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Multi-Unit Franchise Articles

Browse our selection of franchise articles and features to help further your knowledge in opening and operating a franchise business. Our exclusive features cover the , , , , , , and site of the franchise business. Written by the editorial team that produces Franchise Update Magazine and Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine, the franchise industries premier magazines.

For Bill Gellert, who currently owns and operates 14 franchise units across three brands, with a fourth on the way, business is "a constant mixture of fear and excitement." And he loves it.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 4,052 Reads 37 Shares
"I love the action of the restaurants and the strategy of the real estate. This is the jackpot business for me," says Mike Scanlon, president and CEO of Thomas and King in Lexington, Ky., where he opened his first Applebee's in 1988.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 5,380 Reads 1,021 Shares
For months, media headlines and story lead-ins have been filled with dire warnings and inflammatory statements about the economy. Phrases like "the road to recession," "dollar debacle," "subprime mortgage implosion," "housing meltdown," "credit crunch," "trading scandal," and "rogue trader" combine with 600-point intra-day swings in the Dow and volatile economic news to bombard our senses almost every moment of every day.
  • Carol Clark
  • 3,171 Reads
Against a background of greater economic uncertainty in 2008, will franchise development become more difficult? In a word, yes. To be clear, the franchise business model is alive, well, and growing. This decade's accelerating growth in units and expansion of companies embracing the franchise business model are testament to that. However, it appears that more challenging times are awaiting us in 2008. Here are some of the reasons—and suggestions for what franchisors can do.
  • Darrell Johnson
  • 3,661 Reads 3 Shares
As we have highlighted throughout 2007, the change in the economy we anticipated is finally upon us.
  • Dean Zuccarello
  • 4,136 Reads 1,021 Shares
An industry analyst digging into reams of franchise industry data would find that about half of all franchisees across the country are busy operating more than one unit -- and often, more than one brand. It's a phenomenon that has changed the face of the franchise industry over the last decade. And though there hasn't been much significant change in percentages so far in 2008, it's likely to remain a strong and growing trend.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 5,397 Reads 1,023 Shares
Customer loyalty cannot be bought. Loyalty is created by great experiences. And loyalty is lost by poor experiences--or loyalty is lost to a competitor who takes care of customers better than you do.
  • Jack Mackey
  • 3,083 Reads 3 Shares
"How's risk management in the big bank world?" he asked the banker. "I wish it were that," the banker replied. "It's more about risk elimination. We won't make a loan to anybody unless they don't need the money."
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 3,691 Reads 7 Shares
The news is depressing, the economy is sinking, financing is hard to get, the market is down, gas prices are up, and competition is fierce. So why are all these multiunit franchisees smiling?
  • Bill Hall
  • 3,416 Reads 1 Shares
If you were fortunate enough to attend the annual Area Developer Multi-Unit Franchising Conference this April in Scottsdale, you know that the weather was terrific, the facility outstanding, educational sessions abundant, and that franchise networking opportunities flourished late into the cool desert night.
  • Bill Hall
  • 3,129 Reads 1 Shares
As vice president of concept development at HMSHost, Novack has his plate full, and seems to relish every bite.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 6,613 Reads 1,023 Shares
Potbelly Sandwich Works
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Potbelly Sandwich Works
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During the past 20 years, we have witnessed a generation of multiunit franchise operators grow up. Today there are more than 40,000 of them.
  • Darrell Johnson
  • 6,116 Reads 1 Shares
For America's Top Franchisors, Search Delivers Exponential Growth Opportunities. Are the Top Contenders Capitalizing?
  • Oneupweb®
  • 8,208 Reads
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
  • 9,476 Reads 3 Shares
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
  • 5,860 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
  • 4,856 Reads 11 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
  • 5,499 Reads 1,023 Shares
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
  • 3,429 Reads 3 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
  • 5,957 Reads 98 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
  • 3,049 Reads 5 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
  • 5,347 Reads 2 Shares
Vocelli Pizza
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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
  • 3,318 Reads 3 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
  • 3,089 Reads 13 Shares
When was the last time you made an honest assessment of who you have in the most important "chairs" of your operation? Your front-line staff single-handedly sets the tone of your customer service and "packages" your performance day to day. Is your packaging attracting or distracting? Does it gather customers, or chase them away?
  • Gloria Plaisted
  • 3,217 Reads 5 Shares
Today's business environment is filled with incentives to move toward a paperless office, especially considering the ease and low cost involved in storing and sharing electronic data when compared with paper.
  • Dawn Newton
  • 2,964 Reads 8 Shares
We all know to expect death and taxes, but tenants can add one more thing to that list: lease renewals. A lease begins to expire the day it's signed. Yet, how often have you found yourself scrambling to negotiate a renewal in the last couple of months or weeks before the last day? If you're waiting until the last minute to make the critical decision about renewing, and on what terms, you're clearly not dealing from a position of strength.
  • Jeremy Behar
  • 5,469 Reads 259 Shares
The year's fourth quarter marks the anniversary of my start in the investment management business many, many years ago. It also happens to coincide with the time of year my three kids go back to school.
  • Carol Clark
  • 2,901 Reads 1 Shares
When native San Franciscan Ellen Hui left a career in banking in 1989 to take on her first Popeyes Chicken and Biscuits restaurant, she experienced a big culture shock.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 4,578 Reads 2 Shares
Until he hit 40, Rick Guerra ran hotels and restaurants "making a lot of money for other people," he says.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 3,469 Reads 15 Shares
Subway continues to sizzle as one of the hottest franchises going. For the 15th time in the last 20 years, Entrepreneur magazine's annual Franchise 500 rankings have listed Subway as the number-one franchise opportunity. For perspective, when the chain was first named to the list in 1988, it had about 4,000 locations. Today, the chain operates 27,732 shops in 86 countries (as of June 2007).
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 4,057 Reads 40 Shares
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