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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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Web-based Performance Dashboards give you the power to analyze information about the performance of your business and the key activities you manage. As the name dashboard suggests, these are web-based tools that continuously display the current state of your key business metrics. And among the most vital signs of your business health are customer satisfaction scores and customer loyalty trends.
  • Jack Mackey
  • 9,245 Reads 144 Shares
Let's face it. From a franchisee's perspective, the single most important piece of information to gather during the sales process is the likely return on investment. Any franchise salesperson will tell you that the most frequently asked questions by prospective franchisees during the sales process are: "How much can I make?" and "What do similar units earn?"
  • Lane Fisher and Rocco Fiorentino
  • 4,830 Reads 6 Shares
The numbers are overwhelming: there are more than 12 million businesses in the United States, and over the next five to seven years more than half of these companies will change hands. Of the six million owners who will sell their businesses in the next several years, most will not take specific steps to ensure a smooth transition from their ownership. Even for the few owners who have made an attempt to plan for their exit, their efforts usually fall far short of a comprehensive exit plan.
  • Will Lindenmayer
  • 3,814 Reads 1 Shares
The franchise industry's shift from the paper to the electronic age has been slow and steady, with the lion's share of today's franchise organizations now operating their systems much like the rest of modern civilization: in real-time.
  • Dan Martin
  • 4,348 Reads 1,023 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
  • 6,394 Reads 1 Shares
More than 26 years ago, North Carolinians Tommy and Donna Haddock bought their first Bojangles' franchise. Things worked out so well, with him taking care of store operations and her working on insurance, workers comp and other "bureaucratic red tape," that they've never felt the need to try another franchise organization.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 8,038 Reads 1 Shares
You wouldn't know it from looking at his photo, or at his remarkable string of successes in taking failing chicken franchises and giving them wings, but Aslam Khan grew up poor. "I was born in poverty," said Khan in a 2001 interview, "and had a deep desire to move away from it. I wanted to do better."
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 11,903 Reads
Child care-related franchising is hot-and has been for several years. No wonder: the continuing trend of working mothers, as reflected in U.S. Census data. In 2003, about 65 percent of mothers with at least one child under age six worked year-round, compared with 56.8 percent in 1993. More than 70 percent of single mothers have jobs outside the home, and 59 percent of mothers with children under one year of age work outside the home. Furthermore, with rising birth trends showing about four million babies are born every year in the U.S., the population of children under age five is expected to grow from almost 19 million today to more than 21 million in 2015, and close to 30 million in 2050.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 5,470 Reads 330 Shares
The hair care industry is a $50 billion annual business in the U.S. Seems as though there's a hair cutting niche for every type of American. There are salons for guys, gals, kids, even pets. It's a highly fragmented industry composed of mom-and-pop shops as well as franchise operations. And in 2006, it continues to be a strong area for franchising.
  • 2,813 Reads 7 Shares
Before he even served his first sandwich, Bill Duke signed a contract with an outside human resource organization to handle all his personnel issues. And after one successful year as a single-store franchise owner, Duke is pleased with his decision.
  • Linda C. Ray
  • 4,384 Reads 17 Shares
The best way to ensure profitable sales growth is to keep building an ever-increasing base of loyal customers. Customer research consistently proves that "loyal" customers are worth much more than merely "satisfied" customers. Only "highly satisfied" customers become loyal customers. They buy more often; they spend more per transaction, and they drive new customers your way with positive word-of-mouth advertising.
  • 3,586 Reads 3 Shares
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Much has been made of the benefits of web-based technology as it applies to the franchise corporate office and how it can easily and effectively collect financial data from its franchisees.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 3,964 Reads 3 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?
  • Lawrence Bivins
  • 5,054 Reads 9 Shares
Can an elephant change its spots? Sometimes it feels easier to start a new brand than to change an old one-even if the old one seems ready for the bone yard. But how do franchisors who want to keep a valuable (but tired) nameplate breathe new life into it, attracting new customers while retaining the faithful--and convince its franchisees not only to have faith after years of malaise, but that change is what they need? Franchise UPDATE spoke with three franchisors who knew they had a good thing going-and figured out a way to make it fly once again.
