Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue I, 2006: Big 99 Franchisees
Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine: Big 99 Franchisees

Q1 | 2006

Big 99 Franchisees

Checkers Drive-In Restaurants
SPONSORED CONTENT
Checkers Drive-In Restaurants
SPONSORED CONTENT
Checkers Drive-In Restaurants
SPONSORED CONTENT
In 1992, after 25 years in the high-tech industry, Bill Criego opted to start his own company as a franchisee for Batteries Plus in the Minneapolis area. By 1995, he'd drafted wife Laurie, a sales manager in a consulting services firm, to join him in the business. By 2003, son Michael, a former airline pilot, decided to come aboard and help run the operations for the stores, which now number ten. (They'll open the 11th in a couple of months and plan others in the future.)
Debbie Selinsky
Linda Fong loves franchising. Not only does she own three Liberty Fitness locations, but one Fast Signs franchise and a Phlato's Closet store. "I can grow the other businesses by increasing sales," Fong says. "I'm opening more fitness locations because that's how I can grow that business."
Linda Ray
Clara Osterhage says she is "the employer of choice in Dayton, Ohio." "I treat them the way I want to be treated and I pay them weekly," she says. "I could cut costs in half by paying every other week, but I know how important it is to them. It's a huge recruitment benefit. I have people who will never leave me."
Linda Ray
Outsiders think that franchising is a quick and easy way to get big bucks--there's even a new book out that promises "instant success" in franchising. You know that's not true. It doesn't matter where you get in, there's a ton of work, and some fair amount of suffering as a franchisor or franchisee gets up to speed.
Ripley Hotch
It's all her son's fault! Twenty-eight years ago, says Alice Schleicher (pronounced "Slisher"), her then 16-year-old, Rick, came home and said, "'Mom and Dad, I saw a restaurant and I want to buy it.'" It was a KFC in Sellersburg, Indiana. "We kind of looked at each other and said, 'Okay, well, we'll buy it.'" She envisioned having four someday. So far, she's exceeded that by 50.
Eddy Goldberg
Chew on these numbers and take into consideration the implications for you and your organization from the perspective of your customers and your employees - who you hire and whom you sell to. You will see great numbers to keep in mind when positioning your company, your next office and your next marketing push. Many of these numbers come from my work in the construction, landscape, and business-to-consumer industries, which understood these numbers many years ago. Construction, landscaping, manufacturing, and related industries are in the trenches and don't understand why so many other industries are not getting it.
Mauricio Velasquez
Wienerschnitzel
SPONSORED CONTENT
When looking at a franchise opportunity, the big question often asked is 'how much can I make?' Coming up with those projections isn't always easy. It takes a little digging on your part. Even so, most area developers have enough experience and are wise enough to know how to find the best franchise opportunities that will reap a good return on investment (ROI).
Joan Szabo
Todd Watkins may look like a type-A power franchisee with 22 Martinizing locations and the title of largest franchisee in the system. But the 41-year-old Michigan father has other priorities.
Linda Ray
For a man who values family so highly, Jeff Rogers has accomplished a lot in the world of business and franchising. He's been at the top of his class in advertising, winning numerous awards; a turnaround specialist advising troubled companies (more awards); and has taken the helm at more than one struggling franchise company, where he worked his magic to transform a loser into a winner (yes, more awards, including 1997 Turnaround Entrepreneur of the Year from Inc. magazine, IBM, and Deloitte.)
Debbie Selinsky
Charles Loflin has won Wingstop franchise's awards for highest sales in 2004 and 2005. Last year, he had a million-dollar store. In 2006, he'll have two.
Debbie Selinsky
More than 26 years ago, North Carolinians Tommy and Donna Haddock bought their first Bojangles' franchise. Things worked out so well, with him taking care of store operations and her working on insurance, workers comp and other "bureaucratic red tape," that they've never felt the need to try another franchise organization.
Debbie Selinsky
Julie Wilson believes in succession. She currently is sharing her experience with her newest partner, Beth Driskill, in hopes that Driskill will be able to make the transition into ownership as smoothly as she did.
Linda Ray
