Franchise Operations
To achieve long-term success, franchise systems require operational excellence at all levels, from their stores to their supply chains. Other essential operational factors include franchisee support, recruitment, training, and retaining top talent. Find ideas, tips, and tools to enhance your franchise business operations.
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October 27th, 2026
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How Do I Know? Multiunit franchising offers benefits - and risks - but it's a method of franchising that can be fruitful
- Kerry Pipes
- 3,499 Reads 4 Shares
Looking back at how technology has evolved in franchising, by far the most significant changes have taken place in the area of lead management. Some industry experts trace the first concerns over franchise lead management back to right around the invention of fire, while others maintain the issues arose later on in evolution, shortly after Nixon resigned. No matter. Franchise lead management and the use of technology for other mission-critical functions in franchising have come a long way in the past 20 years.
- Dan Martin
- 5,222 Reads 12 Shares
The franchise community landscape was dramatically different for executive search 20 years ago. When we began servicing the hiring needs of franchisors in 1983, the franchisor population was in the hundreds, with almost all franchisees, owners of individual locations. A very small number of U.S. franchisors had any international presence.
- Doug Kushell
- 4,303 Reads 5 Shares
Until he hit 40, Rick Guerra ran hotels and restaurants "making a lot of money for other people," he says.
- Debbie Selinsky
- 4,806 Reads 15 Shares
Twenty years ago, when you wanted to know what was happening in your stores, you might have called in mystery shoppers. They would clock how quickly your front-line employees were greeting customers, whether your store displays followed the plan-o-gram, and whether your operations manual was in play.
- Bill Fromm
- 4,207 Reads 9 Shares
If history has taught us anything, it’s that not all good things from the past necessarily follow us into the future. Employee attitudes and work ethics that were around two decades ago are no exception.
- Gloria Plaisted
- 5,673 Reads 1 Shares
In professional sports, successful players and teams, can be made or broken by the quality of the coaching. It's no different in the business world. There are so many businesses and executives today who need help in sharpening up fundamental skills, coaching team members, or assistance in growing departments. As a franchise business consultant, you can provide some relief and help them make the right call.
- Kerry Pipes
- 3,177 Reads 4 Shares
Multi-unit operators have been a part of the growth and expansion strategy at Fantastic Sams since the brand first began franchising in 1976, according to Jeff Sturgis, vice president of franchise sales development.
- Kerry Pipes
- 4,184 Reads 1,014 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
- 4,870 Reads 1,014 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
- 16,508 Reads 1,701 Shares
This issue's Tech Talk looks at two ways area developers can save time and money by using technology to improve their management and operations: 1) using Web-based software to conduct online meetings for all or some of their sites; and 2) using in-store cameras to improve operations on the fly and provide a digital record that can improve customer relations and protect employees at the same time.
- Ripley Hotch
- 3,698 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
- 6,180 Reads 182 Shares
Steve Smith was a busy soldier during the 24 years he was in the U.S. Army. His two dozen years of service were spent as a logistics material manager. The second half of his military career was with the Special Operations Forces conducting worldwide logistics support ?" he even spent time working in the Pentagon. Smith served in the 101st Airborne during the first Gulf War and helped to defend Kurds fleeing Saddam Hussein in the "Provide Comfort" campaign in northern Iraq. In 2002, the Sgt. Major in the 10th Special Forces Group stationed in Fort Bragg, NC, retired.
- Franchising.com
- 1,989 Reads 15 Shares
Building customer loyalty is no easy task in today's highly competitive business world where consumers will change brands or products to save even a few pennies. Businesses from mom and pop operations to multi-national conglomerates are routinely looking for new and unique ways not only to recruit customers, but to turn them into loyal, repeat shoppers who also spread the word. As numerous studies have shown, it's much more cost-effective to keep existing customers than to find new ones.
