Like things aren't bad enough with 100 degree heat all over the country, crappy stock market performance and an election coming up where neither candidate is, say, unscary. Gilbert Poon, a Middlebury, CT. of Tempe, AZ. based franchisor GameTruck had a car accident that totalled his truck and damaged his GameTruck vehicle as well. Poor Gilbert had enough on his plate with that--he spoke to the franchisor and said he would have to cancel all his scheduled upcoming parties. ""NOT SO FAST" said Scott Novis, the company CEO. Between corporate and a great Indianapolis franchisee, equipment was loaned and sent immediately to allow Gil to fulfill all his party commitments. I have been in franchising for 30 years--and the best systems do this! Help their zees and rally other zees to help each other. No wonder franchising's slogan is "you are in business for yourself but not by yourself".
ShelfGenie's 4th annual conference in Pine Mountain Georgia at the beginning of June was a smashing success according to most who attended. Sure it was June, and sure it was Georgia, so what are we saying? Yes even in the photo at left with everyone smiling you just know it was 102 degrees! But the important thing is this hard working group got to hear keynote speakers, win awards, and pow-wow together which is what franchising is all about. Their founder Allan Young spoke to Fortune.com and CNN.com about why it pays to grow slow if you are a franchisor and tend to each franchisee one at a time rather than "speed sell" franchises and then not be able to keep up on support. Read it here!
ONN--yes that's a TV station in Ohio--does it remind you of CNN? Well, that's right. And this past week the producers were smart enough to see the merits of 3 franchise stars--WelcomeMat, Penn Station Subs and FirstLight Homecare.
Enjoyed helping to host a luncheon Wednesday for a group of very sharp franchise suppliers so they could show off their wares to franchisors. The seminar is called Over the Top, and the lunch, held at Benny's Chophouse of Chicago, was delish--but the info was even more so. 19 franchisors got quite an education on where things are today in terms of lead generation and knowledge of who your franchisee candidates are and how to speak to them. These lessons came from FranConnect, Greenbaum Marketing and Management 2000--all speaking about different disciplines in the sales process. One thing is for sure....if you can't get potential candidates to your website you are doomed. AND, they need to click all the way through--or there is no point. That's where SEO and all that good stuff comes in. We see here that SEO can be utilized in our press releases, hopefully sending eager beavers right to the website of our client--however, after that, then what? If you can't close the deal, and if the zee can't get the financing, all is for naught. Yes getting those SEO terms down etc. is all good and well, but in the end, can your model hold up? Can you sell it? And can your franchisee make money? Those are the real first steps! This seminar is happening in Phoenix and Atlanta as well.
And why not? Hard working, family oriented, the Latin community, huge in the U.S. is poised to be the next big small business owner segment. Franchising is a great avenue for them even though currently Latinos own only 5.2 percent of franchise businesses. Franchising gives one a jumpstart to owning a small business with lots of "back of office" help involved.
Canadian based franchisor, WSI, a digital provider of marketing services to small and medium sized businesses, started its push into Latin America in 1997. The company has 25 Latino franchisees in the U.S.,154 in Mexico and 85 in the rest of Latin America. Franchise fees start at $29,700 in Latin America, with a total initial investment between $5,000 and $10,000.
There are also many opportunities for those wanting to spend more family time--or for those who want to work with their family in a business together. Stay at home Mom? There are options in franchising there too. Whatever the scenario, as my friend Jim Amos recently said on the radio, "if every franchisee had the money to hire just one employee there would be NO unemployment in the U.S." Chew over that!!
Uh-oh if you are a franchisor or a franchisee the one thing you are in fear of is the thing you can't control. You can screen franchisees and employees as best you can but at any time the worst could happen. The sad news is, at least for the franchisor, it's out of your control. An elder care company had one of their caregivers caught stealing the client's jewelry. One took the 90 year old client's car while drinking (and while client was in the passenger seat) and crashed it into a tree.
But nothing quite smacks of distaste like the story here . Moreover, it states that "this is a good business for child molestors" according to the cops. Not helpful to other franchisors in the same industry who might run a much tighter ship, right? Well I asked one of them. Scott Novis is founder and CEO of GameTruck, the original and longest running video game theater. In fact in 2011 GameTruck was awarded a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, identifying GameTruck’s unique process of entertaining people in its Mobile Video Game Theater. So they started it all!
When I asked Novis how this affected others in this industry he replied "This is terribly unfortunate. At GameTruck we do maximum background checks, not only on our franchisees, but they are required to do the same with their employees. And not just run-of-the-mill background checks, but very deep, thorough ones. After all we are an industry that caters to children. Having said that you can never control every person and every circumstance so we sympathize."
Classy answer. I heard the company involved here fired their PR firm a year ago or so--I bet they regret that now!
Spilt hot coffee, nuggets shaped like a chicken's head, and now this! What and who will we blame next for our woes? McDonald's employees applied there for a reason. It's a job, yes minimum wage but it's a start. In these times kids and even older adults should be happy to be employed anywhere. Check out last weekend's NY Times Magazine feature called Hello Cruel World about the class of 2011 college grads who cannot find a job anywhere--even as a barrista.
Someone, somewhere will always play the victim and of course a very successful franchisor makes a great target. I have some advice for this hooker who blames McDonald's for her career. Don't forget to get their low-cal meals from now on--you are going to need to stay in shape :-)
This blogger is off to NYC for birthday celebration so won't be posting tomorrow--have a great weekend all.
Wow everyone's favorite subject in franchising. Where is the next lead coming from? Can't say it's not on target. In the 80's your biggest problem was getting the right people to qualify the tons of leads coming in. Ah the good old days.
Reality check-there has been a climate shift in franchising for a variety of reasons--not the least of which is 20-30 years later all those people that bought a franchise way back then did NOT succeed and they are the vocal ones. Yes it is not a perfect business model and many who have become franchisees maybe shoudn't have. However it sure beats sitting around in a corporation or on an assembly line waiting for the axe to fall.
Now a very experienced group of experts are putting on one day seminars in fab cities (with food!) on how to put together a terrific lead generating program built for these times. The 3 key players work in 3 different areas but when worked at together could definitely improve your lead stream.
Details of their 3 upcoming events can be found here and you can also go in and register for the event in the city nearest you for a ridiculous $249. I am sponsoring this because frankly it is so reasonable a price for a seminar with 3 people I think have lots of answers. So there ya go!! Hope to see you at Chicago event--where I will also be but the other cities are good too. Do the date and location most convenient for you clearly!!
Hats still off to Debbie Moss and her amazing team that make the IFA annual convention so cool--I can only guesstimate that there were upwards of 2500 people at this event in Orlando Feb. 11-14 but they make it look easy. An APP that we could download this year and last is BEYOND convenient. You can see at a glance where and when everything is going to be happening then just click on what you want to attend and it makes a little calendar for you. Wish they had that the year I slept through the First-Timers Reception which I was an Ambassador to!! Jim Amos, CEO of Tasti D-Lite, pictured to the left, received the Hall of Fame award, the highest honor one can receive in franchising. Although he left me out of his thank you speech :-) I still adore him and it seems most everyone else does too. No dry eyes in the house as a fantastic video of his young years was viewed along with his military accomplishments and then business. A terrific gala topped the program off with The Franchise All-Star Band (franchise people with REAL talent) and a song dedicated to ME-Unchained Melody sung by the incredible Ron Taylor of Sandler Sales Institute.