Franchisee Resource Center

Folded into an overall growth vision for the brand, the new Florida locations are key to Expedia CruiseShipCenters’ goal to reach the 500 location milestone in North America over the next five years. Florida’s expansion is building off of the success and efforts of local franchisees like Jennifer and Kevin White in Imperial Point. Expedia CruiseShipCenters is working towards its five year growth plan by targeting areas with thriving travel industries to develop its strong network of franchise owners. The brand’s target expansion plans include five locations in the Miami metropolitan area, three locations in the greater Orlando area and three in the Tampa Bay area, in addition to an opening in Boca Raton later this year.

SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA – Today SMS Masterminds announced the return of its United States Veteran’s recruitment initiative called “Heroes Among Us.” In 2013, SMS Masterminds unveiled its first Veteran’s program providing financial discounts and incentives to current and discharged Veterans. One of that programs participants, Lt. Commander (Ret.) Patti Mitrowski of the United States Coast Guard recently celebrated her third anniversary of becoming a Mastermind and had this to say about the program, “SMS Masterminds is serious about its support and training and has always been there for me and Veteran’s like me in the network.”

Many of the franchisees we talked with had to make a decision first on whether they would open an independent business or a franchised one. A few of their stories follow.

Reading through a FDD is a key part of your research, but it can’t answer all the potential questions you might have about how it is to actually operate a given franchise. The best way to do this is actually to start talking to current franchisees. The best way is to this is to call or visit a franchisee, don’t just email them. You might need to be a bit persistent, but if you are then you can get all of your questions and concerns answered.

Whether you’re purchasing a whopper from Burger King or joining the Burger King franchise system, the old mantra holds true: there’s no such thing as a free lunch. When you first get started running a franchise you need to pay a fee to allow you to enter into that franchise. These fees are the largest fees that you will normally pay a franchisor and typically range between $5,000 and $1,000,000 depending on the franchise. The franchisor charges this fee as a way to recoup the costs of expanding the franchise and to continue to grow. From a franchisee perspective, this is a major outlay and can take a long time to make back, but is a necessary step. Aspiring business owners must understand how much capital is available to them so they can ascertain how much they can afford. The cash you have at your disposal is known as liquidity, and there are numerous ways to increase your liquidity above the balance in your bank account. As a result, many people don’t realize how much capital they actually can use for investments, like launching a franchise branch. We’ll run through some of those methods below.

(Huntington Beach, CA) Dickey’s Barbecue Pit is expanding again throughout Southern California with new locations planned for Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Cerritos/Artesia, Lakewood and Yorba Linda. The five-store development agreement with PK Group, Inc. will open the first location in Huntington Beach in early 2017. The Costa Mesa store will follow in late summer to early fall of 2017.

(Greenville, MS) Dickey’s Barbecue Pit announces expansion into the Mississippi Delta. The three new locations will be the first in the Mississippi Delta. The first store will be located in Greenville, and will open by the end of 2016. The additional locations will open in Cleveland and Greenwood, with timeline to be determined.

(Alexandria, VA) Dickey’s Barbecue Pit is expanding in Virginia with a new two-store development agreement. Currently the state boasts nine Dickey’s locations with more in the pipeline. Owner/Operator Rufus Littlejohn will first take over ownership of the Centreville store by Fall 2016, then plans to build a new store in Northern Virginia.

Parlin, NJ— The International Franchise Professionals Group (IFPG) and Sunbelt Business Brokers entered into a strategic partnership to allow Sunbelt Brokers to become IFPG Broker Members. This partnership will allow Sunbelt Brokers the ability to present to their clients 300+ franchise offerings that have representation agreements with the IFPG. The partnership will drastically expand the options that Sunbelt Brokers have to share with their clients who are considering business ownership.