2022 Disruptions in the Franchise Industry: Where Should Leaders Put Their Sights On?
(Part 7 of the 2022 Multi-Unit Franchising Conference)
What is the state of the franchise industry nowadays and what should franchise owners and franchisees be preparing for? During his lecture at the Multi-Unit Franchising Conference, which happened earlier this year, Darrell Johnson, CEO of Frandata, shared his thoughts and deep analysis on this matter.
Frandata is the premier source of market intelligence data in the franchise world, across 230 industries and over 4,000 brands. In this blog post, I’ll be sharing the takeaways of this session, which was, as you can imagine, very informative and eye-opening. These are the things that franchise leaders need to be aware of and understand so that they can make better decisions in their present and future businesses.
These are the things that franchise leaders need to...
Focus on these areas to strengthen your customer experience
(Part 6 of the 2022 Multi-Unit Franchising Conference)
During the past weeks, I’ve been sharing the takeaways of what I experienced at this year's Multi-Unit Franchising Conference, an annual event dedicated to helping these business owners make their companies stronger and more profitable.
In this is part six, we’ll review John DiJulius's keynote. He is a guest experience expert and his organization focuses on helping franchisors and franchisees develop specific customer service expertise and focus.
John pointed out how in the past 15 years, the level of satisfaction the customers have had in their experience with businesses, in general, is at a 15-year low. A lot of it is being driven by staffing issues and high-cost problems. He urged business owners to act against this customer service recession by...
10 Tips to Do Your Due Diligence When Choosing a New Franchise
(Part 5 of the 2022 Multi-Unit Franchising Conference)
As we continue the series on the Multi-Unit Franchising Conference, where I’ve been sharing all the experiences, panels, and keynote speaking that happened during this event, in this blog post I’m breaking down a session dedicated to the due diligence for choosing a new brand, segment or service system to expand your franchise portfolio.
There's a big umbrella called franchising, but under it, there are a lot of industries you can choose from. Foodservice is only 30% of what's possible. There’s another 70% of franchises in other industries. How can you select the ideal franchise for you?
During this panel, the participants shared best practices and tips on how to do that due diligence when you are in the last stages of choosing a new franchise brand,...
How to Build Your Infrastructure for Growth
(Part 4 of the 2022 Multi-Unit Franchising Conference)
The Multi-Unit Franchising Conference is an event dedicated to multi-unit franchises, their development, and growth. Once again, The American Franchise Academy was present there to bring you strategies to succeed with your multi-unit franchise.
2022 program included a session on how to prepare our organizations for growth, by building proper infrastructure for it. Not in terms of the leadership team or the store structure, but from the operations and financial points of view.
This topic was approached by four panelists, who highlighted the things that leaders need to implement to succeed and scale their organizations. Here are their tips to build your infrastructure for growth.
Make a serious due diligence
Fred Burgess, a MUMBO ...
The Secret to Becoming a Successful Multi-Unit Franchisee
Many people believe that when you invest in a franchise, you're going to get everything you need to be successful. As mentioned by my friend Brent Veach, a multi-unit franchisee who owns 55 Del Taco stores, nothing could be further from the truth.
Don’t miss my YouTube interview with him here!
Franchisees need systems, which means that they require a set of processes, that also have a series of procedures within, and once these are all implemented the right way, together they produce a consistent result day in and day out.
Think of systems like a car. When you turn the car on, a lot of processes and procedures have to happen simultaneously to make the car run and take you from point A to point B.
It’s the same when it comes to a business: you have to have those systems, processes, and procedures so your team is able to execute, day in and day out. When this happens, the business will produce a consistent result.
When you invest in a franchisee, you do get...
10 Actions to Attract, Retain and Grow Top Talent for your Organization
(Part 3 of the 2022 Multi-Unit Franchising Conference)
Within the past couple of weeks, I’ve been sharing what I experienced during the 2022 Multi-Unit Franchising Conference. This event happens every year, and it is focused on the development of multi-unit franchisees.
The session I’ll be commenting on in this blog post is Strategies Attract, Recruit, Retain and Grow Top Talent, which was a panel of four franchisees. Here are 10 actions and strategies that these business owners shared on how they are solving the big challenge of the staffing crisis that is happening in the country.
Before we review the takeaways, I have to clear out that while these franchisees are doing a lot of things to improve their staffing levels, they don't have the silver bullet that solves all of the problems.
One of them even confessed that for a long time, he has...
9 Lessons from a Serial Entrepreneur, a Rapper, and an Ultraman Racer
(Part 2 of the 2022 Multi-Unit Franchising Conference)
Perhaps the name Jesse Itzler doesn’t ring any bells for you. I admit that before hearing him at the 2022 Multi-Unit Franchising Conference I only knew he was the husband of Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx. But I’m very glad I attended his keynote so I can share the following takeaways on leadership and inspiration.
Jesse is a serial entrepreneur. He co-founded Marquis Jet, one of the largest private jet companies in the United States, as well as Zico Coconut Water, that after growing into a tremendous organization, was sold to Coca-Cola.
He's also the owner of the NBA Atlanta Hawks, a rapper, and an Ultraman racer, which is a three-day, 320 miles, multisport race. What can we learn from him and his diverse and wide experience? These are the key insights and actions he shared that’ll inspire you to achieve your dreams.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel to view the complete video series on the 2022...
I attended the 2022 Multi-Unit Franchising Conference. This is what I learned
(Part 1 of the 2022 Multi-Unit Franchising Conference)
Either if you are new to our blog, or a current reader, you must know that as the founder of The American Franchise Academy it is my mission to share knowledge, tips, best practices, and information to help you be successful in your business. With this in mind, in this blog post and within the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing some insights from the 2022 Multi-Unit Franchising Conference, which happened from March 29 to April 1st.
I did this last year and we got great feedback from our followers and clients, so I’m repeating the formula once again because this year's conference was amazing. It was full of great best practices, knowledge, information, and inspiration from highly successful multi-unit franchisees.
The best part: even if you didn’t attend (which I strongly recommend you do in...
4 Qualities You Need to Become a Top-Performing Franchisee
Every franchise brand has a list of its top-performing franchisees. Sadly, this elite group represents only 1% of their total units. That means that 99% of the franchisees don’t know how to make the best out of their franchises so that they too can be so successful that they even win awards and recognition at their brand’s annual conference.
What do those top-performing franchisees have in common? What are the mysterious things they do to be so successful? Throughout my +30 years of experience in the franchise sector, working with global SMB 500 brands, master franchisees around the world, and collaborating directly with CEOs, I have identified that this 1% of franchisees have four things in common. But don’t worry, you also can work on these qualities to become part of this group.
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Be a multi-unit franchisee
The majority of the top-performing franchisees are multi-unit and they do the enterprise management the right way. Why is that? Because when you...
District Manager Training, Crucial for the Success of Your Organization
One of the things that multi-unit growing organizations require is to have properly trained and skillful district managers. This position is critical for the success of the company but, as I have explained in a previous blog post, it is also the most difficult one in the retail and franchise industries.
To add to that, there’s very little clarity of what this role does and it is the one with the least amount of training and support.
Perhaps because of the investment companies have to make to train the people in that position, not only in terms of money but also in time. But believe me, if this investment is not done, it can cost you greatly.
Why should you train your district managers?
What makes these leaders so crucial for your organization? There are several reasons.
The first one is that people that are promoted to this position don't naturally know what to do or how to execute the job correctly. That’s because their previous leadership position,...
