Kansas Feature Articles
Looking for a franchise opportunity in Kansas? Whether you're a first-time business owner or a seasoned entrepreneur, Kansas offers exciting potential for franchise success. With thriving markets in key cities like Wichita, Overland Park, Kansas City, Topeka, Olathe, there's a perfect environment to launch and grow a franchise. From food and beverage to retail and services, the diverse economic landscape in Kansas is ripe for franchise opportunities. Explore the best franchise options today and take the next step toward business ownership in Kansas.
Informative articles to support business buyers, franchisees, and franchisors in Kansas.
First Watch Restaurants Inc., a daytime-only restaurant group based in Bradenton, Fla., has begun franchising. Founded in 1983, the chain has about 80 restaurants open with expectations for 110 by 2012. The restaurants are open 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and store sales average about $1.2 million. Same-store sales were expected to be up 3 to 5 percent in 2009 and total sales up about $2 million to $85 million (the company reports 25 consecutive years of same-store growth). First Watch is looking for franchisees to develop areas near its existing markets, including Kansas City, St. Louis, Cincinnati-Dayton, and Orlando-Tampa.
- Franchise Update
- 3,666 Reads 13 Shares
A Nov. 2 article in <i>The Boston Globe</i> puts numbers on what everyone in franchising and already knows: large national banks that received billions in bailout funds are not making SBA 7(a) loans to small businesses. Bank of America (more than $45 billion in bailout funds) reportedly made only eleven 7(a) loans in Massachusetts in the year (totaling $240,500) ending in September - down from 54 loans totaling $1.6 million the year before. While some smaller banks that received taxpayer funds were tarred with the same brush, the article also noted that "Some of the state's smallest - and most stable - banks have been filling part of the lending void."
- Franchise Update
- 4,471 Reads
It seems there really is a silver lining in every cloud. And the recent economic downturn has deposited a little of that silver at the feet of some multi-unit franchisees who can tolerate risk and don't mind a little "remodeling" work. Today, opportunities abound to buy distressed franchise units from other troubled or bankrupt franchisees--often for pennies on the dollar. If they have the stomach, these "rescuers" can snatch up these units, turn them around, and watch the dollars flow in.
- Kerry Pipes
- 7,866 Reads 2 Shares
With 324 Subways in Oklahoma and Kansas, Don Rottinghaus knows his brand and his market. Must be time for something new. "I work those areas constantly," he says. He has to. Over the past 20 years, the multi-unit franchisee has built a huge chain of Subway locations in the region. And now he's taking on a new challenge, bringing a taste of Southern California sunshine to the Midwest. Over the next 5 years, Rottinghaus will develop 12 new LA Sunset Tan locations in Oklahoma and 25 in Kansas.
- John Carroll
- 8,513 Reads
About 20 years ago, Greg Cutchall learned a crucial lesson. An investor group he worked with forced him out of a chain of KFC restaurants in Omaha, units he had operated and helped to build. That fired him up to make things happen for himself.
- John Carroll
- 5,180 Reads 18 Shares
Usually around this time of year, ice cream franchiser Cold Stone Creamery calls its franchisees to Las Vegas for a meeting.
- Kansas City Star
- 2,526 Reads
When Denise Taylor decided to move back home to Denver from Kansas, she sold the direct mail business she had built from scratch.
- Ripley Hotch
- 4,009 Reads 33 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
- 2,965 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
- 4,204 Reads 1,021 Shares
Kelly Saxton thinks big. He's the largest McAlister's Deli multi-unit operator, with 30 units throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Kansas. Prior to that, he was the largest Mazzio's Pizza multi-unit operator, with 50 units throughout Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi.
- Eddy Goldberg and Kerry Pipes
- 3,691 Reads 1 Shares
Being an area developer, most outsiders would think, is a guaranteed stress-builder. After all, minding a number of businesses--let alone starting them up--has more problems in more directions than your average C-level exec faces every day.
