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Browse our selection of franchise articles and features to help further your knowledge in opening and operating a franchise business. Our exclusive features cover the , , , , , , and site of the franchise business. Written by the editorial team that produces Franchise Update Magazine and Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine, the franchise industries premier magazines.

Tom Hofer has always been tuned into his own drive and sense of where he belonged. "I did real well in a retail environment after college, but I always knew it wasn't me," Hofer says. "I definitely knew I wanted to own my own business, but wasn't sure what to do. So when the opportunity came up for me to buy a territory with Spring Green, it felt right."
  • Linda Ray
  • 3,609 Reads 9 Shares
Julie Wilson believes in succession. She currently is sharing her experience with her newest partner, Beth Driskill, in hopes that Driskill will be able to make the transition into ownership as smoothly as she did.
  • Linda Ray
  • 3,786 Reads 1,014 Shares
Linda Fong loves franchising. Not only does she own three Liberty Fitness locations, but one Fast Signs franchise and a Phlato's Closet store. "I can grow the other businesses by increasing sales," Fong says. "I'm opening more fitness locations because that's how I can grow that business."
  • Linda Ray
  • 4,184 Reads
Todd Watkins may look like a type-A power franchisee with 22 Martinizing locations and the title of largest franchisee in the system. But the 41-year-old Michigan father has other priorities.
  • Linda Ray
  • 4,771 Reads 25 Shares
Charles Loflin has won Wingstop franchise's awards for highest sales in 2004 and 2005. Last year, he had a million-dollar store. In 2006, he'll have two.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 9,721 Reads 2 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
  • 5,339 Reads
When Randy Lawrence's entrepreneurial spirit led him to leave his post as vice president of corporate operations for Back Yard Burgers to open his own restaurants, he did it with a vengeance: he signed a seven-year development agreement to open a whopping 28 Back Yard Burgers in the metropolitan Atlanta area.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 3,863 Reads 12 Shares
Junior high sweethearts and now 17 years married, Jan and Mark Mansfield have pooled their skills to achieve great success with 39 Sport Clips salons in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 5,611 Reads 95 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
  • 6,937 Reads 1 Shares
For a man who values family so highly, Jeff Rogers has accomplished a lot in the world of business and franchising. He's been at the top of his class in advertising, winning numerous awards; a turnaround specialist advising troubled companies (more awards); and has taken the helm at more than one struggling franchise company, where he worked his magic to transform a loser into a winner (yes, more awards, including 1997 Turnaround Entrepreneur of the Year from Inc. magazine, IBM, and Deloitte.)
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 6,543 Reads 6 Shares
Multi-unit, multi-brand franchising has achieved a milestone: More franchises are owned by multi-unit developers than by single-unit franchisees. So we thought you'd like to know how big some of these guys are. Area Developer magazine introduces this annual feature, profiling some of the industry's most successful multi-unit franchisees. Working with FRANdata to compile a list of the largest multi-unit franchisees, "The Big 99" (ranked by number of units), rest assured our editors also know that when it comes to franchising, size isn't everything.
  • Eddy Goldberg, Linda Ray & Deb Selinski
  • 4,101 Reads 1 Shares
Tint World
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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
  • 10,476 Reads
Customer satisfaction data must correlate to comp sales growth. Otherwise, there is no reason to worry about providing great service--if there is no positive financial result from that effort. Without financial linkage to business results, there is no external validity to the customer satisfaction measurements and you are probably measuring "satisfaction"incorrectly. Let's look at a proven method of measuring your customer's experience that gives you clear financial linkage to comp sales growth.
  • Jack Mackey
  • 3,201 Reads 1 Shares
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
  • 4,755 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.
  • 2,172 Reads 7 Shares
Whether you are a franchisor or a multiunit franchisee, you must have noticed that the marketing and sales landscape is changing. No matter what kind of business you're in, status quo marketing and sellingis no longer going to get you the resultsyou need or want. In a business-to-consumer franchise system you will see the demographic changes in your customer marketplaces more quickly than in business-to-business. Time to wake up and smell the demographic coffee!
