CBS Miami.com — Veterans returning home from Afghanistan and Iraq are being courted by franchises at the franchise expo in Miami Beach this weekend, thanks to program Vet Fran.
CNBC.com — Read why Baby Boomers who just aren’t ready to retire are perfect for franchising.
Inc magazine— Missouri’s Sam Graves, chairman of the House Small Business Committee, has outlined what he’d like to see from the President on behalf of small businesses.
Pinot’s Palette wants you to fear no easel. Instead, the company’s three co-founders just want you to have a good time painting a canvas while enjoying a glass of wine.
The idea for Pinot’s Palette was actually a golf course collaboration between co-founders Craig and Charles. “Craig and I were bouncing ideas back and forth,” says Charles Willis, “and Craig had the idea to bring entertainment value to an art class.”
Charles and Craig, who both have major corporate business experience, put the idea on hold for awhile, until Charles’ wife, Beth, pushed the three of them into business in 2009. The first Pinot’s Palette, formerly Pinot and Picasso, opened in the Houston area in 2010. Now, the franchise is looking to expand everywhere.
Pinot’s Palette, as a concept, is fairly simple. Customers arrive at the studio with their own wine and snacks, Pinot’s Palette provides ice buckets, wine glasses, paints, brushes and everything else you need to become your own Picasso, Van Gogh or Matisse. One of Pinot’s Palette’s artists will walk you through the creation of your very own, guiding your every brush stroke so you’ll proud enough to hang it on your own wall.
For those behind the scenes, it’s equally important to Pinot’s Palette that their franchisees have a good time, too. Part of that involves a great deal of extensive training. Charles, Craig and Beth go over all marketing, operations and technological aspects of the business during a franchisee’s training period. In addition, Pinot’s Palette has a proprietary software system that helps each franchisee manage daily to-do’s, giving them more time on the more important things like growing their customer base.
If you’re interested in becoming a Pinot’s Palette franchisee, you of course need the concept’s required amount of investment capital and a go-getter attitude, but Charles, Craig and Beth are looking for someone who loves being around people and will make sure customers have a great time every time. If you think that could be you, well, they’d love to hear from you
Sorry for the blogging hiatus, everyone. As I’m sure you know, the holidays are rarely a relaxing time of year. We’ve been very, very busy!
One of our wonderful cleaning franchise clients, 360 Clean, contacted us this week to share some great news: thanks to our lead generation efforts, they’ve welcomed two new franchisees to their concept!
“FranchiseClique is a great resource for our lead generation. We have found that FranchiseClique is innovative in their approach to lead generation and we are excited that it produced two new franchisees for 360clean in the Fall of 2011. We look forward to more franchisees from our relationship with FranchiseClique.”
– Barry Bodiford, 360 Clean CEO
For those who’ve chosen a career in providing healthcare to seniors, the headache of accounting is one ailment many are unprepared to handle. As the first of the baby boomers begin to retire, it’s one aspect of the industry senior care professionals can’t afford to ignore– unless they work for ATC At Home.
ATC At Home is the only business opportunity (soon-to-be franchise) in the senior care sector that provides complete and total administrative support to its business opportunity owners. ATC assumes all payroll, accounting, and workers compensation responsibilities. Instead of worrying about balance sheets, payroll taxes and administrative concerns, employees concentrate on growing their ATC At Home business.
“We’re in a very competitive and crowded sector because of growing demand,” explains Oliver Harlow, Vice President of Franchise Development for ATC At Home. He predicts the demand for senior care healthcare services to not only continue but to also expand over the next several decades.
At the expense of additional franchise developments, ATC will offer the largest protected territories in the senior care industry. While the industry norm is 200,000 – 250,000 total population per territory, ATC’s will be 500,000 total population per territory.
