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ARTICLE | May 21, 2012

Family Business: 10 Tips for Managing a Parent-Adult Child Business

A mother and her daughter, who will graduate in May from college, share ownership of a new Home Instead Senior Care franchise business, a partnership that seems tailor-made for these economic times. More college graduates are having a difficult time finding jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Teaming with a family member has proven successful. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, family-owned businesses account for 90 percent of all businesses in the U.S. (large and small) and continue to be a powerful force. And senior care franchising is one way to help new graduates get their careers off the ground. 
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NEWS | May 18, 2012

Is Starting a Franchise From Home For You?

Fox Small Business Center offers tips and expertise on running a home-based franchise business.
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SECTOR REPORT | April 26, 2012

Senior Care Franchise Report 2012

Franchise Business Review's special report Senior Care Franchises offers a high-level look at the senior care/home care franchising sector. We explore what services the sector provides, what’s involved from an investment standpoint, what the “typical” franchisee looks like, and how franchisee satisfaction in the sector has fared in the past year. We also identify the top senior care franchises based on our franchisee satisfaction research.
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ASK FBR | March 19, 2012

How long have you been researching a franchise opportunity?

Franchise Business Review wants to know what you're doing in order to find that right "fit", and encourages all those interested in starting their own franchise to answer this simple question - how long have you been researching a franchise opportunity? (Click here to share) 
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Home > Blogs

Running a Business with Your Head in the Sand

by Michelle Rowan

Another frustrating conversation with a franchisor leaves me nervous for franchise companies AND potential franchisees. As a franchisor, whether you do business with Franchise Business Review (which seems a no-brainer to me, but I may be bias in how ESSENTIAL our work is to your Operations and Development teams), you absolutely should be doing a formal evaluation with your franchisees. Franchisees ARE your brand, and if you aren’t getting their feedback and using that to strengthen and grow your system- you are not doing a service to you, them, or their customers.

5 years into this industry and it still shocks me to hear “We don’t want to ask them what they think because then we have to share it with them,” or “then we have to do something about things that are wrong.” My internal response is always “Uh, do you realize you just said that out loud!?!” It’s bad enough to think that or run your business that way- but you just admitted that to me…

With the amount of information available today on the internet and word of mouth- your potential franchisees WILL find this information. Franchisors, take note:

     - In today’s market you ARE losing business if you are not providing a third party report of your system during the development process.

     - FBR has worked with over 500 franchises now- your brand cannot survive if every competitor has this data and you do not.

And to people investing in a franchise, franchisors can participate in our process at no cost if they choose to. So if they are not on our FBR50.com website, ask them WHY!

     - Can they give you the same type of information from another company?

     - Do they have any third party data to support their claims that they care about their franchisees and they are happy?

In today’s competitive franchising industry brands are fighting for the best and the brightest that are looking to join a franchise system. I hope with all the tools available to manage and build the relationships, and for people to find out what is really happening, we will start to see unworthy franchise concepts fade away while strong brands, like our clients, will continue to grow and raise the opinion of franchises in the marketplace!
 

 

 

 

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Posted by Bryan O'Rourke on 03:02:48 PM on April 8, 2010

Michelle Being transparent in a Z system agrees with a process of awarding franchises based on well thought out and aligned goals and expectations between ZEE and ZOR. Unfortunately this does not often reconcile with the practices of franchise sales in many cases. The truth is that many ZORS hype their opportunity and align with folks who did not have realistic expectations for near term gain. Those are the brands that will continue to suffer and you are correct to observe that in the long run a more informed prospect base is not going to bite.