- Kerry Pipes
- 3,995 Reads 5 Shares
Multi-unit operators are a sophisticated culture within the franchise industry. They typically are streamlined, aggressive, think big, plan ahead, and are focused on continual growth. So why would a successful area developer want to sell a particular brand or chain of units? Lots of reasons: retirement, health issues, liquidity, a change in direction, a more aggressive growth strategy, a better opportunity, or simply the desire to "try it again with another concept."
- Kerry Pipes
- 5,183 Reads 1,021 Shares
Keld Alstrup went to Canada in 1968 to see the world outside his native, tiny Denmark. He ended up working for Ford and then Volvo. So things, as he says "worked out."
- Eddy Goldberg and Kerry Pipes
- 3,788 Reads 5 Shares
The most powerful players in franchising will gather this spring for the nation's only conference dedicated to the industry's most strategic and fastest-growing segment - multi-unit franchising.
- Press Release
- 3,292 Reads 14 Shares
One of the biggest concerns for franchisees is attracting, hiring, and retaining quality employees. And one of the biggest concerns for working Americans is balancing the competing demands of home and work. For franchise owners willing to be creative, this represents a tremendous opportunity.
- Thom Winninger
- 4,868 Reads 12 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
- 4,596 Reads 18 Shares
Area developers usually come to the party with experience in franchising and the industry they're in--or at least one of the two. In the case of new Precision Tune Auto Care area developers Dick Lippert and Al Unser, Jr. (yes, that Al Unser, Jr.), neither has franchise experience. But Lippert brings a strong track record of business success. And Unser? Well, he knows a little something about cars.
- Debbie Selinsky
- 4,039 Reads 10 Shares
Statistical information speaks volumes. Take the 2002 U.S. Census. It points out that the composition of the U.S. population will continue to change quickly, with minorities projected to become the majority by 2050. There is also rapid growth taking place in the number of minority-owned businesses. Their numbers exceed 4.1 million; they generate 4.8 million jobs and almost $700 billion in gross receipts.
- Joan Szabo
- 8,563 Reads 186 Shares
When Mike Willett was looking for creative ways to finance the growth of his franchise plans in the Houston area, he looked no further than his existing retirement plan. With a program known as a BORSA (Business Owner's Retirement Savings Account) Plan, he recently tapped his 401(k) holdings to launch the regional development of Synergy HomeCare. The BORSA program is structured so that retirement funds can be used for business development without distributions, taxes, penalties, or loans.
- Joan Szabo
- 5,946 Reads 82 Shares
They may not be the most visible, or even among the highest-paid executives in the company. But in the daily trenches of running a franchise system, chief operating officers, or COOs, are the go-to people for other executives, staff, and franchisees. Most come in early and stay late, taking only brief vacations and then doing so with cell phone in hand.
- Debbie Selinsky
- 8,223 Reads 1 Shares
Financing small-business growth is now moving into the field of franchising. Minneapolis-based Winmark Corp. is branching out from its portfolio of more than 800 franchised retail stores in the U.S. and Canada to a new brand allowing its franchisees to lease business equipment to small-business owners.
- Joan Szabo
- 6,111 Reads 1 Shares
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?"
- 13,273 Reads 1,015 Shares
National franchise operations have marketed in the same ways for years and years. That is, the national budgets were applied to brand building and the local franchisees were charged with creating local lead flow.
- John Federman
- 3,905 Reads 6 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?
- 4,788 Reads 11 Shares
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?
- Rupert M. Barkoff
- 6,722 Reads 1 Shares
The surest way to lose a good employee is to leave him or her up in the air about what the job is and how to do it.
- Ripley Hotch
- 5,034 Reads 3 Shares
The use of outsourcing continues to expand within the franchise industry. In addition to information technology outsourcing, service providers are being called upon to perform a number of business processes including accounting, call center operations, disaster recovery, human resources management, and sales training.
- Milton B. Whitfield
- 4,439 Reads 6 Shares
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