Franchisee Resource Center

Yes, all of the aforementioned stores offer frozen yogurt. And most of the products they offer are kosher, fat-and gluten-free, all-natural, and filled with probiotics found in “regular” yogurt that support immune health. Speaking of Pinkberry: Where does the equally colorful, both in name and storefront, Red Mango get off throwing around allegations of copycatism?

The first is to understand the key drivers of success in your business -- that is to say, the three or four major strategies or operational processes that make up the engine of profitability and success for your organization. As an example, for a restaurant these factors may include things such as speed, consistency, freshness, cleanliness and friendliness. For an auto parts store the key drivers will probably include inventory availability, customer service, expertise and pricing/margins. Once you understand the key drivers, it is critical that you focus on them incessantly and help everyone in your organization understand that it is their responsibility to make sure those drivers are the top priority for them every day at work.

Out on the web, there's more than enough entertaining and interesting information to make your head spin. While the Internet of a half decade ago was held hostage by professionals and degree-touting experts reporting in the same old monotone voices, passionate topic bloggers soon tore that model apart, and helped open up the medium to anyone with something to say.

Only a limited number of states require registration by franchisors, and franchisors are by no means required to register in states where they have no intention of selling franchises. However, if a mature franchisor appears to be consciously avoiding the registration states, this may suggest some level of internal concern about the FDD, the franchisor’s sales tactics, or the franchise system as a whole. The cover pages of the FDD will identify where the franchisor is required to register (and whether it has registered or not), and the charts in Item 20 of the FDD will explain whether the franchisor has ever sold a franchise in any of the registration states.

These are difficult decisions. The solutions are not clear cut from a business or from a legal perspective. It is critical that a company in this position work with qualified counsel to identify an alternative that will have a reasonable basis for an exemption and still make sense from a strategic perspective. The balance of this chapter will look at the many alternatives currently being tested by many U.S. and oversees companies. As you can see, the lines of demarcation are not always clear. The differences between many of these alternatives may in fact be in name only. Some of these concepts are truly innovative and have not been truly tested by the courts or the regulators. In these borderline cases, a regulatory “no-action” letter procedure is strongly recommended. Other concepts are not very innovative at all and merely borrow from long-recognized and analogous legal relationships such as chapter affiliation agreements in the non-profit arena or network affiliation agreements in radio and television broadcasting.

BIG MISTAKE!

Topics to be covered in this strategic audit should include at a minimum these ten (10) items:

Back in the day when I used to own a UPS Store franchise, I always looked forward to receiving the quarterly list of the Top 200 stores nationwide. I often wondered what these top franchisees were doing differently that helped them gain so much more business than the average UPS Store franchise. But for one reason or another, I never found the time or the opportunity to reach out to these successful owners.

Early in my career, I encountered a franchise buyer who had made a rash decision that turned sour quickly. The funny thing was that he was intelligent, experienced and had a great deal of corporate knowledge – all the attributes that franchisors desire for their many franchise opportunities. I was intrigued that this experienced and generally deliberate person would make such a bad decision. So what went wrong?