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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.

Big money, in the form of private equity, is finding a home in franchising, and bringing big promise to area developers and multi-unit operators-and to franchisors and franchise executives as well.
  • 5,418 Reads 1 Shares
What's the outlook for franchise finance in 2006? [i]Area Developer[/i] asked several industry veterans for their take on who's financing area developers and multi-unit operators today.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 4,080 Reads 7 Shares
Chew on these numbers and take into consideration the implications for you and your organization from the perspective of your customers and your employees - who you hire and whom you sell to. You will see great numbers to keep in mind when positioning your company, your next office and your next marketing push. Many of these numbers come from my work in the construction, landscape, and business-to-consumer industries, which understood these numbers many years ago. Construction, landscaping, manufacturing, and related industries are in the trenches and don't understand why so many other industries are not getting it.
  • Mauricio Velasquez
  • 3,017 Reads
No, neither the price of gasoline nor its impact on your multi-unit, multi-brand franchise business will be reduced under of the recently passed energy and transportation bills. However, both the Energy Tax Incentives Act of 2005, and the Safe, Accountable, Flexible Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2005, could have a noticeable impact on the tax bills of every franchised business - as well as those of their owners and operators.
  • Mark E. Battersby
  • 3,400 Reads 1,021 Shares
The numbers are overwhelming: there are more than 12 million businesses in the United States, and over the next five to seven years more than half of these companies will change hands. Of the six million owners who will sell their businesses in the next several years, most will not take specific steps to ensure a smooth transition from their ownership. Even for the few owners who have made an attempt to plan for their exit, their efforts usually fall far short of a comprehensive exit plan.
  • Will Lindenmayer
  • 3,190 Reads 1 Shares
For a multi-unit franchisee, the relationship with a customer doesn't end with the sale. Each purchase of an item or use of your service is a single transaction between an individual customer and an individual employee. Whether it is a quick meal at a sub shop or a thorough home cleaning, this transaction should be the beginning of a long-term relationship with your customer. After the transaction, the relationship must be grounded in not only the quality of the product or service, but also in the strength of your response to customer needs. How do you gauge and evaluate your quality of product, service and response beyond the price tag?
  • Thomas J. Winninger
  • 3,621 Reads 16 Shares
Family business teams in the franchise industry help prove the old adage that two good ideas are always better than one. That continues to be the case for Kelly Saxton and his family.
  • Joan Szabo
  • 3,261 Reads 7 Shares
When looking at a franchise opportunity, the big question often asked is 'how much can I make?' Coming up with those projections isn't always easy. It takes a little digging on your part. Even so, most area developers have enough experience and are wise enough to know how to find the best franchise opportunities that will reap a good return on investment (ROI).
  • Joan Szabo
  • 13,958 Reads 3 Shares
It's every multi-unit operator's nightmare: You have a solid group of healthy performing units until you notice one beginning to decline - lower sales numbers, declining traffic, increased customer complaints, unusually high employee turnover. Or maybe you decide to take on a new unit that has been a low performer. It can be a difficult situation, but it can also provide an opportunity filled with high returns if handled properly. Here are some approaches, tips and insight to what some area developers have done to turn around poor performing units.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 3,569 Reads 47 Shares
In my previous column, I discussed the first two pieces of how to build an organization that grows your franchise business. Part one was planning the structure of your organization over time, based on your territory, market, or development growth in terms of your team. Part two focused on the functional role of individuals within the organization. The third piece is how to develop pools of talent.
  • Thom Winninger
  • 3,573 Reads 11 Shares
The difference between satisfied customers and loyal customers can sink a multi-unit franchisee. But there is also good news here.
  • Jack Mackey
  • 4,391 Reads 3 Shares
Tropical Smoothie Cafe
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It's all her son's fault! Twenty-eight years ago, says Alice Schleicher (pronounced "Slisher"), her then 16-year-old, Rick, came home and said, "'Mom and Dad, I saw a restaurant and I want to buy it.'" It was a KFC in Sellersburg, Indiana. "We kind of looked at each other and said, 'Okay, well, we'll buy it.'" She envisioned having four someday. So far, she's exceeded that by 50.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 9,998 Reads 2 Shares
"Today you can work anywhere," says John Metz from his home in Buffalo, where he spends three months a year--the winter months. "It's a wonderful thing. I dial in to my office in West Palm Beach through a VPN and get everything I want. I can dial into the POS systems and get real-time information on all my restaurants. What else do I need? It's just like being in West Palm." Except for the snow.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 14,920 Reads 2 Shares
It's a family affair all the way around at United States Beef Corp. Founded in 1969 when Bob and Connie Davis purchased their first Arby's restaurant – just five years after brothers Forrest and Leroy Raffel opened the first Arby's in Boardman, Ohio – today the Tulsa-based franchisee is headed by their sons Jeff, CEO, and John R. Davis, president. And a focus on a family-type atmosphere in its restaurants completes the picture.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 6,544 Reads 349 Shares
Gina Mehr has experienced success; now she wants to be effective.
