Technology Feature Articles

Technology Feature Articles

Franchise Sector Showcase

Informative Technology franchise articles to support business buyers, franchisees, and franchisors.

The surest way to lose a good employee is to leave him or her up in the air about what the job is and how to do it.
  • Ripley Hotch
  • 4,125 Reads 3 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
  • 3,473 Reads
The use of outsourcing continues to expand within the franchise industry. In addition to information technology outsourcing, service providers are being called upon to perform a number of business processes including accounting, call center operations, disaster recovery, human resources management, and sales training.
  • Milton B. Whitfield
  • 3,481 Reads 6 Shares
Web-based Performance Dashboards give you the power to analyze information about the performance of your business and the key activities you manage. As the name dashboard suggests, these are web-based tools that continuously display the current state of your key business metrics. And among the most vital signs of your business health are customer satisfaction scores and customer loyalty trends.
  • Jack Mackey
  • 8,288 Reads 144 Shares
For a multi-unit franchisee, the relationship with a customer doesn't end with the sale. Each purchase of an item or use of your service is a single transaction between an individual customer and an individual employee. Whether it is a quick meal at a sub shop or a thorough home cleaning, this transaction should be the beginning of a long-term relationship with your customer. After the transaction, the relationship must be grounded in not only the quality of the product or service, but also in the strength of your response to customer needs. How do you gauge and evaluate your quality of product, service and response beyond the price tag?
  • Thomas J. Winninger
  • 3,398 Reads 16 Shares
The franchise industry's shift from the paper to the electronic age has been slow and steady, with the lion's share of today's franchise organizations now operating their systems much like the rest of modern civilization: in real-time.
  • Dan Martin
  • 3,389 Reads 1,023 Shares
Successful franchise selling must employ 1) an effective and qualifying process; 2) strong relationship-building with candidates; and 3) a compelling system for closing the deal. These three triggers are universal within any franchise recruitment program.
  • Steve Olson
  • 4,491 Reads 5 Shares
When Linda Burzynski was offered the CEO slot at Liberty Fitness, the franchising veteran says she hesitated, in part because she didn't feel she was in the best shape, physically, to head up a health and fitness organization.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 5,399 Reads 23 Shares
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
  • 6,193 Reads 448 Shares
Franchise UPDATE, a franchising industry powerhouse, recently rolled out an inventive and client-friendly recruitment system through its website, Franchising.com. Benjamin Foley, webmaster of Franchise UPDATE, developed the new website with improved franchise recruitment features that are unmatched in the industry. Launched in January 2006, the new offerings at franchising.com allow clients to easily view their web stats, adjust filters for potential franchise leads, and post recent company press releases and media placements. "Franchising.com features innovative technology that adapts to our clients' ever-changing needs," said Gary Gardner, CEO and co-founder of Franchise UPDATE. "The simple interface offers an easy way for our clients to increase their exposure on the web, at no cost to the client."
  • Fishman Public Relations
  • 2,774 Reads 10 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
  • 3,494 Reads 17 Shares
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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
  • 3,134 Reads 3 Shares
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
  • 3,038 Reads
Business supplies are like the air we breathe: they're all around, necessary for life, and noticed only when missing. Where would we be without our business cards, business forms, stationery, logo-ized pens, printer and toner cartridges-not to mention all the computing and communication gear and gizmos-that keep the wheels of commerce turning? And don't forget the signage on everything from delivery trucks to the booths of trade shows.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 2,623 Reads 7 Shares
For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past 10 years, I have a newsflash: Since 1995, The Federal Trade Commission has been involved in a rule- making process to amend the FTC Rule (the "Rule") to change certain disclosure...
  • Franchise Update
  • 4,966 Reads 2 Shares
For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past 10 years, I have a newsflash: Since 1995, The Federal Trade Commission has been involved in a rule- making process to amend the FTC Rule (the "Rule") to change certain disclosure requirements and to recognize certain changes to the franchise business sales model and use of technology in the franchise sales process. What we know is the likely substance of the changes; what we don't know is when they'll be implemented.
  • Lane Fisher
  • 3,474 Reads 2 Shares
Quick lube shops may seem to be on every corner of most major American cities, but that's not true overseas in places like China and even north of the border in Canada.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 6,404 Reads 422 Shares
