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Standard operating procedure, or SOP, is a term widely understood by those who have served in the armed forces. SOP refers to a step-by-step method for how a mission or function will be carried out. Veterans understand the importance of implementing and following SOP for a task to be executed and the mission completed successfully. This systematic approach sounds very similar to the franchising model, and is why more and more veterans are finding successful post-military careers in the world of franchising.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 5,536 Reads 6 Shares
As you may recall, in my last column I asked if the hiring managers in your organization know the answers to the 15 questions that make all the difference between success and failure in recruiting, selecting, and retaining the best employees. Here now are the answers.
  • Mel Kleiman
  • 4,341 Reads 1,014 Shares
Technology tools have become a mainstay for every multi-unit franchisee, used for planning, budgeting, forecasting, and many other daily activities. Today franchisees are embracing technology for demographic research and site selection.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 6,102 Reads 259 Shares
On the Friday morning after Congress voted down the first, "unsweetened" $700 billion bailout package--and with credit frozen and the lending climate getting icier by the hour--franchise sales executives at Franchise Update's Leadership & Development Conference put their heads together in a Friday morning "mindshare" session to brainstorm answers to some tough questions on what they're doing to make sales.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 3,805 Reads 1 Shares
I have a suggestion that will raise your odds of winning--and it won't cost you any money. To clarify what I mean by improving your probability of winning, let me contrast that with an example of winning by chance.
  • Jack Mackey
  • 5,947 Reads 1,014 Shares
The multi-unit operators highlighted in this issue of have gained both market dominance and respect for their achievements. Wouldn't it be nice to follow in their footsteps? How does one go about doing so? Bookstores are full of how-to books on every aspect of strategic and tactical business building. Yet, ultimately, it mostly comes down to trial and error because the single biggest factor is you and the people around you in your company.
  • Darrell Johnson
  • 3,780 Reads 23 Shares
The secret is out of the box. The mystery shopping has ended and the results have been revealed. Each year, for more than a decade now, Franchise UPDATE has conducted a mystery shopping survey of franchisors to assess their lead generation and recruiting efforts. Two methods--telephone and online--are "shopped" and objectively recorded. Each franchise organization registered for this year's annual Franchise Leadership & Development Conference by a specific cutoff date--nearly 150 of this year's attendees--was evaluated, and its data included in the study.
  • Franchise Update Magazine
  • 5,267 Reads 8 Shares
I will never forget as we clustered around a single Quotron watching as market prices plunged more than 23 percent on that fateful day back in 1987. I was a rookie analyst in a trust department and distinctly remember the shock and horror that everyone, from newly minted analysts to gray-haired veterans, felt as we watched the seemingly impossible happen right before our eyes. Honestly, having survived one "500-year flood" event, I never imagined I'd still be in the business when another came along.
  • Carol Clark
  • 3,925 Reads 2 Shares
It was like a gut punch for Charlie Marshall. In less than a year's time, the Spring-Green Lawn Care multi-unit franchisee went from paying $12 per bag for lawn fertilizer to more than $25 per bag. "That will make you look for ways to streamline and cut costs," says Marshall. To add insult to injury, gasoline prices were skyrocketing, making it even more expensive to fire up his seven trucks and dispatch crews to care for his customers' lawns each day.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 4,594 Reads 57 Shares
About 20 years ago, Greg Cutchall learned a crucial lesson. An investor group he worked with forced him out of a chain of KFC restaurants in Omaha, units he had operated and helped to build. That fired him up to make things happen for himself.
  • John Carroll
  • 5,203 Reads 18 Shares
When you have only one location, it's pretty easy to work both in your business as well as on it. When you have two locations, most often it's still doable--you can manage it. Almost without exception, however, when you get to three or more locations, you'll find yourself stretched way past your limits. You will be so busy working in your business that you won't have any time to work on it, and that's a recipe for disaster. When the disasters start piling up, it's past time to recruit the unit-level managers (ULMs) you need to keep things running smoothly and help you grow your business.
  • Mel Kleiman
  • 4,310 Reads 22 Shares
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All franchisors place a high priority on gaining new recruits and responding to contacts from prospective franchisees. But who's setting the pace on performance? Once again, Franchise UPDATE's mystery shoppers hit the phones--and the websites--checking out franchisors from coast to coast to see which were doing the very best work. The best and the brightest were recognized in the 10th annual STAR (Speaking To And Responding) Awards--from the three top national performers to the companies that excelled at fielding telephone contacts or quickly getting back to website leads.
  • John Carroll
  • 4,187 Reads 12 Shares
Reciprocity Restaurant Group President Lyndon Johnson good-naturedly lets new acquaintances have a little fun with his name. That's because he's fine with his name. "I can think of a lot worse people to share a name with," says Johnson.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 7,471 Reads 251 Shares
The daily flurry of bad economic and financial news recently has made it difficult to focus on time periods beyond weeks, days, or even hours. However, I'll try to put things in perspective for the franchise community and offer both a forecast and some suggestions on how we can make the best of 2009.
  • Darrell Johnson
  • 4,451 Reads
Retailers have never been shy about enticing customers to buy through all kinds of incentives. Now a franchisor has followed suit. During the last quarter of 2008, Seattle-based Emerald City Smoothie was offering a "buy one, get one free" franchise promotion. Seriously.
