The Dominator Effect

"One day I had 1,000 people, the next day I had a hair salon with 5 stylists," says Richard Bielecki, Fantastic Sams regional owner for South Texas and New Mexico.

Reciprocity Restaurant Group President Lyndon Johnson good-naturedly lets new acquaintances have a little fun with his name. That's because he's fine with his name. "I can think of a lot worse people to share a name with," says Johnson.

When you have only one location, it's pretty easy to work both in your business as well as on it. When you have two locations, most often it's still doable--you can manage it. Almost without exception, however, when you get to three or more locations, you'll find yourself stretched way past your limits. You will be so busy working in your business that you won't have any time to work on it, and that's a recipe for disaster. When the disasters start piling up, it's past time to recruit the unit-level managers (ULMs) you need to keep things running smoothly and help you grow your business.

The multi-unit operators highlighted in this issue of have gained both market dominance and respect for their achievements. Wouldn't it be nice to follow in their footsteps? How does one go about doing so? Bookstores are full of how-to books on every aspect of strategic and tactical business building. Yet, ultimately, it mostly comes down to trial and error because the single biggest factor is you and the people around you in your company.

Technology tools have become a mainstay for every multi-unit franchisee, used for planning, budgeting, forecasting, and many other daily activities. Today franchisees are embracing technology for demographic research and site selection.

For over a year, the headlines have been rife with dire warnings that seem to indicate the demise of the world as we know it. For example, we learned that in June we experienced the worst percentage decline in the broad market averages since the Great Depression. We also discovered that home prices are declining faster than at any time in recorded history, and that debt levels (personal and governmental) have never been so high--nor have gas prices, even factoring in inflation. Gold is going through the roof and the dollar is falling through the floor. Corn, copper, steel, soybeans, etc. are shattering more records than Michael Phelps. And woe is us: flu season is right around the corner. Could this be the year of the "Great Pandemic"? It's no wonder that consumer confidence has dropped to multi-decade lows, and that stock markets around the world are misbehaving. But what could actually go right as a result of this upheaval?