Trinidad and Tobago Feature Articles

One of the highlights each year at Franchise Update's Leadership & Development Conference is the presentation of the new Annual Franchise Development Report (AFDR). The 2010 AFDR gathered responses from 116 of the franchisors who attended this year's conference. Participants represented 38,800 units (28,300 franchised, 4,600 company-owned, and 5,900 international), and they plan to add 5,360 more franchised units this year through 3,400 franchisees.

When it comes to generating leads and identifying prospects, it's important to act effectively and efficiently. It's a competitive market, with quality leads difficult to come by. Franchisors with aggressive recruiting strategies and practices are more likely to find the best candidates and turn them into successful franchisees. They're also more likely to be recognized as winners of Franchise Update Media Group's Annual STAR (Speaking To And Responding) Awards.

Wingstop announced positive comps for the 25th consecutive quarter, dating back to July 2003. Wingstop ended its most recent quarter with a 1.6 percent increase and is up 3.8 percent for the year. The company predicts the positive trend to continue into the fourth quarter during the football and holiday seasons, when its sales are typically strongest. "This news is strong evidence that limited-service chains continue to deliver value during a difficult economic climate," said Darren Tristano, executive vice president of Technomic, Inc., an industry research firm. Wingstop, founded in 1994 and franchising since 1997, has 425 restaurants open in 34 states.

Taking a franchise brand international is, in a sense, the final frontier for growth. It's where many franchise brands that have begun - and been successful - in the U.S turn when they seek expansion. It's a strategy that often occurs in part because of growth that has saturated domestic markets and territories. Typically, larger more established franchise brands begin looking across borders for untapped markets and potential growth. It's an expansion strategy that's not new. But during the past couple of decades as franchising has continued to grow as a popular business model, the international growth strategy has been on the rise. International franchising can also provide opportunities for new and existing franchisees looking for expansion options. There are opportunities as near as Mexico and Canada and as far as the Middle East. In one sense, international franchising can be a relatively smooth and easy process. After all, the franchise concept is built around infrastructure, simplicity, replication, and streamlined operations. What works in one place generally works in another. And many international markets are wide open and untapped and offer enormous potential for franchisors - with the right products, services, and business culture.

Why would both a franchise capital finance company and the CEO of a retail franchise brand sign on as franchisees of a new concept? That's what Siegel Financial Group and Gabriel Bottazzi, CEO and founder of Bijoux Terner, have done. They are among the six franchisees who have signed on with RetroTax. Part of the reason, both say, is that it's a great concept. RetroTax, as the name implies, finds tax credits for both franchisors and franchisees--and gets paid as a percentage of what they find.

Perhaps you're familiar with Pinkberry. It's the frozen yogurt concept that launched amid a flurry of long lines, celebrity praise, and customers driving hours just to get a taste of the tangy yogurt at its original Los Angeles location when it opened in 2005. Since then, the brand has continued to grow--as has an exploding slate of competitors--and now comes news of a fresh injection of capital and some ambitious expansion plans.

Social media, social networking, social marketing, social recruiting. Whatever you call these new connectivity platforms, they're sweeping the business world in 2009--much as the Internet and World Wide Web did circa 1995. Everybody wants in on the action, but no one is quite sure how. Okay, maybe some people know. We asked a few--and went online (of course) to find out more. We also pulled a few thoughts from "The Long Tail," a book by [i]Wired[/i] magazine Editor Chris Anderson on how Web 2.0 and social media have transformed marketing and sales.

Franchise Update Media Group, the leading industry resource for franchise development, announces the winners of its 11th annual STAR (Speaking To And Responding) Awards, which included two new categories this year - SEO and Social Media. The awards recognize excellence in lead generation, recruitment, and industry-wide best practices in franchising.

Franchise Update Media Group, the leading industry resource for franchise development, announces the winners of its 11th annual STAR (Speaking To And Responding) Awards, which included two new categories this year - SEO and Social Media. The awards recognize excellence in lead generation, recruitment, and industry-wide best practices in franchising.

Cleveland-based USA Insulation has added new franchise locations in Indianapolis, Chicago, Omaha, Portland, Me., and central New Jersey. Company President Patrick J. Pitrone attributes the company's growth to forecasts of a cold winter, unpredictable energy prices, and the Federal Energy Tax Credit of 30 percent (up to $1,500) for homeowners who add insulation by year-end.

Build-A-Bear Workshop, in partnership with WiredSafety.org, is promoting October as "Stop Cyberbullying Month" at its stores and in its online virtual world, buildabearville.com. Cyberbullying, a growing problem among children, tweens, and teens, made national headlines in 2006 when a 13-year-old girl committed suicide after being bullied online by a group that included the mother of one of her former friends. The franchisor is focusing on online safety education and how to help prevent cyberbullying through several programs, by providing activities and materials to promote safe online 
play for kids, and by participating in a Stop Cyberbullying Coalition event on Capitol Hill on October 13.

Occasionally, it's good to confirm the obvious. What attracts prospective franchisees to a particular brand is a combination of expectations and emotions. While this is generally understood, we were able to use personal interviews at the March 2009 International Franchise Expo to delve into this topic further. We are grateful to the Expo sponsor, MFV, for allowing us to do this work.

Savvy franchise companies continue to flourish in this challenging economy. Each month FUSR will bring you good news, highlighting brands that are bucking the trend by adding units, increasing comp store sales, striking deals with investors, and continuing to grow despite the economy - maybe even because of it. And as you'll see below, U.S. franchisors continue to look overseas for expansion while the domestic economy remains slow.