Harlow has been involved with senior care franchises for over 9 years and with ATC since the beginning of 2011. Over the past year, Harlow has helped the business opportunity prepare for its soon-to-be franchise status, which the company is expected to officially have within the first few months of 2012. For now, Harlow and ATC are perfecting company structure systems, and finalizing manuals.
Oliver Harlow’s dedication to ATC and senior care is personal. When Oliver was 22 years old his father was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. He, his mother and his younger sister cared for him until his death 10 months later. A few years later, Harlow’s grandmother suffered a stroke during her visit to his family over Thanksgiving. His grandmother suffered partial paralysis. Following her rehabilitation, Oliver cared for his grandmother until she sadly passed away a year later.
“This is a rewarding industry,” Oliver reminds me. Once ATC is officially a franchise, he’s eager to recruit franchisees who share his enthusiasm for helping others. “Natural-born networkers, relationship builders, outgoing and people-oriented types who come from a selling and people management background,” are ideal for ATC’s business model he says. Of course, the ideal future franchisee will also have the capital to start the franchise and also the means to support themselves as the business is on its first legs. “You can’t throw your last dollar into it,” says Harlow.
When speaking about the future, Harlow is excited. Though he’s never been a franchisee, he’s always been, “attracted to the opportunity of building from scratch” but feels his “strengths are better suited to a corporate environment.” Oliver’s past positions with senior care franchises have been rewarding and he’s looking forward to helping more people “find and realize their goal of business ownership.”
If you’re interested in senior care franchises and business opportunities or learning more about ATC At Home Healthcare, visit http://www.franchiseclique.com.
“With every dollar we spend, we cast a vote.”
My economics teacher used to repeat this whenever the question of spending came up. If only it really were that simple. She was right, though, in that with every purchase we make (and don’t make) we vote businesses on and off of America’s economic island. The holiday season is a retailer’s chance at surviving the tribal council.
As I’m sure many of you in the franchise industry have heard, American Express (AMEX) excluded franchises from participating in Small Business Saturday this past weekend on November 26, 2011. While many are understandably upset about the exclusion of their business from AMEX’s economic initiative, the situation opens the door to several important questions, including but not limited to where franchising fits into America’s spending psyche.
Many blogs, articles and forums have focused how this happened and how it can be remedied next year. I’m personally more interested in why it happened. If the franchise industry can figure out what inspired AMEX to exclude an entire industry, in which many businesses in my opinion qualify as small businesses, perhaps the thought process behind the decision can be resolved as opposed to simply the situation.
First and foremost, while the success of fast food franchises has certainly helped the industry as a whole, it hasn’t helped the industry’s reputation as a small business job creator. The general public most likely doesn’t understand what franchising truly entails. The term “franchise” often conjures images of McDonald’s golden arches, not mom and pop independently owned businesses.
The term “franchise” should first make us think of an agreement rather than a fast food restaurant. For those who don’t know, the franchise agreement is made between two parties: the franchisor and the franchisee. The franchisor lends his trademark or trade and accompanying business model to the franchisee who in turn compensates the franchisor with a royalty fee, and often an initial fee, for the right to do business under the franchisor’s name and use of the business model. In some cases, but not all, the franchisor takes responsibility for creating marketing materials and implementing marketing strategies to further the success of the franchise. That being said, marketing isn’t free and may factor into the franchise’s royalty fee.
Aside from the extraneous fees, franchises aren’t so different from small businesses. They are are owned and operated by the same kinds of people as small businesses. They serve and employ the same local residents. Lately, they’ve been facing the same economic challenges. It’s understandable why so many franchisees and franchisors are upset.
We’re all, consumers and businesses alike, pinching pennies right now. There certainly isn’t much profligate spending happening this holiday season. The Wall Street Journal hinted that only 29 percent of small businesses are able to give year end bonuses this year. As I said before, every dollar we do or do not spend really matters.