  • Mauricio Velasquez
  • 3,789 Reads
Once there were day spas, places for women (and a few brave men) to spend time being pampered and rejuvenated with lotions, potions, and massages. Today there are medical spas, or MedSpas, which take all the comfort and care of day spas and add the latest in medical technology. MedSpas provide services in comfortable retail settings, services once confined to medical settings and performed by dermatologists and plastic surgeons.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 6,220 Reads 448 Shares
I have read many "How To" articles on real estate. Often, they were written by attorneys, estate agents, or learned Ivy League professors in need of publishing. They quote facts, point to figures, refer to charts, and on occasion come up with something of value to the reader. The problem, in all fairness to these authors, is that it is difficult to write about real estate without a clear and specific idea of what their readers need or are looking for.
  • Lewis Gelmon
  • 3,525 Reads 20 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
  • 3,531 Reads 17 Shares
The quest for knowledge. That, and an increasingly competitive world, coupled with parent demand, is driving the tutoring and learning center industry. It's another growing opportunity in franchising. The Education Industry Association projected growth of 15 percent in this sector last year. Higher expectations, low test scores, and mounting competition for admission to top-tier universities are boosting student enrollment at tutoring and learning centers across the country. Facilities like Sylvan, Huntington, and Kumon are witnessing this exploding growth firsthand.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 1,963 Reads 5 Shares
The most powerful players in franchising will meet in March for the nation's only conference dedicated to the industry's fastest-growing and most targeted audience - multi-unit franchise developers.
  • 2,179 Reads 35 Shares
Tint World
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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.
  • 2,876 Reads 3 Shares
Pizza. A blank canvas filled with dreams. Starting with the crust and rising upward through the sauce, cheese and toppings, pizza can be tailored to satisfy the palate - and pocketbook - of anyone. And pizza franchises have become the dream of many an entrepreneur.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 3,229 Reads 8 Shares
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
  • 3,167 Reads 3 Shares
As the American waistline has continued to expand, more and more people are turning to fitness centers to help them lose weight. Statistics show that more than 60 percent of all Americans are overweight. A 2004 report by nonprofit research group RTI International and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that obesity costs the United States as much as $75 billion in medical expenditures annually. "With the cost of health care being what it is, people want to make it a priority to take care of themselves," says Shirley Archer, an author, speaker, and health and wellness educator for the Health Improvement Program at Stanford University. Consequently, fitness-related franchises are rapidly growing to fill this niche.
  • 4,015 Reads 7 Shares
"It's personalities that makeany business," says ZaneTankel, and he shouldknow. He's owned a number ofthem, starting withcommercial printing. Now he'schairman and chief executiveofficer of Apple-Metro, Inc.,the sole franchisor in the NewYork metropolitan area ofApplebee's and Chevys.
  • Ripley Hotch
  • 4,236 Reads 35 Shares
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
  • 4,063 Reads
Many area developers are under tight time pressure to open new units. Often, area developers will agree to growth provisions in their franchise agreements that can be unrealistic to all but the most sophisticated operators. Franchisors will, of course, prefer to grant territorial rights to those who promise rapid growth. Once you have been awarded those rights, you may have the best intentions and plans to meet your growth requirements, but you may discover early on that it takes much longer than expected to open each store. The realization sets in early with most that they stand to breach their franchise agreement’s growth requirements and find themselves struggling to catch up. Like a swimmer who panics, a lot of splashing occurs but little in the way of real movement happens.
  • Jeremy Behar
  • 3,063 Reads
There's no place like home - and for an increasing number of Americans, there's no business like home business. The rise of home-based franchise opportunities coincides with the shift to a service economy in the United States. As more households with two working adults struggle to make ends meet, a combination of factors has made working from home an increasingly attractive option.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 2,409 Reads
Nevermind rising room rates and increased hotel occupancy, customer satisfaction in the hotel industry is up, a new study says. The annual J.D. Power and Associates North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study measured overall hotel guest satisfaction based on six measures: check-in/check-out, guest room, food and beverage, hotel services, hotel facilities, and costs and fees. Hotel chains were ranked in six segments: luxury, upscale, mid-scale full service, mid-scale limited service, economy/budget and extended stay.
  • 3,645 Reads 129 Shares
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