Featuring: Tom Wood, President and CEO of Floor Coverings International, along with Franchisees: James Brooks of Flagstaff, Arizona and Jason Nichols of Toronto, Canada.

I just returned from the Multi-Unit Franchising Conference in Las Vegas and, compared with the other industry conferences I've addressed so far this year, it was a welcome breath of fresh air. At other industry group presentations this year, attendance numbers were off (one conference was even cancelled at a tremendous cost to the organizer) and the prevailing mood at all of them could best be characterized as an oppressive atmosphere of economic uncertainty and pessimistic forecasts. Not so with the Multi-Unit Franchising Conference group of movers and shakers.

USA Insulation, based in Eastlake, Ohio, has added four new franchise locations to serve Chicago, Omaha, Central New Jersey, and Portland, Maine. Interest in insulation has grown in recent years as homeowners hit by the economic downturn and rising energy costs seek to reduce their monthly gas and electric bills - good news for this franchisor. "Aside from the typical reasons for insulating a home, many of our new customers have wanted to take advantage of the energy tax credit," says company President Patrick Pitrone. "Adding home insulation now can get you a 30 percent federal energy tax credit of up to $1,500."

I have been a franchise lawyer my entire professional career. I still recall vividly my first project on my first day, September 8, 1987. International Dairy Queen had acquired Orange Julius of America (OJA) earlier that year, and we were updating the Orange Julius UFOC to enable OJA to continue to offer and sell franchises. We then also filed the revised UFOC in the various registration states.

On September 1, the SBA announced revisions in its Standard Operating Procedure for financing of goodwill in resale transactions under its 7(a) program. The changes, which take effect October 1st, supersede revisions made in March that limited the amount of goodwill financing for resales to $250,000 or 50 percent of the loan amount, whichever was lower.

2008 was a big year for restaurant franchises to refranchise many of their corporate-owned units, according to a recent report from food service consultants Technomic. Top brands such as Applebee's, Pizza Hut, and KFC converted stores to franchisee operations.

Savvy franchise companies continue to flourish in this challenging economy. Each month FUSR will bring you good news, highlighting brands that are bucking the trend by adding units, increasing comp store sales, striking deals with investors, and continuing to grow - despite the economy.

To stand out among the 3,000 franchise opportunities in today's uncertain economy, aggressive concepts are courting prospects with special incentive and stimulus packages--such as Papa John's, Cafe2U, Budget Blinds, Kitchen TuneUp, Red Mango, and Discover Rental Purchase.

Life has not been easy--personally or professionally--for Chris Haque (pronounced Hawk), who was born in Dinajpur, Bangladesh. He was only 15 when his sister came to the U.S. for medical treatment for leukemia. Thanks to his gift of his bone marrow donation, she lived three more years before the disease took her.

John Hotchkiss was born in Pontiac, Mich., and grew up in San Antonio, Texas. But he likes to say he "was born" into franchising. "I started working in our stores when I was 9 years old and really enjoyed it. I learned in high school that it was a good business to own when I came home exhausted from a crazy, busy night at one of our stores and my dad was relaxing and reading a book on the back porch," he recalls. "He had 700-plus employees working hard that night making him money.

New franchise concepts spring up every year with dreams of becoming the next McDonald's or Subway. But it's the older brands who deserve a tip of the hat for their staying power over the decades. We asked four of them how they do it.

The current recession and credit crunch are putting the hurt on franchise businesses, says a new report by the International Franchise Association (IFA). There's no question that the franchising's economic growth and ability to create jobs has been hamstrung by the lack of available credit.

Just to let you know where I'm coming from when I talk about the five biggest mistakes I see franchisors making in today's tough economic times, I've been plying my trade for more than 20 years now, and well over 50 percent of my clients have been among the nation's foremost franchise organizations. I've been in the trenches with them during all kinds of economic scenarios--inflation, recession, expansion, steady-as-she-goes, and a couple of booms and busts.

For a man in the hospitality business who's traveled widely, Ted Torres didn't fall far from the tree, nor did he want to. "My father, a first-generation hotelier, was my mentor, teacher, coach, and partner," says Torres, who at 43 has been in the business for 20 years. His most far-flung project, building hotels for Hilton across Russia, never came to fruition--through no lack of willingness on his part--but it was a fabulous month-long adventure just the same.

"How has the capital market for franchise financing changed in the last 3 to 6 months, and what are you doing differently in franchise sales in the next 3 to 6 months?"

Many franchisors have reached their limit on expanding into suburbia, but the imperative to grow remains strong. In response, an increasing number are training their sights on America's cities.The move to the suburbs has been a decades-long trend in the United States, and franchisors have followed suit. But more than half of the U.S. population live in the country's top 25 metropolitan areas, and nearly 80 percent live in the top 100 metro areas.Cities are complex, crowded places, running the gamut from blighted ghettos to luxury high-rises. Suburban commuters flood into them by the millions each day to work and shop, creating a vibrant marketplace. And the under-served inner cities are hungry for retail goods and services, jobs, and entrepreneurial opportunity, making them fertile ground for franchisors who take the time to learn, understand, and develop relationships with the people who live there.The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), founded in 1994 by Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter, studies inner cities with a focus on economic development. According to ICIC, "[T]he inner city retail market offers significant profit potential for retail companies now operating in the highly competitive, over-saturated suburban markets." According to an ICIC study, the country's inner cities contain:

John Smythe says he was a typical 21-year-old when he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1965. "I was just kind of rolling through life and not really giving it that much thought," says the 62-year-old veteran today. The Army was a good experience for him, and where he learned the skills and philosophies he's using today as a CMIT Solutions franchisee in Everett, Wash.