California Feature Articles

California Feature Articles

Looking for a franchise opportunity in California? Whether you're a first-time business owner or a seasoned entrepreneur, California offers exciting potential for franchise success. With thriving markets in key cities like Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento, Long Beach, there's a perfect environment to launch and grow a franchise. From food and beverage to retail and services, the diverse economic landscape in California is ripe for franchise opportunities. Explore the best franchise options today and take the next step toward business ownership in California.

Informative articles to support business buyers, franchisees, and franchisors in California.

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
  • 3,753 Reads 15 Shares
When Bill McPherson was growing up in the San Fernando Valley, he dreamed of being a professional basketball player. He was good enough to get a scholarship to the University of California at Irvine.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 3,996 Reads 3 Shares
As vice president of concept development at HMSHost, Novack has his plate full, and seems to relish every bite.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 6,811 Reads 1,023 Shares
In June 2008, heavy rains caused flooding that filled the basement and rose two feet high on the first floor of Columbus Regional Hospital in Columbus, Indiana. The flooding closed the hospital, forcing the evacuation of 157 patients and causing an estimated $125 million in damages. Paul Davis National (PDN) was soon on the scene, part of the team brought in to mitigate the damage and allow the regional health care facility to reopen as quickly as possible.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 3,616 Reads 1,021 Shares
In franchising, no one has to be reminded of the importance of making deals and signing fabulous new franchisees. But unless you actually open new units, inking the deal is only part of the story. This important distinction--between units sold and units opened--led us to examine six franchises that grew by more than 100 units between 2005 and 2006 and ask them how they did it.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 4,473 Reads 25 Shares
What was once a humble grassroots movement to "Save the Planet" has now become big business, with consumers a major part of the push. Seems everywhere you look these days, more and more companies are touting their "green" initiatives as they scramble to implement various ways to recycle, reuse, and renew. Green is in.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 5,406 Reads 7 Shares
Troy Medley has had two major life-changing experiences. The first came when he was just a 19-year-old college student in Missouri.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 6,285 Reads 1 Shares
Sit-down restaurants, also known as casual restaurants, have re-established themselves in the world of franchising - a world more often associated with such fast-food standards as McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, KFC, Taco Bell, and Subway, for example.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 2,989 Reads 49 Shares
1987 was a good year for franchising. Up to then, franchising was young, brash, and not always professional. Franchises weren’t much concerned with history. They were built mostly by young entrepreneurs who saw an opportunity and grabbed it, looking forward, not backward. The first 30 years of modern business format franchising had the feeling of the Wild West (like the Internet of the last 10 years).
  • Eddy Goldberg & Ripley Hotch
  • 3,771 Reads 9 Shares
In the chronicles of franchising history, some names come immediately to mind - Ray Kroc, S. Truett Cathy, Dave Thomas. The names conjure up images of independent-minded entrepreneurs with the savvy, know-how, and vision to create successful business models replicable anywhere. As part of the celebration of Franchise UPDATE's 20th anniversary, we look back at some of these colorful, inspiring, and sometimes controversial characters.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 5,356 Reads
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
  • 4,770 Reads 2 Shares
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Since 1653, when Izaak Walton published The Compleat Angler, "compleat" has come to mean many things beyond what Walton described as "a Discourse on Fish and Fishing." The dictionary tells us it means classic or quintessential. But compleat also implies mastery far beyond the basics, conjuring up words like visionary, leader, even master.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 4,220 Reads 7 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
  • 3,894 Reads 1,014 Shares
When Liz Goodwin of Durham, N.C., was announced as the Curves Franchisee of the Year for the Southeastern Region last October, a cry went up from across the Las Vegas hotel ballroom.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 4,314 Reads 20 Shares
Check cashing has come a long way toward respectability in the past couple of decades. Its reputation, however--at least in the eyes of the media and much of the general public--has lagged behind.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 15,808 Reads 1,701 Shares
