Choosing Your Next Brand

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.