- Linda C. Ray
- 2,888 Reads 3 Shares
The numbers vary, depending on who you ask, but the result is the same: The outlook for the continuity of family-owned businesses is bleak. So where's the disconnect? What goes wrong? With all the years of hard work and sacrifice that go into building a family-owned business, why don't more founders succeed in passing it on to the next generation--and the next? And what can a founder do to increase the odds the business will survive?
- Eddy Goldberg
- 6,148 Reads
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?"
- 11,737 Reads 1,015 Shares
MaggieMoo's began in 1989 in Kansas City but didn't start franchising until 1996, when the company was purchased by its current ownership. Since then it's been steadily uphill for both franchisor and ice cream lovers alike. Today the brand has 190 units and continues its rapid expansion.
- 4,658 Reads 135 Shares
Starbucks may have blown the coffee market wide open to mass consumption, but its competitors are quickly redefining how coffee is served-especially the speed at which it's delivered.
- Kerry Pipes
- 8,824 Reads 4 Shares
"If you're not moving forward, you're standing still," goes the old business axiom. In franchising, expansion is one way of moving forward. Whether you're a start-up organization or a player who's been around a while, growth through new sites is an objective--and when it comes to successful site selection tactics and techniques, consider the following approaches.
- Kerry Pipes
- 4,160 Reads 1,014 Shares
Manuel Solorzano was frustrated with his drivers and their excuses. The owner of six Martinizing Dry Cleaning stores in Tampa, Fla. would call his drivers on their cell phones during the day and never know whether he would reach them or not.
- Linda C. Ray
- 3,428 Reads
A healthy economy and a continued demand for both long- and short-term employees is driving personnel agencies and temporary employment services-and they love the work. Staffing services is one of the fastest-growing industries in the country. In 2004, the staffing industry generated more than $63 billion in revenues, with temporary staffing accounting for approximately 90 percent and permanent placement contributing the remainder.
- 2,205 Reads 4 Shares
Listening to franchisees with multiple brands discuss business sounds a little like stock brokers strategizing with clients about their portfolios.
- Debbie Selinsky
- 7,443 Reads 174 Shares
While politicians wrangled over the Mexican-U.S. border situation in 2006, one thing remained certain: people on both sides of the border love Mexican food. Americans have come a long way from Taco Bell, embracing Mexican food more and more each year, in all its flavors and variations.
- 10,610 Reads
For many years--like the ancient bones of "Lucy" discovered by Donald Johanson in 1974 and long thought to be mankind's first ancestor--Albert Singer, who founded the Singer Sewing Machine Company in 1851, has been credited with being the first franchisor in the United States. The designation was likely given because his was the most recognized name of the early pioneers that people still remembered.
- Michael Seid
- 27,777 Reads 25 Shares
Who likes income taxes? Tax preparation services, that's who! Entrepreneurs who have successfully used the franchising business model to spread their brand across the globe are enjoying unprecedented success and expansion in 2006.
- 3,205 Reads 86 Shares
It's a family affair all the way around at United States Beef Corp. Founded in 1969 when Bob and Connie Davis purchased their first Arby's restaurant – just five years after brothers Forrest and Leroy Raffel opened the first Arby's in Boardman, Ohio – today the Tulsa-based franchisee is headed by their sons Jeff, CEO, and John R. Davis, president. And a focus on a family-type atmosphere in its restaurants completes the picture.
- Eddy Goldberg
- 6,181 Reads 349 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
- 3,144 Reads 8 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
- 4,244 Reads 17 Shares
Julia Stewart is a very persuasive woman. As president, CEO, COO and director of IHOP Corp., she is, she says, using all her skills as a communicator, persuader, and collaborator, to revitalize one of the oldest and best-known foodservice brands.
- 7,087 Reads 507 Shares
Page 6 of 6 | ^ Return to Top | Previous 4 5 6 |