From what I’ve read and heard, marketing has been another issue within the franchise exclusion situation with AMEX. AMEX’s Small Business Saturday offered $25 dollar credits to shoppers who shopped at qualifying establishments, those independently owned and operated businesses that don’t have the budget for national marketing campaigns. These credits didn’t extend to those who supported chains or franchises during Small Business Saturday.
Then again, it’s an understandable mistake. For those of us who are part of the franchise industry that may be difficult to digest. While we recognize the hard work and long hours franchisors and franchisees put into their respective roles, many outsiders can’t see beyond the brands and logos we have pushed to make mainstream.
It is my hope that next year AMEX helps the franchise industry’s small business owners financially by including them in Small Business Saturday. I also hope AMEX helps the franchise industry’s reputation by putting a Main Street face on mainstream logos, so everyone, including industry veterans, remembers who’s behind the cash registers and counters.
MASHABLE- Domino’s Pizza has put the pizza making in the hands of its consumers with a new app for Apple’s iPad. The game-like app simulates the pizza-making process and allows users to order their pie and track its delivery in real-time. – Todd Wasserman
CNN MONEY- Flip Flop Shop franchisee Scott Santy’s love affair with flip-flops served him well with his store’s Las Vegas location. Santy’s store has surpassed the $1 million mark, especially exciting considering his Flip Flop Shop location opened during the height of the Great Recession. – Kristine Hansen
BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK– President Barack Obama signed into law a measure providing tax credits to companies hiring unemployed veterans. The law also repales a requirement that federal, state and local governments begin withholding 3 percent of payments to contractors in 2013. – Roger Runningen
ENTREPRENEUR– J.J. O’Connor’s paralyzing hockey accident hasn’t stopped him from entrepreneurial success. The 33-year old first realized franchising was for him when he was 15 working for a friend’s father’s convenience store. Today, he owns his own Sports Clips franchise. – Dinah Wisenberg Brin
POST AND COURIER – Franchises tend to do quite well during times of recession, according to the IFA. Read how two franchisees found success, and how one business can help you find it for yourself. – Warren Wise
WALL STREET JOURNAL – The holiday season looks to be a turning point for a few retailers grabbing for the small share of consumer dollars. The International Council of Shopping Centers predicts mall sales will rise just 2.2%. – Miguel Bustillo, Ann Zimmerman, Dana Mattioli
HOTEL NEWS NOW- Inbound Chinese tourism is expected to increase 274% over the next five years, evidence of the country’s rapid emergence as a super power into the global economy. Hotel chains are responding to this influx with programs catered to Chinese guests. – Patrick Mayock
A prodigy amongst its competitors, Bach to Rock is an innovative and fun children’s musical franchise concept that’s on the road to major success. I spoke to Ralph Rillion, Bach to Rock’s VP of Development & Sales about the franchise’s history, its future, what it’s like to be a franchisee and what makes it such a rockin’ concept. Article first published as Bach to Rock: A Prodigy Amongst Children’s Franchises on Technorati.
Bach to Rock
In the two months that Bach to Rock has been franchising, it’s earned awards and attention that even the most established of franchise concepts would covet. Inc magazine named Bach to Rock one of the Top 10 Franchises of 2010 and the Washington Business Journal named it one of the Fastest Growing Companies to Watch for 2012. It’s clear that the children’s franchise is rockin’ its way to the top.
History of the Concept
The origins of Bach to Rock lie, as with most things, in the recognition of something missing. A Juilliard-trained middle school music teacher realized the music curriculum was, frankly, lacking in his Washington D.C. classroom. So, he created his own.
Instead of just playing scales by themselves, he put his students in groups so they could ‘jam’ together and socialize. Instead of strictly classical music, he integrated popular music to make lessons more fun. Instead of teaching students just one way, he identified each students’ preferred learning method (audio, visual or kinesthetic) and customized his teaching approach accordingly. As a result, he created more engaged, happy young musicians and his curriculum spread to other public and private schools.
