Washington Feature Articles

Washington Feature Articles

Looking for a franchise opportunity in Washington? Whether you're a first-time business owner or a seasoned entrepreneur, Washington offers exciting potential for franchise success. With thriving markets in key cities like Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, Vancouver, Bellevue, there's a perfect environment to launch and grow a franchise. From food and beverage to retail and services, the diverse economic landscape in Washington is ripe for franchise opportunities. Explore the best franchise options today and take the next step toward business ownership in Washington.

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

This issue marks the 20th anniversary of Franchise UPDATE, the company and the publication.
  • Ripley Hotch
  • 3,700 Reads 30 Shares
With the first kick-off of the pigskin this season, chicken wings were back on top of the menu once again for hungry football fans nationwide. Each autumn, migrating herds of Americans return to their favorite hot (wings) spots week after week to catch the big games on big screens, or wolf down their favorite spicy chicken wings at home on their new HDTV unit. It's a routine that's become big business, and it doesn't seem to be losing any steam.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 2,268 Reads 3 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
  • 3,493 Reads 7 Shares
Despite all of the attention recently focused on income taxes, it is the property tax that is the biggest expense in most businesses - and the most difficult to manage. According to the Council on State Taxation, a Washington, DC, think tank, American businesses shell out more on property taxes than for any other type of state or local taxes.
  • Mark E. Battersby
  • 3,642 Reads 4 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
  • 4,036 Reads 14 Shares
Franchising is founded on the concept of replicating success at the unit level. But Mary Rogers is taking that premise one better: she's replicating success at the franchisor level.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 4,740 Reads 22 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
  • 3,349 Reads 3 Shares
Pets and pet-related businesses are among today's hottest franchise opportunities--especially in the U.S., where pet owners are notorious for pampering their dogs, cats, birds (and even their rodents, reptiles, amphibians, and fish).
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 3,118 Reads 17 Shares
He always meant to quit working at Jack-in-the-Box and pursue his goal of becoming a doctor in the United States. Instead, he found success beyond his wildest dreams...in franchising.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 51,497 Reads 16 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
  • 4,488 Reads 25 Shares
What was happening in the franchisor community? The Italian legislature had proposed that no franchisor be allowed to offer franchises in Italy unless it had a history of operating at least two units in the country before it began franchising. Ultimately, Italy adopted a more flexible experience standard. Then China adopted a two-unit, one year of experience standard as a precondition for franchising there in its 2004 Franchise Measures.
  • Carl E. Zwisler
  • 10,684 Reads 3 Shares
Jersey Mike's Subs
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When Philip Nye came to the United States from Colombia 18 years ago, he carried a visa, spoke English, and had the necessary resources to buy his Sir Speedy franchise in Raleigh, N.C.
  • Linda C. Ray
  • 3,290 Reads 2 Shares
One-third of the nation's population is "minority" (U.S. Census), but only about 10 percent of franchises are minority-owned (National Minority Franchise Initiative). Or, to look at it another way, 90 percent of franchises are not minority-owned.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 5,684 Reads 25 Shares
Unfortunately for those who take on the job of growing a franchise business, financial risk is always present. If you are like other franchisors who want to minimize risk and boost profits, you may want to take a serious look at using a more extensive corporate-ownership program than you now have in place.
  • 5,234 Reads 24 Shares
John Gantes has been in the restaurant business his entire life. "From the time I was a little kid, I worked around restaurants. I'm from Greek heritage and my dad had a restaurant when I was growing up, so I knew the business. Unlike my dad, who was very content to have one restaurant, that wasn't what I really wanted to do."
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 8,875 Reads 339 Shares
While politicians wrangled over the Mexican-U.S. border situation in 2006, one thing remained certain: people on both sides of the border love Mexican food. Americans have come a long way from Taco Bell, embracing Mexican food more and more each year, in all its flavors and variations.
  • 10,635 Reads
Chew on the numbers presented in this article and consider the implications for you and your organization from the perspective of your customers and employees--the people you hire and the people you sell to. You will see great numbers to keep in mind when positioning your company, looking for your next location, and developing your next marketing push.
  • Mauricio Velasquez
  • 4,310 Reads 3 Shares
