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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.

Computer technology seems to follow a fairly regular path: first, it automates operations, gaining some time and savings for large operations. Then it becomes cheaper, widespread, and more capable of handling routine tasks. Then it begins to change business functions themselves by enabling tasks that could never be performed before.
  • Ripley Hotch
  • 3,565 Reads 1,014 Shares
Franchise companies and area developers can grow rapidly while still making a profit, but the importance of proper site selection is a key factor for success.
  • Jeremy Behar
  • 3,057 Reads
When Philip Nye came to the United States from Colombia 18 years ago, he carried a visa, spoke English, and had the necessary resources to buy his Sir Speedy franchise in Raleigh, N.C.
  • Linda C. Ray
  • 3,320 Reads 2 Shares
Care-giving for baby-boomers is a rapidly growing concern and quickly escalating need in this country. In the next two decades, there will be more than 70 million people over the age of 65. Furthermore, the average life expectancy has increased 15 years since the 1930's. Nearly one out of every four U.S. households provides care to a relative or friend aged 50 or older and about 15 percent of adults care for a seriously ill or disabled family member. In hard numbers, about 13 million people are spouses or adult children of disabled older people and have the potential responsibility for their care.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 5,886 Reads 535 Shares
Franchise concepts continue to proliferate�"an important sign that the industry is healthy and poised for more growth.
  • Joan Szabo
  • 3,741 Reads
When Mike Willett was looking for creative ways to finance the growth of his franchise plans in the Houston area, he looked no further than his existing retirement plan. With a program known as a BORSA (Business Owner's Retirement Savings Account) Plan, he recently tapped his 401(k) holdings to launch the regional development of Synergy HomeCare. The BORSA program is structured so that retirement funds can be used for business development without distributions, taxes, penalties, or loans.
  • Joan Szabo
  • 4,739 Reads 82 Shares
According to most mavens (experts), bagels arrived in the U.S. in the 1880s, along with the wave of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe and Germany who settled in New York City. While bagels were swallowed up by most New Yorkers, they remained mostly a local phenomenon until the late 1920s. That's when Harry Lender, a Polish baker, set up his bagel factory in New Haven, Conn., putting bagels in supermarkets and introducing frozen bagels.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 6,135 Reads 1 Shares
National marketing efforts on behalf of franchisees have always been one of the benefits of operating within a franchise system. Generally, you sign on, open a store, and you get brand support and marketing from the franchise system. That’s a great advantage, but some multi-unit operators like to take matters a step further... or even several steps further by taking local marketing into their own hands. There are many unique and creative ways for multi-unit operators to approach local marketing. Done right, it’s much more creative and involved than direct mail or coupons, and the results can be taken to the bank. Here are a few twists and tips we uncovered.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 3,519 Reads 12 Shares
Contrary to what the financial media would have us believe, a financial fortune is not made—or retained—by exploiting hot stock tips or by jumping from fund to fund based on the latest "Top 10" list. In fact, selection of individual securities doesn't even make the short list of the top few most important portfolio decisions you will make.
  • Carol Clark
  • 3,484 Reads 6 Shares
Most people are not naturally suited to be wise investors. While traditional economic theory advocates making decisions in a calm, collected, and rational way, and only after carefully evaluating all viable alternatives (homo economicus) the day-to-day reality is usually much different.
  • Carol Clark
  • 3,158 Reads 3 Shares
In the $150 billion worldwide hair-care industry, Regis Corp. rules the roost. Regis has 55,000 corporate and 33,000 franchise employees in its more than 11,000 salons worldwide. Company brands in North America include Regis Salons, MasterCuts, Trade Secret, Supercuts, and Cost Cutters. (The company has about 60 brands gloally.) Regis owns a four percent domestic and two percent worldwide market share and predicts $2.4 billion in revenue in fiscal 2006.
  • 18,271 Reads 3,290 Shares
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UPS Capital Business Credit, the financing arm of UPS, recently announced it is adding franchise finance capabilities to its portfolio of small business offering.
  • Joan Szabo
  • 3,657 Reads 15 Shares
Financing small-business growth is now moving into the field of franchising. Minneapolis-based Winmark Corp. is branching out from its portfolio of more than 800 franchised retail stores in the U.S. and Canada to a new brand allowing its franchisees to lease business equipment to small-business owners.
  • Joan Szabo
  • 4,765 Reads 1 Shares
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?"