Better Test Scores For Kids, Jobs for Teachers and Musicians
The Juilliard-trained teacher eventually sold his method and curriculum to the creators of Bach to Rock, who have taken the concept to new heights. While the concept has been hailed as a roaring success, Bach to Rock is much more than just a career opportunity for franchisees.
As we’ve all heard, playing music has been linked with higher test scores and greater aptitude for science, math and reading subjects. We’ve also all heard that education budget constraints are leading to job cuts for many teachers and budget cuts for fine arts projects like band classes and school musicals. Opportunities for children and young adults to play music are less and less available in schools.
Bach 2 Rock offers a solution. Obviously, the children’s franchise offers music lessons, but it also provides jobs. Bach to Rock not only teaches music, but provides a place for music teachers– often the very same that the school system couldn’t afford to keep.
It’s no wonder Ralph Rillion, Bach to Rock’s vice president of development and sales and a “lifelong musician,” “fell in love with the concept.” According to Rillion, the teachers at each of Bach to Rock’s franchise locations are “musicians by trade at some point or another, hobbyists or music teachers.”
Bring Me a Beat! Kids, Parents and Bach to Rock
As a parent (Rillion has a 13-year old son who’s a stand up bass player), Rillion says kids will let you know they have an interest in music. “They’ll be beating everything around the house,” says Rillion, a percussionist himself for 40 years. You can bet Rillion’s son will be a Bach to Rocker as soon as there’s a location near their home.
“There’s only so much a school can do, parents or private lessons can do,” says Rillion. While personal one-on-one attention is definitely part of Bach to Rock’s curriculum, it’s the emphasis on “group jam sessions” amongst similarly skilled young musicians that parents and students love. Kids enjoy their music lessons, which means they learn more, something parents are quick to applaud.
In addition, young musicians learn to become comfortable in a performance setting– something that builds confidence now and will be important in the board room later.
“Twice a year our Bach to Rock bands perform at the 930 Club [in Washington D.C.],” says Ralph Rillion. “Parents get to see their kids perform on a national and regional stage.”
Rillion adds that, “Not everyone is comfortable going on stage. It’s different under the lights.” Bach to Rock students can experience the stage without the fright next to their cohorts and with their teachers and parents in the the audience.
Behind the Music– Being a Franchisee
Bach to Rock franchisees aren’t called franchisees– they’re fittingly called directors. Directors are responsible for the hiring of music teachers, the day-to-day business management and scheduling of lessons and special events. Rillion says an ideal Bach to Rock director “has a business background, can run a business and, of course, loves music.”
Retail space in shopping centers are coveted for Bach to Rockers as the best locations to create a comfortable environment to accommodate 6-to-18 year olds. “We’re currently expanding from New Jersey to North Carolina,” says Rillion, “though if the right candidate came along we’d consider a different area.”
The children’s music franchise currently has 9 locations, 6 of which are company-owned. “The business is growing and its franchisees are successful,” says Rillion. “We provide ongoing training to our franchisees on everything: sales, operations and curriculum, our three key components for success.”
The biggest reward for Rillion, along with the Bach to Rock franchisees is “watching kids learn and enjoying learning to play music,” he says.
Interested in becoming a Bach to Rock franchisee? Franchise Clique can help!
FOX NEWS: Veterans have what it takes to become successful franchisees. As more veterans return from Iraq and Afghanistan many are turning to franchising as a career. – Liza Porteus Viana
SACRAMENTO BEE: Guidant Financial will sponsor one veteran each month for the next year free of charge. The financial company will also offer a 10 percent discount to all U.S. veterans in hopes of jumpstarting locally owned businesses. – Guidant Financial
PR URGENT: The United Franchise Group announces that after recent success with its franchisee lending program, its available funds have increased from $5 million to $10 million. – United Franchise Group
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The Street: A lack of capital in an uncertain economy has made it increasingly difficult for franchisees to find sufficient funding. Not everyone loves the idea, but several franchises have taken the responsibility of financing in-house by helping franchisees through the lending process. — Laurie Kulikowski
Business Insider: A $13 billion fast food revolution is taking over India. With 60 percent of the Indian population currently under 30, it’s no mystery why both domestic and American brands like McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts are aggressively expanding in India’s franchise-fertile economy. — Jason Overdorf
Market Watch: The Georgia Small Business Development Center has turned to franchising to help with Georgia’s joblessness. Funded by the Small Business Jobs Act, HR5297, FranNet consultants educated transitional corporate workers, retiring executives and returning veterans for businesses in the franchising industry.