The franchising industry in Vietnam has been gradually developing over the past few years with the products and services of a number of well-known local and foreign brand names achieving higher market profile. However, this development has taken place in the absence of any regulations directly governing franchising activities. The current franchising industry in Vietnam has relied on regulations on related issues, such as those to do with licensing of intellectual property rights and technology transfer coupled with general contractual obligations.
  • Andrew Terry
  • 3,954 Reads 14 Shares
Ninety days after the effectiveness of China's new franchise regulations, foreign franchisors and their lawyers are trying to sort out whether they can comply with the law, and if so, how. The Measures for the Administration of Commercial Franchising ("Measures") were adopted as a part of China's commitment to the World Trade Organization to open the Chinese economy to foreign investment. Although rumors about the forthcoming regulations had been emanating from Beijing for nearly two years, in late November the world was given 12 days to comment on draft Measures which would apply to "Foreign Invested Enterprise" ("FIE") franchisors. By the end of December, the Ministry of Commerce ("MOC") had promulgated revised franchise regulations which apply to both domestic and foreign invested enterprises, but which failed to address whether foreign companies may franchise directly into China.
  • Carl E. Zwisler
  • 11,788 Reads 963 Shares
If you're over 20 years old, you probably think this is some crazy scifi phenomenon, or I've simply lost my mind. Don't fret; the vast majority of people don't know what a blog is all about�and more important, why it matters to them. In particular, why does it matter to your franchise company?
  • Dennis Schooley
  • 3,178 Reads 1 Shares
An Italian proverb says, "One attains fortune through knowledge. One attains knowledge through mentors." Many real estate franchise companies are taking that proverb to heart. Training and retention of the very best sales associates and staff is crucial to the success of any real estate brokerage. Subsequently, real estate franchising companies such as Century 21, RE/MAX, Coldwell Banker, and ERA have begun implementing coaching and mentoring initiatives for their franchisees. Typically, these programs involve coaches or mentors who have extensive experience and successful track records as top producers. The programs arm franchisees with proven scripts and dialogues that help them deal with obstacles. Franchisees can also gain access to marketing and advertising materials that have been successful.
  • 2,201 Reads 3 Shares
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Brad Bruckman owned 15 Krispy Kreme franchises in the Northern California/Sacramento area when he felt a desire to reexamine his career direction. "I didn't necessarily foresee any of the problems that were soon to begin affecting that franchise, but I did begin to wonder about other opportunities, and, ultimately, I feel like I got out at just the right time," says the 42-year-old entrepreneur.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 3,642 Reads 3 Shares
Franchising is driven by expansion and growth. Creating leads and identifying prospects is an essential part of any corporate franchise operation. Franchise executives understand the importance of effective marketing and recruiting. They spend significant amounts of time, human resources, and financial resources to develop systems that help them optimize their recruiting.
  • 5,097 Reads 1,014 Shares
Frustration levels are bound to grow higher when back-office woes increase. As a result, you may end up spending valuable time and energy on making things right. Outsourcing accounting and other functions may be the way to go. If you are in the restaurant industry, one firm to consider is Wichita-based Savista-FSC.
  • Joan Szabo
  • 4,194 Reads 1,014 Shares
Area Developer asked Darrell Johnson, president and CEO of FRANdata, what a multi-unit developer should look for when evaluating franchise opportunities. In a wide-ranging interview, Johnson sorts out the massive amount of available information into four basic categories and provides a tutorial-and dozens of relevant questions-on how to think things through when searching for the best brand to suit your business (and personal) needs.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 4,399 Reads 1 Shares
Being a big fish always helps, especially in a big pond. But big fish still have problems-or opportunities as the more optimistic prefer to call them. And it certainly helps to have a positive outlook when you become an area developer. Topping the list of problems/opportunities are the usual items: location, hiring and retention, financing, etc.-but magnified by the number of units, as well as the number of concepts operating under one umbrella. Area Developer magazine asked four successful "Big Fish" to weigh in on what's tipping their scales as 2005 approaches.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 3,242 Reads 7 Shares
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.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 2,566 Reads 9 Shares
"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."
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 6,433 Reads 1 Shares
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.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 2,910 Reads 1 Shares
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.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 3,154 Reads 9 Shares
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