West Virginia Feature Articles

West Virginia Feature Articles

Looking for a franchise opportunity in West Virginia? Whether you're a first-time business owner or a seasoned entrepreneur, West Virginia offers exciting potential for franchise success. From food and beverage to retail and services, the diverse economic landscape in West Virginia is ripe for franchise opportunities. Explore the best franchise options today and take the next step toward business ownership in West Virginia.

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

All franchisors place a high priority on gaining new recruits and responding to contacts from prospective franchisees. But who's setting the pace on performance? Once again, Franchise UPDATE's mystery shoppers hit the phones--and the websites--checking out franchisors from coast to coast to see which were doing the very best work. The best and the brightest were recognized in the 10th annual STAR (Speaking To And Responding) Awards--from the three top national performers to the companies that excelled at fielding telephone contacts or quickly getting back to website leads.
  • John Carroll
  • 4,386 Reads 12 Shares
This article from 2008 could almost be written today. Learn how the more things change, the more they stay the same (except for Covid, of course).
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 5,306 Reads 14 Shares
Franchise Update Media Group, the leading industry resource for franchise development, is a sponsor of the second annual Women's Franchise Network Reception, which will be held Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008 from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. at the offices of Davis Wright, Tremaine in Los Angeles. The topic for this year's event is "Show Me the Money" and focuses on financing options for franchisors in today's uncertain market.
  • Press Release
  • 3,186 Reads 3 Shares
Let there be no misunderstanding: financial performance representations (formerly referred to as "earnings claims" and referred to below as "FPRs") are powerful tools in the franchise sales process.
  • Rupert M. Barkoff
  • 3,860 Reads 7 Shares
The current economic climate remains high in the minds of both state Senate candidates for District 14. Democrat Bob Williams and Republican Gary Howell are both vying for the seat that would represent Barbour, Mineral, Preston, Taylor and Tucker counties as well as part of Grant and Monongalia counties.
  • Cumberland Times-News
  • 3,245 Reads 1 Shares
"As a brand, people know Denny's," says Doug Wong, Denny's director of franchise development at the iconic, 56-year-old American breakfast franchise. "But they don't know who we are today." That goes for customers as well as potential Denny's franchisees.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 6,658 Reads 25 Shares
It started with a desperate phone call from a distraught daughter at her wit's end. Patricia Maisano was on the receiving end of that call. The woman on the other end of the phone was searching for assistance in caring for her elderly mother. At the time, Maisano was running a health care consulting business in Philadelphia. She was a registered nurse and well-versed in case management. And the phone call had a significant impact on her.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 2,985 Reads 1,021 Shares
When we visited with Hank Huth last year, the franchising veteran was keeping busy overseeing his 23 Blockbuster Video locations and 7 Palm Beach Tan units. He had an eye on expanding his Palm Beach Tan portfolio and he did just that in 2007, adding 3 more and winning the company's 2007 Developer of the Year Award. But that's not all he's been busy developing.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 8,895 Reads 1 Shares
Growing up with a father who owned a Burger King gave Will Bigham an early look into the back room operations of fast food franchising, laying the groundwork for his own career.
  • John Carroll
  • 4,137 Reads 43 Shares
When Lino DeFeo bought a Sign-A-Rama franchise in West Palm Beach, Fla., he didn't know much about signs. That was about 15 years ago. DeFeo had sold his trucking business in Manhattan and moved to Florida with his wife Maria and their two young children to join a family business. But that didn't work out exactly as planned. "I got out before we totally killed each other," he says with a laugh.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 9,519 Reads 1,014 Shares
Bill Dalton owned eight Grease Monkey franchises in the Seattle metro area. Today he owns one--a five-month-old, state-of-the-art facility in his home of Montgomery, Texas.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 5,593 Reads 1,014 Shares
Angry Crab Shack
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Franchise UPDATE recently sat in on a seminar for aspiring franchisees. One of about 150 such events held each year in the U.S. held by Francorp Consulting, this session was led by veteran industry consultant Don Boroian, who founded Francorp 31 years ago.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 13,264 Reads 1 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
  • 3,712 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
  • 5,252 Reads
In 2005, Mike Scruggs, Sr., was senior vice president of global operations at Little Caesar Enterprises, Inc. in Detroit. A year later, he was a Little Caesars franchisee operating two stores with his wife, Deb, and his son, Mike II, in Colorado Springs. By April 2007, he'd opened his fifth restaurant. Today he has plans for more, lots more!
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 7,433 Reads 1,014 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
  • 16,651 Reads
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
  • 4,157 Reads 7 Shares
Vaughn Hayes, the Virginia area developer for Salad Creations, had an early exposure to franchising - and it was a missed opportunity.
  • Ripley Hotch and Debbie Selinsky
  • 3,630 Reads 4 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
  • 5,207 Reads 182 Shares
In 2007, chances are there's a sign franchise near you--offering customers a wider array of choices than ever before, thanks to continuing technological advances, especially in communications and digital imaging.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 2,919 Reads 43 Shares
Financial experts agree it’s a good idea to help existing and future franchisees find the best financing methods to launch or expand a franchise. While you may not be able to offer franchisees a financing package, it makes good business sense to provide as much practical information as possible concerning where to apply for and successfully land business loans.
  • Joan Szabo
  • 3,833 Reads 24 Shares
Sonny’s BBQ
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Sonny’s BBQ
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Sonny’s BBQ
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Google can search the equivalent of a stack of paper 70 miles high and find any piece of information in that pile in less than half a second. And it's better information, more relevant information, than any other search engine. That's why people love it.
  • Jack Mackay
  • 3,011 Reads 1 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
  • 4,293 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
  • 4,918 Reads 22 Shares
The news is hardly surprising: another new domain name has been introduced. Yet this time, the news is different.
  • Lee Plave
  • 7,282 Reads 1,023 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
  • 3,319 Reads 17 Shares
Gary Hoyle thought there might be a good concept for franchising at a Florida restaurant he knew. So he ate there every day for three monthsâ€"soaking in the atmosphere and dining on the delicacies. It was enough to convince him it could work.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 3,551 Reads 1 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
  • 51,932 Reads 16 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
  • 8,763 Reads 105 Shares
The numbers vary, depending on who you ask, but the result is the same: The outlook for the continuity of family-owned businesses is bleak. So where's the disconnect? What goes wrong? With all the years of hard work and sacrifice that go into building a family-owned business, why don't more founders succeed in passing it on to the next generation--and the next? And what can a founder do to increase the odds the business will survive?
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 6,394 Reads

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