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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.

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
  • 2,885 Reads 4 Shares
Today, ever-on-the-go Americans are finding less and less time to take care of the dust and dirt that fills their homes. Others just simply don't like the mundane, time-consuming tasks of scrubbing and scouring their abode (and commode). That's why over the last three decades home cleaning and maid services have sprouted, flourished, and continue to show significant growth in the franchising industry.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 2,334 Reads 17 Shares
Training: the second leg of the hiring, training, and retaining triathlon so many multi-unit operators struggle to complete every day. Area Developer asked training experts at three brands - Regis Corp., Little Caesars, and PuroSystems - about their training programs - and how an emphasis on a high-quality training program, incorporating innovation and technology, remains a cornerstone of their growth strategy.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 5,417 Reads
If you're reading this, you already know that franchising is a different business model. That it involves paying the franchisor an initial franchise fee, as well as ongoing royalties and, often, paying into an advertising fund. And that you're willing to pay those costs for the privilege of using a recognized brand name and an operating system with a successful track record. Not to mention the initial and ongoing training and support the brand offers.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 17,393 Reads 10 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
  • 3,539 Reads 4 Shares
Mike Snyder, who grew up in Michigan and spent most of the last 20 years in and out of California, began work after college as a driver for FedEx in the early ‘80s. He ended up as vice president of the company's eastern region, responsible for $2 billion in revenue and more than a thousand employees.
  • Ripley Hotch and Debbie Selinsky
  • 3,061 Reads 5 Shares
William Monk, Burzynski's ideal AD, was born in Farmville, N.C. He grew up around the family tobacco business his grandfather had started in the 1900s, and went to college to prepare to be part of it. He earned a degree in economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and later got his MBA down the road at Duke University in Durham.
  • Ripley Hotch and Debbie Selinsky
  • 3,175 Reads 1 Shares
Conventional wisdom has it that young franchises are jumping on the area developer bandwagon to grow quickly and establish their presence in the most efficient way.
  • Ripley Hotch and Debbie Selinsky
  • 3,517 Reads 137 Shares
On Wall Street, smart investors will tell you that diversification is a critical part of any portfolio. It's an approach that can shelter investors from significant losses by spreading the risk. It's also a good way to ensure consistent dividends. And diversification is a strategy that is being adopted and becoming more and more popular among multi-unit franchise operators.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 7,316 Reads 2 Shares
For the first time, franchisors, development consultants, and advertising and marketing suppliers have access to the most comprehensive research guide to sales and lead generation performance in franchise recruitment.
  • Franchise Update Media
  • 6,242 Reads
It's no secret that the father's career path is no longer being repeated by the son (or daughter). Nor was it so long ago that folks graduated from college, signed on with a company, and spent the next 40 years toiling in the same office.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 6,450 Reads
Marco's Pizza®
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California has long been a key market for franchising, and its consumer-oriented culture has also made it one of the most active venues for regulatory and legal issues. Legal developments of the past year affecting the franchise community include the cascade of "Bounty Hunter law" actions, a franchisee's escape from arbitration requirements deemed 'substantively unconscionable', and a lesser-known ruling narrowing the interpretation of franchise fees.
  • Mary Beth Trice and Dawn Newton
  • 4,617 Reads 31 Shares
Technology companies have always searched for a way to integrate functions in various devices or programs. The advantages to a provider are obvious: more functions mean more charges that can be made, or greater customer loyalty.
  • Ripley Hotch
  • 5,891 Reads 1,014 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
  • 2,831 Reads 43 Shares
We all know to expect death and taxes, but tenants can add one more thing to that list: lease renewals.
  • Jeremy Behar
  • 3,262 Reads 12 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
  • 3,729 Reads 4 Shares
Many trace the origins of franchising as we know it today back to Europe in the 1800s, when German beer makers granted pubs and taverns the rights to sell and use their name. In fact, the word "franchise" is a French derivative meaning privilege or freedom.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 4,039 Reads 102 Shares
As highlighted in last quarter's Investment Insights column, most of us are not particularly suited to be wise investors. In fact, neuroscientists are increasingly proving what veteran investors and asset managers alike have long suspected: Individuals make a lot of not-so-rational choices when it comes to dealing with their money, investments and financial affairs.
  • Carol Clark
  • 3,112 Reads 1 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
  • 3,041 Reads 5 Shares
"Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these courageous couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." That's a slogan most of us recognize when it comes to the mail. And while the U.S. Postal Service is functional, it offers limited services, restricted office hours, and is not exactly known for its efficiency of service. (It's not called "snail mail" for nothing!)
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 3,028 Reads 1 Shares
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
  • 2,925 Reads 1 Shares
Tropical Smoothie Cafe
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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
  • 4,132 Reads 14 Shares
Franchising can be a snap… or a click. Photography franchising is getting a lot of, er, exposure, and has developed rapidly in recent years.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 7,364 Reads
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
  • 4,317 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
  • 2,891 Reads 5 Shares
California has long been a key market for franchising. Its consumer-oriented culture has also made it one of the most active venues for regulatory and legal issues. Legal developments over the past year affecting the franchise community include 1)...
  • Mary Beth Trice and Dawn Newton
  • 7,692 Reads 157 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
  • 3,426 Reads 3 Shares
Daren Patera and Brian Wernicke met in law school in Salem, Oregon, on their first day of orientation. "After about our second day, we knew we didn't want to be lawyers," says Patera, and they decided to go into business. "We wanted to be our own bossesâ€"not graduate and get a job working 80 hours a week for a law firm and hope to be a partner someday."
  • Eddy Goldberg and Kerry Pipes
  • 4,563 Reads 19 Shares
When she was just 16, Mandy Bryant (now Mandy Bryant Verges) got a job at a Gold's Gym in her home city of New Orleans. She worked a couple of years in sales and did well. In April 1995, owner Steve Smith opened a tanning salon called Electric Beach in the city's Uptown district. When Smith bought out his business partner, he needed a manager for the salon. Bryant asked, he said yes, and transferred the 18-year-old to the salon as its new manager.
  • Eddy Goldberg and Kerry Pipes
  • 3,988 Reads 40 Shares
Hank Huth didn't set out to be in franchising. As a matter of fact, he was a banker. But in the mid-1980s, he was introduced to some executives at then-emerging Blockbuster Video and decided to "take a leap of faith" and give franchising a try. He called on his high school buddy Tim Nolan, who had managed some McDonald's franchises, to be his partner.
  • Eddy Goldberg and Kerry Pipes
  • 6,007 Reads 299 Shares
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