It's a family affair all the way around at United States Beef Corp. Founded in 1969 when Bob and Connie Davis purchased their first Arby's restaurant – just five years after brothers Forrest and Leroy Raffel opened the first Arby's in Boardman, Ohio – today the Tulsa-based franchisee is headed by their sons Jeff, CEO, and John R. Davis, president. And a focus on a family-type atmosphere in its restaurants completes the picture.
Eddy Goldberg
Tom Hofer has always been tuned into his own drive and sense of where he belonged. "I did real well in a retail environment after college, but I always knew it wasn't me," Hofer says. "I definitely knew I wanted to own my own business, but wasn't sure what to do. So when the opportunity came up for me to buy a territory with Spring Green, it felt right."
Linda Ray
You wouldn't know it from looking at his photo, or at his remarkable string of successes in taking failing chicken franchises and giving them wings, but Aslam Khan grew up poor. "I was born in poverty," said Khan in a 2001 interview, "and had a deep desire to move away from it. I wanted to do better."
Eddy Goldberg
For a multi-unit franchisee, the relationship with a customer doesn't end with the sale. Each purchase of an item or use of your service is a single transaction between an individual customer and an individual employee. Whether it is a quick meal at a sub shop or a thorough home cleaning, this transaction should be the beginning of a long-term relationship with your customer. After the transaction, the relationship must be grounded in not only the quality of the product or service, but also in the strength of your response to customer needs. How do you gauge and evaluate your quality of product, service and response beyond the price tag?
Thomas J. Winninger
"Today you can work anywhere," says John Metz from his home in Buffalo, where he spends three months a year--the winter months. "It's a wonderful thing. I dial in to my office in West Palm Beach through a VPN and get everything I want. I can dial into the POS systems and get real-time information on all my restaurants. What else do I need? It's just like being in West Palm." Except for the snow.
Eddy Goldberg
With well over 100 company-owned units in operation mostly on the west coast, El Pollo Loco decided that its franchise program needed to change if the company was going to handle the growth it was anticipating from 190+ franchised units. The product, flame-grilled chicken with a Mexican flair, was right for a market more interested in healthier eating.
Ripley Hotch
When Randy Lawrence's entrepreneurial spirit led him to leave his post as vice president of corporate operations for Back Yard Burgers to open his own restaurants, he did it with a vengeance: he signed a seven-year development agreement to open a whopping 28 Back Yard Burgers in the metropolitan Atlanta area.
Debbie Selinsky
It's every multi-unit operator's nightmare: You have a solid group of healthy performing units until you notice one beginning to decline - lower sales numbers, declining traffic, increased customer complaints, unusually high employee turnover. Or maybe you decide to take on a new unit that has been a low performer. It can be a difficult situation, but it can also provide an opportunity filled with high returns if handled properly. Here are some approaches, tips and insight to what some area developers have done to turn around poor performing units.
Kerry Pipes
Junior high sweethearts and now 17 years married, Jan and Mark Mansfield have pooled their skills to achieve great success with 39 Sport Clips salons in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.
Debbie Selinsky
When a franchise deal becomes large enough to attract the interest of venture capital and private equity firms, it almost always involves buying franchisors, not investing in franchisees. But that picture is changing as 1) multi-unit franchisees and area developers continue to grow larger, and 2) the money available for investing at the private equity level continues to pile up.
Eddy Goldberg
Gina Mehr has experienced success; now she wants to be effective.
Linda Ray
The numbers are overwhelming: there are more than 12 million businesses in the United States, and over the next five to seven years more than half of these companies will change hands. Of the six million owners who will sell their businesses in the next several years, most will not take specific steps to ensure a smooth transition from their ownership. Even for the few owners who have made an attempt to plan for their exit, their efforts usually fall far short of a comprehensive exit plan.
Will Lindenmayer
Minuteman Press
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Minuteman Press
SPONSORED CONTENT
Minuteman Press
SPONSORED CONTENT

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