Franchise Guide: Success Stories - Franchising.com

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Success Stories

After Tom Barnett graduated from the United States Air Force Academy, his first assignment as a lieutenant was to head to UCLA for an MBA. That wound up costing the Air Force a career professional.
  • John Carroll
  • 4,650 Reads 1 Shares
John Prince has done a lot in his 66 years. He's been a radio talk show host, reporter, stockbroker, and even ran a small hot dog and soup stand. He's worked at SmithBarney, Citibank, been a multi-concept owner, and even started his own franchise brand (more on that later). He's seen franchising from more than both sides now.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 17,832 Reads 5 Shares
With her high energy and positive attitude, it's no surprise that Linda Fong is a successful multi-brand, multiunit franchisee. However, like many franchisees, she's not one of those who made a plan and followed a straight line to that success. But it's the detours and her individualism that have taught her what she needed.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 3,539 Reads 15 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
  • 5,363 Reads 1,021 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
  • 3,404 Reads 1 Shares
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
  • 9,461 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
  • 5,834 Reads 1 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
  • 4,044 Reads 40 Shares
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
  • 6,549 Reads 1,023 Shares
When Doug Castino decided it was time to get out of his hugely successful restaurant design and supply business, he'd never thought of franchising and didn't know what an area developer was.
  • Ripley Hotch
  • 4,413 Reads
In the $150 billion worldwide hair-care industry, Regis Corp. rules the roost. Regis has 55,000 corporate and 33,000 franchise employees in its more than 11,000 salons worldwide. Company brands in North America include Regis Salons, MasterCuts, Trade Secret, Supercuts, and Cost Cutters. (The company has about 60 brands gloally.) Regis owns a four percent domestic and two percent worldwide market share and predicts $2.4 billion in revenue in fiscal 2006.
  • 18,214 Reads 3,290 Shares
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In some parts of the country, Papa Murphy's is still unknown. The typical reaction, according to Senior Vice President of Development Kevin King is, "You've got a thousand stores?"
  • 11,768 Reads 1,015 Shares
Panera, phenomenally successful today, had an uncertain start. In 1993, Boston-based Au Bon Pain acquired the Saint Louis Bread Company and its 20 stores. From 1993 to 1997, the company "re-staged" the Saint Louis brand, increasing unit volumes by 75 percent. Somewhere en route, with visions of national expansion dancing in their heads, managment changed the concept's name to Panera Bread.
  • 4,519 Reads 26 Shares
MaggieMoo's began in 1989 in Kansas City but didn't start franchising until 1996, when the company was purchased by its current ownership. Since then it's been steadily uphill for both franchisor and ice cream lovers alike. Today the brand has 190 units and continues its rapid expansion.
  • 4,693 Reads 135 Shares
Wouldn't it be great if you could call a home repair service, book an appointment, and be guaranteed they'd show up on time (and not within a four-hour window!), be courteous and respectful, and perform a reliable, professional job?
  • 3,396 Reads 11 Shares
Fourth in the overall rankings on the this year's AD50 list is 1-800-Got-Junk? All of its franchisees are multi-unit owners (or potentially), says CEO Brian Scudamore. "It's a pretty simple strategy," he says. "Find the right people, and once they've been successful with one franchise, then offer another."
  • 4,058 Reads 48 Shares
"Our first salon was a real struggle," explains Doug Barnes. "There were times when we didn't know if we'd have enough money to get through the next day." But those hard times helped forge a determination that he and his wife Elizabeth rely on still today. And it must be a formula that works because today, Barnes operates 26 Cost Cutters and three Supercuts locations throughout Nebraska and Iowa, and Regis Corporation, the parent company of Cost Cutters and Supercuts, just recognized him with its 2005 Multi-Concept Franchisee of the Year Award.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 5,197 Reads 192 Shares
March 30th marked another celebration of outstanding achievement in multi-unit franchising when the 2006 FAB Awards were presented to four franchisee winners who demonstrated a level of performance resulting in significant contributions to franchisor systems. At the JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort, Spa & Golf, attendees got to see franchising at its best at the Fifth Annual Multi-Unit Franchising Development Conference & Expo.
  • Carren Bersch
  • 4,246 Reads 29 Shares
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
  • 9,608 Reads 1 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
  • 14,521 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
  • 6,215 Reads 349 Shares
The Human Bean
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Gina Mehr has experienced success; now she wants to be effective.
  • Linda Ray
  • 4,359 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
  • 7,621 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
  • 3,556 Reads 9 Shares
Julie Wilson believes in succession. She currently is sharing her experience with her newest partner, Beth Driskill, in hopes that Driskill will be able to make the transition into ownership as smoothly as she did.
  • Linda Ray
  • 3,738 Reads 1,014 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
  • 4,124 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
  • 4,690 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
  • 9,620 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
  • 5,249 Reads
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
  • 3,803 Reads 12 Shares
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