Franchisee resource center

When you first start your franchise you typically pay a franchise fee upfront. This will cover a variety of things that depend on the franchise you're dealing with, but often it will go towards initial training, marketing, and the rights to use the franchises logos, names, systems, and products. But that's not the only fee that franchisees will pay to a franchise. In addition to the initial franchise fees, the vast majority of franchises will charge their franchisees royalties that can come in one form or another. These royalties will often go towards ongoing training, sales of goods directly from franchisor to franchisee, and advertising and marketing efforts. The exact terms for these royalties are set out in your franchise agreement, but they come in a few common forms.

Recently I've received a few questions from our users about what their options are when it comes to financing their franchise. So I figured it might be a good idea to put together a quick post outlining some of the options out there for financing your new franchise.

People often start off their search for franchises and aren't really sure what they want. They might know a facet of what they want, but they're not certain about everything they need to look into or think about. I thought it might be helpful for anyone interested in opening a franchise to get an idea of what everyone else is looking for. How the typical search goes before they connect with a franchise. What type of franchises people are typically looking for. And the most common reasons why people want to open a franchise.

The 5-Year Growth Rate and 5-Year Franchise Continuity are both great independent metrics of how a franchise is doing on average. As a potential franchisee both of these statistics are vital for selecting a franchise - you want to select a franchise that will provide you with a high return on investment and which will survive in the long run. I think these are, as FRANdata and Forbes suggested, two of the biggest (if not the two biggest) and most obvious metrics for whether or not a franchise is a “good” opportunity for a franchisee. But how do you use these to determine which franchise is BEST? This is the fundamental difficulty in coming up with a ranking system - it isn’t the difficulty in separating the good from the meh from the bad - it’s separating the great from the good and the best from the great. In the case of these rankings I found it to be pretty difficult to comprehend how they differentiated between the top ranked franchises. For instance, if you look at the difference between Discover Map (Forbes #4), Just Between Friends (Forbes #5), & Seniors Helping Seniors (Forbes #6) they all have extremely close continuity ratings and substantially different growth rates. In fact, in the case of these three, the overall rankings are opposite the growth rate rankings. Seniors Helping Seniors is ranked at the bottom of these three franchises despite having a growth rate that is 31 percentage points higher than Discovery Map and a continuity that is only 2 percentage points lower. This suggested to me that continuity was viewed as the dominant factor. But that logic didn’t hold for the rest on the “Economy Class” Top 10, as BrightStar Care (Forbes #7) had the same growth rate as Pop-a-Lock (Forbes #8) but a continuity rate that was 12 percentage points lower. These comparisons show that these were not the only two factors that went into the rankings, which is understandable, but no other factors that are explicitly listed in their results seem to be major factors.

I hope everybody had a great 4th of July. We’re now officially two weeks into summer and that means that it’s the perfect time for you to start a summer franchise. Here are five great franchise choices that will position you for success this summer and beyond.

Seriously? What is that supposed to mean?

This came as a little bit of a surprise to me.but at the end of the day it makes sense. Franchises might be a good opportunity for people to make a change in their lives, but at the end of the day they are a major investment. And as with all major investments you’re probably making it with the intention of making money. So if you are thinking of opening your own franchise to make more money, have more flexibility, or have a more fulfilling career you’re not alone.

People are always asking us what food franchises they should open. And with summer right around the corner, right now might be the best time for you to open your very own food franchise. Every franchisee is different, so these recommendations might not be the perfect fit for you, but without further ado here is my list of the five hottest food franchises for the summer of 2015.

I’m a huge Chipotle fan and I’m not ashamed to admit it. I love a big fat carnitas burrito with every possible topping (is that even the right word for what you put on a burrito?) on it, especially guac. But every time I’m outside of New York I wonder why there aren’t more Chipotles out there. Sure there are a bunch (at the end of 2014 there were more than 1,700) but their numbers pale in comparison to other “fast food” giants like McDonald’s or Subway (they have more than 36,000 and 43,500 restaurants respectively). So why hasn’t Chipotle followed suit and gone the obviously successful franchising route?