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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
  • 4,110 Reads 9 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.
  • 6,102 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
  • 3,135 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
  • 4,909 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
  • 4,362 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
  • 3,542 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
  • 5,078 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
  • 3,825 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
  • 3,331 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
  • 3,488 Reads 9 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
  • 2,856 Reads 8 Shares
Potbelly Sandwich Works
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Potbelly Sandwich Works
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Potbelly Sandwich Works
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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.
  • 5,763 Reads 206 Shares
Whether it's in marriage or in business, the key to a successful relationship is mutual trust. Nowhere is that truer than in the relationship between franchisor and franchisee. Franchisees have trusted franchisors with their life's savings while we have trusted them with our brand name and reputation. Therefore, a strong franchise network, like a strong marriage, is a bond of trust.
  • Susan Last
  • 11,556 Reads 6 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
  • 2,367 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
  • 3,562 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.
  • 7,648 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
  • 4,371 Reads 16 Shares
Jo Kirchner never planned to run a school system. Happily operating her own public relations firm near Atlanta, in 1988 she made a presentation to the Roswell Chamber of Commerce, which was starting a marketing program to attract developers of high quality homes. She got the job, and she started making presentations to area groups about the marketing project.
  • 5,262 Reads 205 Shares
Got a qualified prospect interested in opening up a new franchise but who has never seen one of your stores? No problem for Long Beach, Calif.-based It's A Grind Coffee House, which utilizes a web-based program that allows prospects with a password to get behind a computer screen, log on, and view real-time streaming video of the action inside a store. A camera located behind the counter offers online viewers a live feed of what's going on inside an It's A Grind Coffee House. Prospects can see the store's layout, decor, customers and employees engaged in transactions.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 2,605 Reads 9 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
  • 6,488 Reads 1 Shares
Home of Merengue and a rich baseball tradition, the Dominican Republic covers 48,730 square kilometers, has a population of approximately 8.8 million people living on the island, and has more than one million nationals living in the United States.
  • Larry B. Pascal and Patricia Mastropierro
  • 7,068 Reads 5 Shares
Dine Brands Global, Inc.
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Dine Brands Global, Inc.
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Dine Brands Global, Inc.
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Area Developer targets the largest 10,000 multi-unit and multi-brand franchise owners and operators in the U.S. The publication's editorial focus includes real estate, finance, legal, best practices, sales, human resources, technology, growth strategies, exit strategies, incentives and management structure. Each of the magazine's quarterly issues will also provide case studies, CEO profiles, industry statistics and trend pieces written by contributing writers from across the country.
  • 2,894 Reads
John D. Prince is a franchise owner on the grow. His current flags include Applebee's, Aaron's, Famous Dave's, and Hooters. His holdings are concentrated mainly in Utah, where, owing to the state's unique liquor laws, he also owns and operates three private sports bars. He got involved in Applebee's by necessity, when his Ponderosa Steakhouses were tanking in the early 1990s, and has steadily added new sites-and new concepts-ever since.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 5,798 Reads 379 Shares
When Rocco Fiorentino was 30 and a mechanical contractor in Philadelphia, an accident opened an opportunity that changed his career path. He was remodeling a bagel shop owned by a neighbor when his client had a heart attack. Fiorentino ended up with the shop.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 6,578 Reads 92 Shares
Irvine, CA-based El Pollo Loco has a penchant for serving hand-marinated, flame-grilled chicken and the freshest Mexican foods, and last year the company experienced record sales of $396 million. But executives there say that although their product is important, they owe much of their success to their loyal and dedicated employees. In fact, multi-unit operator Roland Spongberg recently went six years without losing a single manager at his 21 southern California El Pollo Loco locations. So what's going on at this company that's creating this environment of motivated, hard-working employees who stay the course?
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 4,397 Reads 210 Shares
Bill Welter's name may not be familiar, but one small phrase he created decades ago will place him for you immediately: "Where's the beef?" Yes, Welter was executive vice president of marketing for Wendy's when that famous campaign made a star out of a little old lady named Clara Peller, and gave Wendy's a real boost in the marketplace.
  • 3,507 Reads 1 Shares
Localized support, faster response time, creating new brand awareness, and cracking tough markets are some of the reasons franchise organizations turn to master franchisees to help expand their systems. Sometimes called regional developers, area developers, master franchisees, area franchisees, their names can be as different as the many ways their fees and compensation are structured. What's not different is how these individuals can help quickly build brands, awareness, and stores in a given territory.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 2,961 Reads 1 Shares
Localized support, faster response time, creating new brand awareness, and cracking tough markets are some of the reasons franchise organizations turn to area developers to help expand their systems. Sometimes called regional developers, area developers, master franchisees, area franchisees, their names can be as different as the many ways their fees and compensation are structured. What's not different is how these individuals can help quickly build brands, awareness, and stores in a given territory.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 3,220 Reads 9 Shares
Throughout its two millennia of ruthless history, the Romanian people learned to accept that their accomplishments could be destroyed at any time. As a consequence, long-term planning was useless. More recently, the adverse reaction created by the infamous communist lies called "the glorious five-year plans", along with the current chaotic on-going transition toward profit oriented business, naturally has led to a very short-term orientation in private and organizational life.
  • Carmen Aida Hutu
  • 3,234 Reads 3 Shares
The IMPI is an agency of the Federal government created in 1993 which has its own assets, personality and budget. IMPI has over a 1,000 employees in Mexico, most of them are concentrated in our headquarters in Mexico City, but we also have regional offices in Guadalajara, Mérida, Monterrey and León. In terms of our human resources, around 63% of our employees have a bachelor degree, 25% have technical education, and 2% masters or PHD degrees which allows us to provide high-quality services to users.
  • Alberto de la Peña
  • 5,591 Reads 16 Shares
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