shares
  • abanet.org
  • 3,880 Reads 22 Shares
Getting laid off by United Airlines in the 1982 recession was perhaps the best business move Regina and Jerry Lillie ever made (even if they didn't actually make it themselves).
  • Eddy Goldberg and Kerry Pipes
  • 3,367 Reads 3 Shares
Jersey Mike's Subs
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Jersey Mike's Subs
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Jersey Mike's Subs
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"Franchise development simply requires a solid process, it's really not rocket science." That's what Steve Olson, publisher of Franchise Update Media Group, said as he opened his presentation of this year's Mystery Shopper Survey results at the company's recent Franchise Development & Leadership Conference in Atlanta. It's true. A consistent system of quick response and lead qualification can separate the wheat from the chaff and ultimately lead to more sales, more quickly.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 3,474 Reads 13 Shares
Daren Patera and Brian Wernicke met in law school in Salem, Oregon, on their first day of orientation. "After about our second day, we knew we didn't want to be lawyers," says Patera, and they decided to go into business. "We wanted to be our own bossesâ€"not graduate and get a job working 80 hours a week for a law firm and hope to be a partner someday."
  • Eddy Goldberg and Kerry Pipes
  • 4,514 Reads 19 Shares
Franchisors know the Internet is a valuable and necessary tool for generating leads. But for many, that's where the certainty ends - and the questions begin.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 3,759 Reads 10 Shares
I. Rule Overview Basic Requirement: Franchisors must furnish potential franchisees with written disclosures providing important information about the franchisor, the franchised business and the franchise relationship, and give them at least ten...
  • FTC.gov
  • 8,256 Reads
Oversight of franchise and business opportunity offerings is an important consumer protection for hundreds of thousands of people who invest in these operations. It requires careful attention by both federal and state authorities.
  • NASAA.org
  • 2,991 Reads 1 Shares
When she was just 16, Mandy Bryant (now Mandy Bryant Verges) got a job at a Gold's Gym in her home city of New Orleans. She worked a couple of years in sales and did well. In April 1995, owner Steve Smith opened a tanning salon called Electric Beach in the city's Uptown district. When Smith bought out his business partner, he needed a manager for the salon. Bryant asked, he said yes, and transferred the 18-year-old to the salon as its new manager.
  • Eddy Goldberg and Kerry Pipes
  • 3,907 Reads 40 Shares
Everyone's heard of mystery shopping. It's that practice where an unknown "customer" checks up on a business when they're not looking. Mystery shopping can uncover successful practices and, unfortunately, embarrassing deficiencies. But the good news is that the collected information can be used to help those operations and procedures that need improvement and correction. The data also can provide affirmation for those practices companies are performing well.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 4,070 Reads 4 Shares
Hank Huth didn't set out to be in franchising. As a matter of fact, he was a banker. But in the mid-1980s, he was introduced to some executives at then-emerging Blockbuster Video and decided to "take a leap of faith" and give franchising a try. He called on his high school buddy Tim Nolan, who had managed some McDonald's franchises, to be his partner.
  • Eddy Goldberg and Kerry Pipes
  • 5,950 Reads 299 Shares
I see that the dictionary companies are choosing their "word of the year." One has picked the word "crackberry."
  • Ripley Hotch
  • 4,693 Reads 9 Shares
The news is hardly surprising: another new domain name has been introduced. Yet this time, the news is different.
  • Lee Plave
  • 7,015 Reads 1,023 Shares
MSA Worldwide
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MSA Worldwide
SPONSORED CONTENT
MSA Worldwide
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Pets and pet-related businesses are among today's hottest franchise opportunities--especially in the U.S., where pet owners are notorious for pampering their dogs, cats, birds (and even their rodents, reptiles, amphibians, and fish).
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 3,126 Reads 17 Shares
Kelly Saxton thinks big. He's the largest McAlister's Deli multi-unit operator, with 30 units throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Kansas. Prior to that, he was the largest Mazzio's Pizza multi-unit operator, with 50 units throughout Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi.
  • Eddy Goldberg and Kerry Pipes
  • 3,734 Reads 1 Shares
Where are franchise leads coming from? What’s the cost per lead? What recruitment tools work best? Those were just a few of the questions asked in Franchise Update Media Group’s 2007 Annual Lead Generation & Sales Survey, presented this past October 4 - 6 at the 8th Annual Franchise Development & Leadership Conference, held this year at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Atlanta.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 4,893 Reads 1 Shares
The most powerful players in franchising will gather this spring for the nation's only conference dedicated to the industry's most strategic and fastest-growing segment - multi-unit franchising.
  • Press Release
  • 2,433 Reads 14 Shares
Jim Valentine began his franchising career as a McDonald's crew member more than 33 years ago. During his first 12 years in franchising, he was frequently promoted until he became the supervisor of several McDonald's restaurants. That's when he decided to gather all his accumulated knowledge and experience and try his hand at franchise ownership.
  • Eddy Goldberg and Kerry Pipes
  • 3,214 Reads 7 Shares
I have to confess that I truly admire the creativity of marketing folks. I have very little creativity, and I am impressed that on occasion their creativity has some semblance to reality. On the other hand, I read recently how a marketing consultant was hired to develop some new images for Atlanta's Metropolitan Area Rapid Transit Authority. The consultant's "suggestions" included replacing the typical bench seats we find in subway cars with overstuffed leather sofas. You can write the next sentence for yourself.
  • Rupert M. Barkoff
  • 3,872 Reads 9 Shares
Have you ever wondered why doing the right thing or behaving as we "should" is usually the most difficult choice? Especially when it comes to handling our finances, there is almost always a less emotionally challenging path than the one that is "in our own long-term best interest."
  • Carol Clark
  • 3,277 Reads 1,014 Shares
Fish tales about the "big one that got away" are legendary. Franchise salespeople have their own stories of big ones that got away, too. But the good ones also tell tales of the near-misses they pulled from the fire-- and of how, at the eleventh hour, whether through fancy footwork or a simple stroke of luck, they landed the deal after all.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 5,172 Reads 3 Shares
Franchise Update Media Group, one of the nation's leading franchise information providers, announced today it will partner with Military.com, the nation's primary military membership organization, to provide content for its business research Web site.
  • Franchise Update Media
  • 5,598 Reads
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