For many years--like the ancient bones of "Lucy" discovered by Donald Johanson in 1974 and long thought to be mankind's first ancestor--Albert Singer, who founded the Singer Sewing Machine Company in 1851, has been credited with being the first franchisor in the United States. The designation was likely given because his was the most recognized name of the early pioneers that people still remembered.
  • Michael Seid
  • 27,931 Reads 26 Shares
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.
  • 5,073 Reads 1 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
  • 2,767 Reads
Fast food chicken franchising has come a long way from 1939, when Colonel Harlan Sanders introduced Kentucky Fried Chicken. Since then, brands like Church's, Chester's, and Popeyes have spread the gospel of fried chicken not only across the continent, but across the world. Fried chicken has become American as apple pie, and everybody wants a piece.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 3,410 Reads 13 Shares
Bojangles
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The sandwich has come a long way since its invention in 1762 by the Fourth Earl of Sandwich - or so the story goes. That's when the Earl is credited with being the first person to slap a couple of slices of bread around his meat (or order his servants to).
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 4,022 Reads
Time for my annual "just got back from the IFA Convention" column. I saw lots of my lawyer friends while there-also met a lot of suppliers, franchise consultants, academicians, journalists, and franchisees. Occasionally, I even came a cross a franchisor. Didn't see too many psychologists, however. Why not?
  • Lawrence Bivins
  • 4,043 Reads 9 Shares
In 1996, a young London inventor asked British franchise veteran Victor Clewes whether he should franchise or sell the innovative machine he'd created for filtering used cooking oil. Clewes had never set foot in a commercial kitchen, but it didn't take him long to see that Jason Sayers was sitting on a franchising goldmine.
  • Deb Selinsky
  • 5,167 Reads 15 Shares
Whether it's high-fat super-premium gourmet ice cream with mix-in candy, fudge, or fruit, or just plain vanilla low-fat frozen yogurt, for most Americans it's not if or when, but how often they'll indulge in a sweet, tasty, frozen dessert or treat. In the U.S. today, ice cream is a $20 billion-plus industry, with 90 percent market penetration. The industry is mature, meaning any gains from one competitor (Haagen-Dazs vs. Carvel) or segment (super premium vs. light) will be scooped from another.
  • 17,840 Reads 1 Shares
Seattle's Dennis Waldron is still in the early stages, but he's by no means an amateur. For 10 years he was president of Cinnabon, where he introduced franchises and grew the chain to 400 units. After Cinnabon was sold, "I looked at a number of opportunities and finally settled on being a franchisee," he says. More than that, Waldron set out to be a multi-unit franchisee.
  • 5,641 Reads 206 Shares
John D. Prince is a franchise owner on the grow. His current flags include Applebee's, Aaron's, Famous Dave's, and Hooters. His holdings are concentrated mainly in Utah, where, owing to the state's unique liquor laws, he also owns and operates three private sports bars. He got involved in Applebee's by necessity, when his Ponderosa Steakhouses were tanking in the early 1990s, and has steadily added new sites-and new concepts-ever since.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 5,664 Reads 379 Shares
Start spreading the news, you may just want to be a part of New York, New York. The Big Apple heads up the list of the top 20 cities in the U.S. for franchising, according to a new study by Franchise Update and FRANdata. This past summer, executives from Franchise Update commissioned researchers at FRANdata, an organization that collects extensive franchise industry information, to tabulate the rankings. FRANdata analysts drew upon more than 250,000 records of franchise locations out of its proprietary database to calculate the results. "We analyzed Direct Market Areas (DMAs) as outlined by Nielsen. We matched zip codes to DMAs and calculated the number of franchises within those DMAs," explained FRANdata data research analyst Brad Morick, who was responsible for the project. The use of the DMAs helped standardize the analysis and interpretation of the rankings. "To my knowledge, no one else has ever done a study like ours," continued Morick. "Since we collect UFOCs from franchises across the country, we know all of their locations and could easily do a cross match. "
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 2,429 Reads 7 Shares
Current data continues to validate that multi-unit and multi-brand franchising is evolving at lightning speed in all industry segments. In fact, FRANdata, a Washington-based information company specializing in franchise research based on UFOCs, recently released the following statistics to Franchise UPDATE, Inc.:
  • 1,932 Reads 2 Shares
Multi-unit, multi-brand, co-branding, area development--you've seen these defined, and they are distinct entities. Most multi-unit franchisees start with a few, and quickly grow one brand, then add another, and often enter into an area franchise agreement.
  • Ripley Hotch
  • 2,521 Reads 11 Shares

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