If you’re a franchisor, you’re probably one of many who utilizes portals and directories to find franchisees. The relationship between lead generator and franchisor can be, at times, tenuous.
If you’ve wondered why you’ve received ‘bad leads’ or simply want to know how to get the most out of your relationship with your lead generator, then tomorrow’s webinar from Franchise Clique and the Upside Group is perfect for you. On Tuesday, November 8 at 1:30 p.m. EST David Schwartz, CEO of Franchise Clique, will speak about:
| Article first published as A Heart For Service: Interview with Bob Wright, COO of Charley’s Grilled Subs on Technorati. |
In September, Charley’s Grilled Subs opened their 100th restaurant on a military installation on Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Seattle, W.A. It was Charley Shin, Charley’s CEO and Founder, who, “was smiling the widest when the first soldier came through the lunch line,” says Bob Wright, chief operating officer of Charley’s.
A self-described “incurable patriot” despite having not served in the military, Wright shares a heart for service with both Shin and the international Philly Steak sandwich franchise’s employees, which he says, “makes the franchise’s relationship with the military so special.”
It’s this heart for service that Wright loves about Charley’s Grilled Subs and what attracted him to franchising in the first place.
“My grandfather always said everyone needs a job where they work for tips,” says Wright, who got his start in franchising as ‘the pizza delivery guy’ in college for Domino’s. Eventually, Wright became a Domino’s franchisee for about a year. “I’ve been there, too,” Wright says. “Nothing replaces that experience of being the business owner, of being responsible for every customer’s experience.”
Though his time as a Domino’s franchisee was short, it was his time as ‘the pizza delivery guy’ that was so influential in Wright’s franchising career. “I didn’t start out wanting to be in the food service industry,” he says, “but I loved it.”
Over the course of his career, Wright has had the chance to work with big-name franchises like Checkers, Wendy’s, Café Express and, of course, Charley’s. Though Wright’s original plan was to practice law. Today, he practices management. To him, serving as chief operating officer of Charley’s means he gets to develop, train and lead other to success. “For a quarter of a century, I’ve had the opportunity to serve others; whether it’s my team or franchisees. It brings out the best in a person.”
With Wright, his words express a continuous theme of service in the name of others, which is why he fits in so perfectly at Charley’s Grilled Subs. Charley’s makes its food to order. While this might sound obvious, it’s not—most food court establishments “assemble to order” as Wright likes to say. “We don’t put anything on the grill until you order it,” he explains.
This is because, like Wright, the people at Charlie’s believe “a good quality meal can make a difference in someone’s day,” he says proudly.
For those interested in becoming a Charley’s franchisee, the selection process is straightforward. Financial liquidity and wherewithal are necessary. Above all? “A heart of service,” says Wright. It’s important for potential franchisees to have adequate experience running a business in a managerial role. It’s not easy balancing the business side of the franchise and pleasing customers.
With all that said, “Charley’s has experience same-store growth throughout the recession,” says Wright. “Restaurant units have seen 13% growth this year and expect a 20% unit growth through to 2013,” he adds. Charley’s Grilled Subs has a growth model in place that still includes the bread and butter food court locations but specifically internationally, which are traditionally underserved.
Visit Franchise Clique’s website if you’re interested in more food franchises or sandwich franchises.