  • 11,813 Reads 1,015 Shares
No one can question the mammoth success that eBay has experienced over the past decade. It's the virtual place where one person's junk becomes another's treasure. Consider this: In 2003, nearly $24 billion worth of merchandise changed hands through eBay. That's more than $65 million in sales every day. In fact, it's estimated that eBay provides a marketing platform for more than half a million Internet entrepreneurs.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 2,339 Reads 3 Shares
Panera, phenomenally successful today, had an uncertain start. In 1993, Boston-based Au Bon Pain acquired the Saint Louis Bread Company and its 20 stores. From 1993 to 1997, the company "re-staged" the Saint Louis brand, increasing unit volumes by 75 percent. Somewhere en route, with visions of national expansion dancing in their heads, managment changed the concept's name to Panera Bread.
  • 4,571 Reads 26 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.
  • 4,722 Reads 135 Shares
"A hot dog at the ball park is better than steak at the Ritz." That's what Humphrey Bogart, American icon, said way back when. Today, the once-lowly hot dog has become an icon of its own, especially at sporting events around the world.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 5,549 Reads
Wouldn't it be great if you could call a home repair service, book an appointment, and be guaranteed they'd show up on time (and not within a four-hour window!), be courteous and respectful, and perform a reliable, professional job?
  • 3,428 Reads 11 Shares
The legend is familiar: In 1950, Bill Rosenberg opens the first Dunkin' Donuts store in Quincy, Mass. In 1955, he licenses the first franchise. In 1960, his dream of franchisors and franchisees working together is realized in the founding of the International Franchise Association. In the coming years he would become involved in philanthropy and be called the "father of franchising as we know it today" by Nation's Restaurant News
  • 28,993 Reads 1 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
  • 8,866 Reads 4 Shares
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Fourth in the overall rankings on the this year's AD50 list is 1-800-Got-Junk? All of its franchisees are multi-unit owners (or potentially), says CEO Brian Scudamore. "It's a pretty simple strategy," he says. "Find the right people, and once they've been successful with one franchise, then offer another."
  • 4,087 Reads 48 Shares
Multi-unit franchising continues to expand in 2006. And the "Area Developer 50" continues to track the industry's transition from its early decades of single-unit owners to today's multi-unit owners and area developers. 2006 marks the third year of what might be called "The Shift": more franchising units controlled by multiple unit franchisees than by single-unit owners, according to statistics compiled by FRANdata, which puts the number at 52 percent.
  • 2,920 Reads 11 Shares
In the world of ice cream retailing, many believe that mix-ins and premium ice cream originated in 1973 when Steve Herrell opened the now-legendary Steve’s in Somerville, Massachusetts. Today’s brands make those days seem almost quaint, like Henry Ford’s Model T in a world of 200-mph Ferraris.
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 2,439 Reads 17 Shares
Americans love to have fun--and despite their bulging waistlines, they also like to keep fit--or spend money trying! Between these two trends there's a lot of room for franchise growth--whether for seniors, juniors, or in-betweens!
  • Eddy Goldberg
  • 2,651 Reads 9 Shares
In 1963, women's advocate Betty Friedan wrote in her book, The Feminine Mystique, that women were preparing to break new barriers. Friedan lived to see her prophecies come true before her death earlier this year. And nowhere are the broken barriers more apparent than in multi-unit franchising.
  • Linda C. Ray
  • 4,147 Reads 1 Shares
Franchising can provide an opportunity for you to clean up. Whether it's inside your home or the clothes on your body, there are many choices. Busy Americans are driving explosive growth in the cleaning industry. With little time of their own to clean, U.S. consumers are spending more than $9 billion a year on residential cleaning-a figure expected to grow at a rate of more than 20 percent a year.
  • 2,547 Reads
So many companies today train their employees to "duplicate" the customer experience, to treat every person who walks through the door exactly the same way. I have seen too many companies fail using this strategy. Forget about what is easier to train your employees to do: not every customer wants the same experience.
  • Thom Winninger
  • 4,117 Reads 12 Shares
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
  • 4,132 Reads 3 Shares
State regulators across the country are out to blur the distinction between franchisors and employers. If they succeed, they could crimp the growth of one of the franchise industry's hottest segments: franchise providers of janitorial, security guard, industrial gardening, delivery, and other services to commercial clients.
  • Barry Kurtz and Richard Rosenberg
  • 5,492 Reads 1 Shares
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