The Flywheel Group

Having consulted with a variety of franchise executive, many whom have been touted in industry rags as being franchise gurus, I can say that few possess deep understanding of their own franchise system let alone the ability to ascertain the workings of another they are thinking of acquiring. Therefore, to the extent consolidations continue as a strategy reflective of a maturing franchise marketplace, folks should remain highly skeptical of mergers as a means to realize efficiencies that create value.

For franchisees and franchisors obtaining necessary capital is becoming an increasing challenge which is impeding growth. Unfortunately, finance experts think the ongoing cash crunch will continue to limit opportunities for some time. Restrictions on available capital will reward those franchise systems that adopt intelligent management and systems which enable them to improve core operations so […]

The results of the study indicate that franchise systems founded between 1981 and 1983, which are structured to economize on agency costs, are more likely to survive than franchise systems which are not structured to economize on agency costs. This finding is important because the failure rate of franchise systems is high, with over 72 percent of the new franchise systems in the sample ceasing to franchise by 1995.

So much has changed around how franchise brands attract qualified prospects. Like many aspects of advertising, the game has fundamentally shifted. What can you do about it ? To be successful, brands must re-engineer their methods based on the following 9 disciplines: 1. Understand HOW and WHERE to engage qualified prospects; 2. People trust others […]

Developing and awarding quality franchises is a challenge. With so much competition quality franchisees are getting harder to find. Ironically, most of the development approaches used today, despite many changes in technology, prospects and available methods, are based on old paradigms of professional selling. There is a real opportunity for those who want to embrace […]

How a franchise manager or executive looks at the key functions of their business must, in many instances, evolve significantly. Rapid changes in how customers, employees and strategic partners interact with the world requires people to rethink methodologies and creates significant implications to all business models, including franchising. A recent report by Gartner, which you […]

Most businesses seeking to franchise a concept do so with the belief that it is a proven way to expand their company successfully. However, its not nearly as easy as many statistics might lead you to believe. A handful of brands comprise the clear majority of successful franchises and thousands of smaller franchise systems experience […]

If you’ve been in the franchise industry for any time you know the scenario. The poor franchise business consultant, working with a franchisee or its managers at a location in the field. The business is having challenges and the new consultant is trying to get down to the who, what, when, where and why. The […]

During a November 13, 2009 presentation to the legal firm Nixon Peabody and their Franchise & Distribution Team, Fran-Data’s CEO Darrell Johnson shared that, “tight credit” was “the single biggest constraint on franchise growth.” According to Mr. Johnson, easy credit over the past several years allowed franchise systems to expand and prosper even though their […]

Having worked in IT and franchising for over 25 years, I only wish the “Cloud” was around a few decades ago like it is today. I remember it well, dealing with IT people, and hardware and software infrastructure that required many resources and delivered little in the way of quality solutions in a reasonable time […]