Making Sure Your Franchise Door Fits!

Written by Jim Otto

In his book START WITH WHY, Simon Sinek tells the story of a group of American car executives who went to see a  Japanese assembly line. At the end of the line the doors were put on the hinges just like in America. However, something was missing. In America the workers at the end of the line tapped the door with a rubber mallet to make sure the doors lined up properly. In Japan that job did not seem to exist. Confused, the American auto executives asked at what point they made sure the doors fit perfectly. The Japanese guide looked at them and smiled sheepishly, "we make sure it fits when we design it". You see, in the Japanese auto plant they didn't examine the problem and accumulate data to figure out the best solution - they engineered the outcome they wanted from the beginning. If they didn't achieve the desired outcome, they understood it was because of a decision they made at the start of the process. 
 
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Sacrificial Success and Franchising Folly

Written by Jim Otto

I recently met with a top-notch franchise consultant. He had developed a franchise system that he had built out and sold for a handy profit, hence his new business of being a "Franchise Consultant". Everyone wanted to know what his secret to success was. After two days of meetings with Bob (his name for the sake of this article) he finally told me the secret. As he was describing various franchisees, he told me about his best franchisee ever.  "Our best franchisees did about 2.5 to 3 million per year, but we had one guy in Milwaukee who did almost 5 million!"

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The Perception of Your Franchise - Awesome or ??

Written by Jim Otto

How your business is perceived by your customers and potential customers will most likely determine your businesses success or failure. Let me clarify. Perception is defined as, "the state of being or the process of becoming aware of something through the senses." So let me give you an example of that in business terms.
 
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When owning one franchise just isn't enough!

Written by Jim Otto

For many franchise business owners who love what they do and want to continue building their story of success - sometimes owning a single store just isn't enough! And while there are certainly important considerations to think about before embarking on a journey towards multi-unit franchise ownership (which you can read about here in our article, Tips on Becoming a Multi-Unit Franchisee), there's also a number of great benefits in owning more than one store too!
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Risky Franchise Investments? How do you know?

Written by Jim Otto

Most people who are familiar with franchising will look at the Franchise Disclosure Document, known as the FDD, differently from people who are just starting the process.
 
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