  • Linda Ray
  • 4,758 Reads 1,014 Shares
Clara Osterhage says she is "the employer of choice in Dayton, Ohio." "I treat them the way I want to be treated and I pay them weekly," she says. "I could cut costs in half by paying every other week, but I know how important it is to them. It's a huge recruitment benefit. I have people who will never leave me."
  • Linda Ray
  • 8,156 Reads 274 Shares
Tom Hofer has always been tuned into his own drive and sense of where he belonged. "I did real well in a retail environment after college, but I always knew it wasn't me," Hofer says. "I definitely knew I wanted to own my own business, but wasn't sure what to do. So when the opportunity came up for me to buy a territory with Spring Green, it felt right."
  • Linda Ray
  • 3,905 Reads 9 Shares
Linda Fong loves franchising. Not only does she own three Liberty Fitness locations, but one Fast Signs franchise and a Phlato's Closet store. "I can grow the other businesses by increasing sales," Fong says. "I'm opening more fitness locations because that's how I can grow that business."
  • Linda Ray
  • 4,484 Reads
Todd Watkins may look like a type-A power franchisee with 22 Martinizing locations and the title of largest franchisee in the system. But the 41-year-old Michigan father has other priorities.
  • Linda Ray
  • 4,963 Reads 25 Shares
Charles Loflin has won Wingstop franchise's awards for highest sales in 2004 and 2005. Last year, he had a million-dollar store. In 2006, he'll have two.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 10,224 Reads 2 Shares
In 1992, after 25 years in the high-tech industry, Bill Criego opted to start his own company as a franchisee for Batteries Plus in the Minneapolis area. By 1995, he'd drafted wife Laurie, a sales manager in a consulting services firm, to join him in the business. By 2003, son Michael, a former airline pilot, decided to come aboard and help run the operations for the stores, which now number ten. (They'll open the 11th in a couple of months and plan others in the future.)
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 5,592 Reads 1 Shares
Dogtopia
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When Randy Lawrence's entrepreneurial spirit led him to leave his post as vice president of corporate operations for Back Yard Burgers to open his own restaurants, he did it with a vengeance: he signed a seven-year development agreement to open a whopping 28 Back Yard Burgers in the metropolitan Atlanta area.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 4,092 Reads 12 Shares
Junior high sweethearts and now 17 years married, Jan and Mark Mansfield have pooled their skills to achieve great success with 39 Sport Clips salons in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 5,938 Reads 95 Shares
More than 26 years ago, North Carolinians Tommy and Donna Haddock bought their first Bojangles' franchise. Things worked out so well, with him taking care of store operations and her working on insurance, workers comp and other "bureaucratic red tape," that they've never felt the need to try another franchise organization.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 7,252 Reads 1 Shares
For a man who values family so highly, Jeff Rogers has accomplished a lot in the world of business and franchising. He's been at the top of his class in advertising, winning numerous awards; a turnaround specialist advising troubled companies (more awards); and has taken the helm at more than one struggling franchise company, where he worked his magic to transform a loser into a winner (yes, more awards, including 1997 Turnaround Entrepreneur of the Year from Inc. magazine, IBM, and Deloitte.)
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 6,940 Reads 6 Shares
Multi-unit, multi-brand franchising has achieved a milestone: More franchises are owned by multi-unit developers than by single-unit franchisees. So we thought you'd like to know how big some of these guys are. Area Developer magazine introduces this annual feature, profiling some of the industry's most successful multi-unit franchisees. Working with FRANdata to compile a list of the largest multi-unit franchisees, "The Big 99" (ranked by number of units), rest assured our editors also know that when it comes to franchising, size isn't everything.
  • Eddy Goldberg, Linda Ray & Deb Selinski
  • 4,281 Reads 1 Shares
You wouldn't know it from looking at his photo, or at his remarkable string of successes in taking failing chicken franchises and giving them wings, but Aslam Khan grew up poor. "I was born in poverty," said Khan in a 2001 interview, "and had a deep desire to move away from it. I wanted to do better."
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 10,915 Reads
Customer satisfaction data must correlate to comp sales growth. Otherwise, there is no reason to worry about providing great service--if there is no positive financial result from that effort. Without financial linkage to business results, there is no external validity to the customer satisfaction measurements and you are probably measuring "satisfaction"incorrectly. Let's look at a proven method of measuring your customer's experience that gives you clear financial linkage to comp sales growth.
  • Jack Mackey
  • 3,377 Reads 1 Shares
Whether you are a franchisor or a multiunit franchisee, you must have noticed that the marketing and sales landscape is changing. No matter what kind of business you're in, status quo marketing and sellingis no longer going to get you the resultsyou need or want. In a business-to-consumer franchise system you will see the demographic changes in your customer marketplaces more quickly than in business-to-business. Time to wake up and smell the demographic coffee!
  • Mauricio Velasquez
  • 4,042 Reads
I have read many "How To" articles on real estate. Often, they were written by attorneys, estate agents, or learned Ivy League professors in need of publishing. They quote facts, point to figures, refer to charts, and on occasion come up with something of value to the reader. The problem, in all fairness to these authors, is that it is difficult to write about real estate without a clear and specific idea of what their readers need or are looking for.
  • Lewis Gelmon
  • 3,687 Reads 20 Shares
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