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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.

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
  • 3,488 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
  • 6,035 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
  • 3,119 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
  • 5,465 Reads 2 Shares
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
  • 3,388 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
  • 3,141 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
  • 3,270 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
  • 3,024 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
  • 5,522 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
  • 2,979 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
  • 4,625 Reads 2 Shares
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Until he hit 40, Rick Guerra ran hotels and restaurants "making a lot of money for other people," he says.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 3,555 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
  • 4,129 Reads 40 Shares
Originally published in Area Developer Issue III, 2007, The AD 50 highlights the largest multi-unit franchise companies who support multi-unit franchising.
  • Area Developer Magazine
  • 6,148 Reads 1 Shares
Ed Doherty has been pushing the envelope on growing a business packed with different franchises - lots of them. To date, they include Applebee's (51), Panera Breads (15), Chevys Fresh Mex (3), and an original concept, the Shannon Rose Irish Pub (1), in New Jersey. And ahead on the menu are the 20 El Pollo Loco locations he's developing in New Jersey.
  • John Carroll
  • 5,674 Reads 1 Shares
I remember the first budget I ever did for a business - for a newsroom where the previous year’s budget had been about $3 million (and 30 years ago, that was some real money). The boss just handed the spreadsheets to me and said, “We need this in a couple of days.”
  • Ripley Hotch
  • 3,374 Reads 1 Shares
A great customer experience matters. A lot. More than ever. Why? For one thing, because there are a lot of coffee chains in the world. Comedian Dennis Miller has a rant about how Starbucks has started opening Starbucks stores inside existing Starbucks stores. Well, it's funnier when he says it.
  • Jack Mackey
  • 4,972 Reads 1,014 Shares
What is the most important buying decision you'll ever make? When you choose a new site? Buy category management software? Invest in a hot new concept? Does something else come to mind?
  • Mel Kleiman
  • 3,036 Reads
Originally printed in Area Developer Issue I 2007, the 2007 Mega 99 rankings highlight the Top 99 Multi-Unit Operates broken down by brands operated and by industry.
  • Area Developer Magazine
  • 6,604 Reads 1,023 Shares
From Mail Boxes Etc. to The UPS Store, a quick history; or, 27 years in 90 seconds or less.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 11,004 Reads 7 Shares
Greg Helwig, vice president of system development for Sylvan Learning Centers, says the company didn't set out to grow with multiple units. It just happened naturally, with an existing franchisee adding a unit, then another.
  • Ripley Hotch
  • 3,721 Reads 3 Shares
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The American Franchisee Association (AFA) is a national trade association of franchisees and dealers founded in February 1993. The AFA works to improve the industry of franchising while protecting its members' economic investments in their businesses.
  • 31,773 Reads
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
  • 3,547 Reads 3 Shares
The Little Caesars Pizza story is… well, quite a story. Founded by Mike and Marian Ilitch, first-generation Americans of Macedonian descent, the company is approaching its 50th anniversary. Still family owned and operated, Little Caesar Enterprises, Inc. has grown prodigiously since its first store opening in 1959 in Garden City, Mich.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 16,202 Reads
Multi-unit operators have been a part of the growth and expansion strategy at Fantastic Sams since the brand first began franchising in 1976, according to Jeff Sturgis, vice president of franchise sales development.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 3,324 Reads 1,014 Shares
The recent merger of Cold Stone Creamery and Kahala Corp. (which operates a dozen other franchise concepts including Blimpie, Taco Time, and Surf City Squeeze), see executives taking it all in stride.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 3,687 Reads 1,014 Shares
Building a portfolio. Growing beyond one unit. Expanding outside a single brand.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 4,985 Reads 1,014 Shares
Just as the Memorial Day holiday was about to begin, lawmakers preparing to flee Washington, D.C., for vacation, reached agreement on continuing to fund the war in Iraq. That funding bill also raised the minimum wage. Not a big deal, many business owners would say, because half the states already require minimum wages in excess of the federal level.
  • Mark E. Battersby
  • 3,580 Reads 7 Shares
This issue's Tech Talk looks at two ways area developers can save time and money by using technology to improve their management and operations: 1) using Web-based software to conduct online meetings for all or some of their sites; and 2) using in-store cameras to improve operations on the fly and provide a digital record that can improve customer relations and protect employees at the same time.
  • Ripley Hotch
  • 2,885 Reads 4 Shares
Training: the second leg of the hiring, training, and retaining triathlon so many multi-unit operators struggle to complete every day. Area Developer asked training experts at three brands - Regis Corp., Little Caesars, and PuroSystems - about their training programs - and how an emphasis on a high-quality training program, incorporating innovation and technology, remains a cornerstone of their growth strategy.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 5,417 Reads
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