.
COVER STORY
Franchising has come a long way in a short time, and as more founders are turning over the reins to "the professionals," we thought it might be instructive to look back at some of the pioneers of franchising. Our first choice for this occasional series, Joe and Florence Francis, were innovators in the hair-care industry. Their journey is a love story—they were in love with each other, with their own family and their franchise family and with their industry. They poured their heart and soul into elevating the hair-care industry and in the process, into franchising. We had a record number of nominations for Legal Eagles this year. So those who made this list are the attorneys that peers and clients alike think are the movers and shakers in the franchise bar. |  |
FRANCHISE FOCUS
Consumer & Business
Shortly after Donna Wade opened a Blockbuster franchise in Texas in 1985, someone advised her to spend as little as she could on the business. "Don't invest too much," they said. "Look at what happened to the 8-track tape."
Friendly Geeks look to fill a niche
There are a number of companies—franchise and non-franchise organizations—providing services in the small to medium-sized business market and consumer IT managed services segments.
Residential or commercial cleaning, hmmm..., what to do? Here's how three franchisors came out after wrestling with these questions.
Mowing down lawn-care traditions
Clean Air Lawn Care aims to eliminate the air pollution caused by mowers, blowers, trimmers, and other inefficient engines.
Ethnic Restaurants
No fewer than three established Greek restaurant chains have announced or are formulating plans to expand beyond their core areas, signaling the first serious push for a nationwide Greek restaurant brand.
The concept is known as yakiniku, which translates as "grilling meats." The idea is to bring the outdoor BBQ indoors.
PEOPLE
People
Carolan has three sides to his personality, too. During the week, he's the senior executive talking deals with the power brokers. On weekends, "I'm just the guy with the shovel," cleaning up after horses and spills when his daughter's trick riding team missteps during its suicide crisscrossing. And, then there's the middle of the road Carolan, who works out of a horse trailer with a laptop and cell phone on some remote rodeo grounds.
Personalties
Sometimes franchising works in mysterious ways. At 21, Jorge Valdéz was a drug lord making between $1 million and $3 million a month. And while crime did pay, it didn't pay off. He went to prison, found God and is now financing an anti-drug ministry for kids with a ServiceMaster franchise.
Promotions
Movers and shakers in franchising
UPFRONT
News
News on the Franchise front.
Survey doesn't sugarcoat Dunkin' franchisees' discontentment
A survey from Dunkin' Donuts Independent Franchise Owners—the association representing the donut chain's franchisees—reveals that storeowners distrust their franchisor and harbor doubts about the company's current efforts. "Let's just say there have been better days for the relationship between franchisee and franchisor," said Mark Dubinsky, the association's president.
Personalties
A short biography of John Dikos, adventure race devotee and manager of franchise development for Qdoba Restaurant Corporation.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Departments
BIZ WISE
Development
Recent franchisee expansion agreements
Exit Interview
I thought my experiment would be a slam dunk since many of the services I use regularly—hair salon, dry cleaner, cleaning service, gym—aren't franchised. My husband shovels our snow in the winter and mows the lawn the other month of the year.
Finance
Let's first address all of the legal issues which work on a state-by-state basis and follow that with a basic understanding regarding the treatment of gift cards.
HR & Training
Jim Knight was one of the presenters at the 75th semi-annual conference put on by the Council of Hotel and Restaurant Trainers (CHART. His topic, philanthropy, was one the association takes to heart. His topic, philanthropy, was one the association takes to heart.
The Americans with Disabilities Act passed in 1990 and went into effect in 1992. It gives certain rights to people with disabilities, outlawing discrimination and requiring anyone who owns a building, employs people or serves customers to provide access to people with certain handicaps. It's why buildings have elevators, sidewalk ramps, automatically opening doors and special parking spaces.
HR professionals need an often overlooked skill: knowing exactly how many employees each department needs to run at maximum efficiency.
IFE
Expo offers education, opportunity
The International Franchise Expo's promotional materials tout that the show reveals "Everything you want to know from the people who know it best."
Marketing
Editor's note: We asked Ruth Harvey, creative director for Hot Dish Advertising, to define what makes a good logo. Here's her definition and our picks for outstanding franchise logos.
Empowering your franchisees to work with their local media is an easy and effective way to leverage time and resources. With a little upfront effort, you'll see an increase in media coverage and boost franchisees' ownership of your brand.
Operations
A handful of franchisors have crafted an imperfect middle ground where franchisors do not grant a protected territory to their franchisees but franchisees still have some territorial protection. Impact policies are the methods used.
The most significant turnaround steps included retraining its workforce on how to make coffee drinks properly. It was a big undertaking, involving 7,100 stores employing 135,000 people.
Real Estate
Pricing on sale-leaseback transactions has slipped for many franchise deals in recent months. But that doesn't mean franchisees have missed the boat on this financing option.
Recent real estate transactions
As the U.S. economy continues to flounder, the pressure is on to identify expansion markets that will counter the national trend of slower growth.
Scoreboard
It's too late for the government
The meltdown of the domestic housing market, which looks to have no end in sight, is raising a chorus of voices calling for bailouts of distressed homeowners at risk of falling into foreclosure....the root of the whole mess is really quite simple: Lenders made loans they should not have made to borrowers who weren't qualified to buy the overpriced houses they couldn't afford.
Technology
Innovation is the business buzzword du jour. Pick up any business magazine and you'll find the word on the cover with technology firms like Google and Apple often featured as role models.
New technology being utilized by franchises.
LEGAL
Briefs
Quiznos and BK value menu lawsuit, Barkoff takes Georgia bar post
CFR
50-year Avis franchisee continues battle with Cendant conglomerate
Robert C. Halcro, who signed his first franchise contract in 1956, no doubt feels that his biggest foe has been the multi-billion dollar conglomerate of Cendant Corporation.
International
Dateline: Orlando —Standing at poolside at the International Reception during the International Franchise Association's 48th Annual Convention. Some faces, some voices, some vignettes and, perhaps, some lessons:
Legal
The 40-year-old returned from active duty two years ago to discover that the two Subway restaurants he had opened in 2003 were about to be shut down, and there was nothing he could do about it.
