Technology Feature Articles

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.

"We were coming off really strong sales increases. We had just remodeled all the restaurants, our cash flow had increased significantly over the past two or three years, and we had some very good growth opportunities. It was a perfect time to sell."

Localized support, faster response time, creating new brand awareness, and cracking tough markets are some of the reasons franchise organizations turn to master franchisees to help expand their systems. Sometimes called regional developers, area developers, master franchisees, area franchisees, their names can be as different as the many ways their fees and compensation are structured. What's not different is how these individuals can help quickly build brands, awareness, and stores in a given territory.

Localized support, faster response time, creating new brand awareness, and cracking tough markets are some of the reasons franchise organizations turn to area developers to help expand their systems. Sometimes called regional developers, area developers, master franchisees, area franchisees, their names can be as different as the many ways their fees and compensation are structured. What's not different is how these individuals can help quickly build brands, awareness, and stores in a given territory.

Throughout its two millennia of ruthless history, the Romanian people learned to accept that their accomplishments could be destroyed at any time. As a consequence, long-term planning was useless. More recently, the adverse reaction created by the infamous communist lies called "the glorious five-year plans", along with the current chaotic on-going transition toward profit oriented business, naturally has led to a very short-term orientation in private and organizational life.

"We've got to change and evolve with the times, and we're definitely doing that," says Tom Whitley, chief marketing officer at Popeye's Chicken & Biscuits. "We offer different things to our customers than we did in 1972. The brand is much more complicated and sophisticated." At the core, he says, "Great-tasting New Orleans-style flavored foods will always be part of what we do."

From handwritten business logs to detailed software programs, the way in which businesses run has changed significantly over the last fifty years. Perhaps one of the most significant changes in the last 10 years has been the shift to multi-state business ownership.

Last November Captain D's Seafood announced seven new franchise agreements that will add at least 34 new franchise locations to the system. The largest was with Serve Holdings, led by veteran multi-unit operator Clarence A. Mitchell, III, who bought 20 company stores in the Memphis DMA. He will remodel all 20 with the company's new prototype and develop 15 new stores in the next 5 years. The deal grants Serve Holdings exclusive expansion rights in western Tennessee and three surrounding states (MO, KY, and IL).