  • Eddy Goldburg
  • 4,793 Reads 19 Shares
Nikki Sells has just been recognized as the 2005 recipient of the IFA's distinguished Bonnie Levine Award. The annual award honors individuals who further the cause of women in franchising. Sells, who is vice president of franchising for Express Personnel Services, in Oklahoma City, was presented the award during the recent IFA 45th annual franchise convention. "It's all about the journey," said Sells, a former school teacher, who has been vice president of franchising since January 2004 after being a longtime franchisee in the Express system. "To me, there's no such thing as a destination and this is where my journey has fortunately taken me. I've had a lot of wonderful opportunities and mentors along the way."
  • 3,423 Reads 3 Shares
Ron Berger knows the advantage of buying an existing franchise concept and improving on it. That is what he has done with Figaro's Pizza, a Salem, Oregon-based chain that is growing at a rapid pace.
  • Joan Szabo
  • 5,134 Reads 7 Shares
Area Developer asked Darrell Johnson, president and CEO of FRANdata, what a multi-unit developer should look for when evaluating franchise opportunities. In a wide-ranging interview, Johnson sorts out the massive amount of available information into four basic categories and provides a tutorial-and dozens of relevant questions-on how to think things through when searching for the best brand to suit your business (and personal) needs.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 5,505 Reads 1 Shares
When Nikki Gahr Sells decided to forgo her school teaching job of eight years in 1983, a job in which her mother had spent a lifetime, she didn't know a lot about career paths for anyone, much less women, outside of teaching. She went to a staffing agency for help in finding a new job. In an unexpected twist, the staffing agency hired Sells. The agency, Express Personnel Services, was the first franchisee of Express Services Inc.
  • Karen Fritscher-Porter
  • 5,315 Reads 17 Shares
Franchisors are always looking for ways to boost cash flow and build greater trust with franchisees. One way to help accomplish those goals is to offer an effective purchasing program.
  • Joan Szabo
  • 4,380 Reads 11 Shares
Franchisors find new opportunities in many places. An entrepreneurial spirit and business savvy can often turn an idea into reality. Take the case of Dan P. White, who is a marine biologist by education. His desire to protect the environment for future generations led him to start an environmentally-friendly franchise operation called Rapid Refill Ink.
  • Joan Szabo
  • 3,534 Reads 8 Shares
At this year's very successful International Franchise Association annual convention, we were bombarded with a plethora of laudatory statements about franchising. We were told that franchising accounts for more than 40% of retail sales in the U.S. economy, generating over a trillion dollars in sales per year, and that franchising companies provide the source of employment for more than eight million American workers. We heard success stories from both franchisors and franchisees.
  • Rupert M. Barkoff
  • 3,004 Reads 3 Shares
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Got a qualified prospect interested in opening up a new franchise but who has never seen one of your stores? No problem for Long Beach, Calif.-based It's A Grind Coffee House, which utilizes a web-based program that allows prospects with a password to get behind a computer screen, log on, and view real-time streaming video of the action inside a store. A camera located behind the counter offers online viewers a live feed of what's going on inside an It's A Grind Coffee House. Prospects can see the store's layout, decor, customers and employees engaged in transactions.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 3,237 Reads 9 Shares
Irvine, CA-based El Pollo Loco has a penchant for serving hand-marinated, flame-grilled chicken and the freshest Mexican foods, and last year the company experienced record sales of $396 million. But executives there say that although their product is important, they owe much of their success to their loyal and dedicated employees. In fact, multi-unit operator Roland Spongberg recently went six years without losing a single manager at his 21 southern California El Pollo Loco locations. So what's going on at this company that's creating this environment of motivated, hard-working employees who stay the course?
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 5,240 Reads 210 Shares
In 2000, Lou Brown, one of the more successful high-tech entrepreneurs of the 1990's, decided to exchange silicon for a grease gun, and took over struggling Precision Tune.
  • 5,785 Reads 67 Shares
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