The Franchise King Blog

Using Franchise Brokers And Consultants; Doing It Right!

                                              

With the plethora of choices in franchise offerings, working with a franchise broker or consultant may make a lot of sense. Of course that depends on the choice you make in one.

I made up a list of 10+ questions for you to ask a prospective franchise broker or consultant, before you engage with them, and allow them to help you with some franchise choices.

The most important factor in deciding who to use is their location. I was recently interviewed by SBTV, {Small Business Television} where I discussed my reasons for being so focused on this aspect of the franchise consulting industry. Although my focus on only using local franchise brokers and consultants is not very popular with the big national franchise brokerage outfits like Franchoice, Frannet, and The Entrepreneur's Source, who spend a lot of time and money going after prospective franchise owners that are not in their consultant's local markets, I am not giving up on my mission. If you are going to invest in a franchise of your own, do it right...

Please watch the 3.2 minute interview, and then share your agreement or disagreement with my mission, via comments. Thank you! 

My "Buy Local" mission isn't just about my industry. Read my article over at The Business Pundit.

Please Subscribe To My Stuff. Did you see my new cutting edge website?

Pizza Franchisors; You Better Get Intimate With All Things Web 2.0

                                                                                                                                 

You better get on board quickly. Facebook is letting it's 175 Million users order pizza through their site, and now, a new start-up localizes things a bit.

Pizzashare is a new web application and website that "allows people to share pizza places that they are passionate about as well as see what other pizza places others are really into. This is a user generated database of the best pizza places in America, so you can always find a great pizza place to go to."

Their website is pretty basic, their idea is pretty good, and if they made and delivered their own pizza to my office, that might close the deal for The Franchise King.

The point is this:

If you are a franchise company, find a way to get involved with your customers in a different way than you are used to. Do something uncomfortable. Take a little risk. Go For It!

{I would keep writing about this great topic, but I am getting hungry.}

A Big Thank You To TechCrunch.com for pointing out this new company.

Have you looked into Franchise Social Media Marketing? Look

Twitter Can Help Your Company!

New Online Bidding Service Ignores Local Franchises

Mashable recently shared an article about a promising new start-up called Bidmycleaning, an online service which promises to provide a place for homeowners and landlords alike to locate competitive housecleaning companies, that want to bid for their business.

It is actually not a bad idea, but it leaves out a very important segment of our economy; Franchising. The site states that "bids come from pre-screened independent providers in your community. Profile information has been verified and customer reviews are available to help you pick the right provider, at the right price, for your needs."

Wait a minute! Correct me if I am wrong here, but aren't local franchise owners part of "the community" too? Don't franchise owners hire local residents to clean the homes? Local franchise owners are just as important as independent cleaning companies. They pay taxes, and they keep the money flowing locally. Local franchise owners have invested their own money to start a business of their own.

Do you think franchised cleaning services should be part of this new website's providers?

Here is a "Veteran" that invested in a cleaning franchise. Great story.

Interested in writing your own great story?

Buying A Franchise For All The Right Reasons

                                                                                                                   

Are you one of America's recently downsized? Are you looking at your "options"? Should you be going down the traditional career path? You know, the one that includes a resume re-do, online job searching, and mega-trips to your local dry cleaner to get your business attire cleaned and pressed?

Or, are you one of America's recently downsized, who is looking to gain some career control, and become your own boss?

Whatever path you are on, do you remember how this all started? 

"I remember my dad coming home from work early one afternoon, with a look on his face that I hadn’t seen in awhile. His face revealed the combined feelings of sadness, anger, frustration, and fear, for all of us to see that day. He had been downsized. Again. For those of you who have ever been downsized, I’ll bet you remember your feelings the day it happened to you, too."

Continue reading my latest column on Small Business Trends, titled:

"Downsized? Franchise vs. Corporate Employment"

I'll just bet that you have at least one question about franchising.

Check out www.AskTheFranchiseKing.com

Get your answers. Before you buy that franchise.

Green Pizza Franchise; Pizza Fusion Co- Founder Shares His Vision

One of the better stories being bandied about in the franchise industry has to do with a real GREEN visionary. This franchisor seems to be doing a lot of things right. Imagine getting your hot pizza delivered only by Toyota Prius's....

                                                                                                                                                 

Like this exact one!

Can Pizza Fusion Continue It's Growth?

Vaughan Lazar:

"I have always been tied to the environment, and am a steward.  I surfed all my life and feel connected to the earth that way.  It’s so important to enjoy what you’re doing, so I spent 10 years running a non-green business, and I just burned out.... 

Continue this revealing interview over at the Ecopreneurist Blog 

Solar is here.

Franchise questions? Franchise answers.