  • Franchise Update Magazine
  • 7,179 Reads
Early in my career I first witnessed the magic of great PR. Dan Dorfman, a renowned investment advisor and syndicated columnist, labeled our business-to-business franchise one of the "top ten best franchises in America." His story generated 11 new franchisees for us. At no cost!
  • Steve Olson
  • 3,714 Reads 10 Shares
Franchise Update Media Group, the leading industry resource for franchise development, today announced that registration is now open for the 8th Annual Multi-Unit Franchising Conference. The conference will be held at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, April 15-17, and this year's theme is "Playing to Win."
  • Press Release
  • 3,165 Reads 1 Shares
"One day I had 1,000 people, the next day I had a hair salon with 5 stylists," says Richard Bielecki, Fantastic Sams regional owner for South Texas and New Mexico.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 4,039 Reads 18 Shares
We now have all of the requirements of the FTC's Amended Franchise Rule being implemented. All franchisors should be complying with the Amended Rule's disclosure requirements, and most franchisors who have sales activities in the registration states are now doing battle with the state examiners, as they test the procedures and borders of the revised disclosure requirements. That brings to mind two topics of discussion, one of which I will address below, and the other (a look at the overall system for regulating franchise sales disclosure) I will save for another column.
  • Rupert M. Barkoff
  • 6,424 Reads 20 Shares
FRANCHISE OWNERS are awfully smug these days. While dismayed stockholders watch the red figures crawl on the ticker tape, entrepreneurs behind food kiosks and restaurant chains boast of maintaining control over their investments and even growing their businesses in these tough times.
  • BusinessWorld Online
  • 2,920 Reads 1,023 Shares
As a marketing expert for a string of fast food chains, Bill Welter learned his craft under "three wonderful kingmakers" of the franchising world: Ray Kroc, Colonel Harland Sanders, and Dave Thomas. But it wasn't until Welter got inside the four walls of his own restaurant that he understood the true nature of the business and the keys to its success.
  • John Carroll
  • 6,887 Reads 1 Shares
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For me, adapting to the highly specialized world of franchise development was a laborious, disjointed journey. During the early 1980s, I searched for a road map for recruitment success that could jump start my performance and help avoid costly mistakes. But there was no drill-down guide detailing the key benchmarks to successful growth--no books I could buy dedicated to the business of growing a franchise business. After years of unnecessary trial and error, I learned through the school of hard knocks--as many of you have--relying heavily on peer networking and by attending development seminars and industry conferences.
  • Steve Olson
  • 3,579 Reads 3 Shares
In his earlier life as a CPA for a pharmaceutical company, Gary Vega traveled the world extensively. Spending so much time on the company's dime allowed him to stash away his own income until the right opportunity arrived to start his own restaurant business.
  • John Carroll
  • 6,612 Reads
If you could get better performance from your franchisees and increase the overall value of your brand at little or no cost, you'd be crazy not to. That's the business proposition of business coaching. While it may sound like vendor pitch, this assessment comes from a growing number of franchisors and franchisees.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 4,702 Reads 6 Shares
For many of us this past year has been a giant proclamation of change. The franchise industry experienced some of the largest mergers and personnel changes in recent memory. This change comes as little surprise for many of us as the economic situation, and the unsettled feelings in the political world, leave us with little option but to adapt to this new marketplace and innovative new ideas. Historically, times like these are often followed by great innovation, new businesses being formed, and a new era of technological advancement. Just as the 1980-1982 recession gave birth to the home computer market, the 1990-1991 recession gave birth to the innovation of the world wide web, the 2008 recession will bring forth a whole new wave of business. It is in our darkest hour that we have the most potential to do something remarkable. That being said we can expect 2009 to be a year for change and innovation. Before we look to the future, let's recap several key developments in the franchise industry.
  • Benjamin Foley
  • 2,032 Reads
What does one of the most successful Subway multi-unit operators, and now multi-unit operator and area developer for LA Sunset Tan, do for his next trick? Make a horror movie, of course.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 9,069 Reads 1 Shares
I stand in awe of how much technology has adapted over the last few years and how much of it I have adopted. Just a few short years ago, franchise portals seemed innovative and the potential silver bullet for finding more qualified leads. That space has now been overrun with new and exciting technologies, known to many as Web 2.0.
  • Franchise Update Magazine
  • 4,837 Reads 8 Shares
Franchise Update Media Group, the leading industry resource for franchise development, recommends franchising as the best opportunity for success for many people looking to start their own businesses. Franchised businesses combine the most attractive aspects of both worlds: the independence of entrepreneurialism, backed by the support and proven systems of Corporate America.
  • Press Release
  • 3,535 Reads 4 Shares
Customer loyalty is never more important than in turbulent times. High levels of customer satisfaction are a must to win customer loyalty. That's one reason measuring customer satisfaction is a great idea--if the numbers are real! Unfortunately, many customer satisfaction scores are unreliable.
  • Jack Mackey
  • 5,512 Reads 1,014 Shares
Even with a billion young people entering the global workforce over the next 10 years, we still face the tough challenge of hiring top talent for our organizations. Attracting, recruiting, and retaining top talent are challenges I faced as director of talent services (recruiting) at Wal-Mart. Recruiting has become more than just building relationships; it is about producing ROI and justifying expenses made throughout the process.
  • Randy Cox
  • 3,779 Reads 12 Shares
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