Mike Snyder, who grew up in Michigan and spent most of the last 20 years in and out of California, began work after college as a driver for FedEx in the early ‘80s. He ended up as vice president of the company's eastern region, responsible for $2 billion in revenue and more than a thousand employees.
  • Ripley Hotch and Debbie Selinsky
  • 3,198 Reads 5 Shares
Conventional wisdom has it that young franchises are jumping on the area developer bandwagon to grow quickly and establish their presence in the most efficient way.
  • Ripley Hotch and Debbie Selinsky
  • 3,623 Reads 137 Shares
Innovation has played a progressive role in franchising since the beginning. Over the years, there have been new spins and fresh angles on all kinds of products, services, and concepts. As if there were any doubt, consider the more than 300 new franchise concepts introduced last year alone, according to franchise research firm FRANdata.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 5,274 Reads 182 Shares
On Wall Street, smart investors will tell you that diversification is a critical part of any portfolio. It's an approach that can shelter investors from significant losses by spreading the risk. It's also a good way to ensure consistent dividends. And diversification is a strategy that is being adopted and becoming more and more popular among multi-unit franchise operators.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 7,512 Reads 2 Shares
Christopher R. Thomas and his partners, Clyde E. Culp III and John M. Creed, have deep roots in restaurant franchising. They're about to grow deeper.
  • Ripley Hotch
  • 3,458 Reads 13 Shares
California has long been a key market for franchising, and its consumer-oriented culture has also made it one of the most active venues for regulatory and legal issues. Legal developments of the past year affecting the franchise community include the cascade of "Bounty Hunter law" actions, a franchisee's escape from arbitration requirements deemed 'substantively unconscionable', and a lesser-known ruling narrowing the interpretation of franchise fees.
  • Mary Beth Trice and Dawn Newton
  • 4,837 Reads 31 Shares
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Technology companies have always searched for a way to integrate functions in various devices or programs. The advantages to a provider are obvious: more functions mean more charges that can be made, or greater customer loyalty.
  • Ripley Hotch
  • 6,147 Reads 1,014 Shares
Many trace the origins of franchising as we know it today back to Europe in the 1800s, when German beer makers granted pubs and taverns the rights to sell and use their name. In fact, the word "franchise" is a French derivative meaning privilege or freedom.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 4,268 Reads 102 Shares
As more franchise brands push outward from their local or regional base seeking growth on the national stage, choosing the right city or designated market area (DMA) is always a critical factor in success.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 4,401 Reads 14 Shares
California has long been a key market for franchising. Its consumer-oriented culture has also made it one of the most active venues for regulatory and legal issues. Legal developments over the past year affecting the franchise community include 1)...
  • Mary Beth Trice and Dawn Newton
  • 7,842 Reads 157 Shares
Getting laid off by United Airlines in the 1982 recession was perhaps the best business move Regina and Jerry Lillie ever made (even if they didn't actually make it themselves).
  • Eddy Goldberg and Kerry Pipes
  • 3,627 Reads 3 Shares
It's human nature to want to be recognized and appreciated. After all, those kinds of accolades help to determine how we feel about ourselves as well as our careers. It's certainly no different in the franchising world. Franchisees want to know that they're more than just another cog on the wheel. They want to feel valued. When they feel like they play an active role in the decisions affecting their business, they're going to work harder. When they work harder, they're generally going to be more successful. And, of course, more successful franchisees mean a more successful franchise organization. So say the franchise executives who are really tuned in to their franchisees.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 3,865 Reads 18 Shares
Whether it's Kung-Pao Chicken, Shrimp Teriyaki, noodle bowls, or chicken lettuce wraps, more and more Americans are searching for healthier and more exotic alternatives. This desire to eat better and experiment with flavors helps explain much of the growth in Asian food franchise concepts.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 3,957 Reads 81 Shares
If you're looking to add women franchisees--and according to every statistic, you should be (more are looking, and more have the means and skills), then you should know what women want (our apologies to the movie).
  • Linda C. Ray
  • 4,690 Reads 25 Shares
At 17, Victor Chapron was just another boy in the 'hood facing one of three probable futures: drugs, jail, or death. Instead, he was rescued from his high-risk life in Los Angeles and sent to live with his aunt in Chicago. That's where he caught a break and turned his life around... maybe even saved it. Today, at 40 years old, he's come full circle. He's back in LA--this time at the top of his game.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 8,856 Reads 105 Shares

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