DailyFranchiseNews.com

D.C. EXPO ENJOYS ANOTHER YEAR OF LARGE CROWDS

Another IFE took place last weekend in Washington D.C.  We don’t have the official numbers from MFV Expo, the show producers, but it looked pretty rockin’ on Saturday. 

Some old classics like PostNet, the Denver based business-to-business concept that is always popular, coupled its booth with its new sister concept, PrintWear Xpress.  PrintWear Xpress is an emerging brand in the screen-printing, embroidery, heat transfer and personalized gifts and promotional products industry. 

Some new concepts, such as a mail-order bride franchise, raised some major eyebrows. 

IFA Convention 2007 Storms Vegas

This blogger held a lovely dinner that was well attended by those who love good company, networking and great food and wine at the IFA Convention held in Las Vegas from Feb. 24-27th!  More than 3,000 people showed up at Caesars Palace to meet, greet and learn from astounding franchisors and those experts who supply them. Also on hand are franchisees savvy enough to realize they can learn so much and meet so many great people by joining the IFA. At one time suppliers and franchisees were NOT invited to join and/or attend events—now that they are everyone should take advantage.

Sessions such as “Lessons Learned-A Discussion with Successful Franchisors,” “Private Equity Panel: A Discussion with CEOs” and “Effective Communication Strategies for Franchisors and Franchisees” (moderated by this blogger) were just a few of the amazing workshops and panels that could have been attended.  It was standing room only for most.

Also who can forget the parties?  It was clear people in franchising like to go to dark places at night and just finally let off steam after learning so much during the day their heads hurt!  Also their feet.  A few of them are shown here demonstrating their dance moves at the party hosted by several suppliers, amongst them Michael Seid of MSA, the Hot Dishes from HOT DISH Advertising and FishmanPR.   

franchise expo south opens tomorrow

As previously mentioned here the first Franchise Expo South runs tomorrow through Sunday at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel has a story about the show and features a couple franchise companies exhibiting at the show. Hot concept Math Monkey, which was also featured on CNN.com yesterday, is one of the more than 150 companies exhibiting at the Expo, as is PostNet. Both companies are looking to expand heavily in South Florida and beyond in the coming years.

International Franchise Association President Matt Shay offers a plethora of good advice for those attending the show or for those researching franchises in general. He says that franchisors and franchisees must have realistic expectations about the relationship when entering into an agreement and gives cautions to would-be franchisees who think buying a franchise means instant success. In the article, Shay says it's up to the franchisee to make his or her business a success.

DailyFranchiseNews.com will be at the event and will give a full report of the show next week.

FRANCHISING WILL RULE IN 2007 STARTING WITH EXPO IN MIAMI

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL! Hope everyone out there had pleasant holidays—unless you were trapped at some awful airport (is there any other kind?) in some nightmare weather somewhere, like Denver!  Another year in franchising and it promises to be a big one.  This blogger is getting ready for the 1st International Franchise Expo to take place in Miami, January 19th-21st at the convention center. Should be an interesting crowd with people attending from all over the southeast, not to mention Central and South America.

Report from the West Coast Franchise Expo

We attended the International Franchise Association’s Development Seminar and then the International Franchise Expo immediately following--all held in LA this past weekend.  WOW—franchising is hotter than ever. 

Attendance at this EXPO was in the thousands and people were very serious about looking for the right franchise investment.  The preceding seminar hosted by the IFA was attended by some of the top franchise executives who wanted to learn the best methods to continue to develop their systems.  It was obvious from the speakers who were very experienced franchisors that Internet leads continue to be a big source, but not necessarily any more qualified than any other lead. In fact, it’s so easy to just cruise the Internet that many people just inquire about companies via their websites but can’t even remember doing so when they are contacted by the follow up person on the franchisor end!  That was the comment of a couple of top franchise execs who really know the business. So, in the end, it’s best to diversify and the franchisor should use some Internet advertising sites, PR, trade shows and appropriate print advertising to attract the right franchisee for their concept.

At the show very popular companies like PostNet, a hot concept since 1993, were swarmed by attendees wanting to know more about their business-to-business capabilities.   Company CEO Steve Greenbaum, also one of the most popular franchise executives always sought after for speaking engagements, greeted attendees who wanted more details on this industry.

“We’ve positioned PostNet as a total small business solutions provider,” Greenbaum said. “But we’re still extremely consumer-friendly.”

Ultimately, Greenbaum sees PostNet evolving over the next three to five years into a “facilitator of small-business growth.” Obviously lots of attendees at the West Coast IFE agreed as PostNet had one of the busiest booths there.

Mcdonald's shares improve with dumping of Chipotle; Wendy's hopes to do the same with Baja Fresh

The Chicago Tribune reports today that McDonald's stock has risen more than 25 percent since mid-July. Store sales are up due to new menu items such as premium coffee and the chicken snack wrap. Also attributing to the increase was the completion of McDonald's sale of its stake in Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. Chipotle is still thriving though. Since the chain went public in January, its stock gained $22 to close at $44. It closed at $57.23 Thursday

Wendy's also made news yesterday with the announcement that it would be selling Baja Fresh Mexican Grill chain to a group led by California investor David Kim, a Cinnabon franchisee and owner of the Sweet Factory candy stores. The most shocking part of this story? Wendy's paid $275 million for Baja Fresh in 2002; Kim purchased the chain for $31 million. Unlike Chipotle, Baja has been a failure as can be seen by the bargain basement sale price.

While the impact of this sale will not be immediate in terms of sales numbers, Wendy's is hoping to continue its forward momentum. The chain recently completed its sale of Canada's Tim Hortons. Other moves to increase sales over the next couple of years include adding breakfast, the introduction of a new double melt hamburger and spending $85 million on company-owned store renovations and incentives for franchisees to do the same.

Report from Franchise update conference

Daily Franchise News is back from the Franchise Update Conference held at the Ritz-Carlton in Atlanta this past week. Three hundred sixty franchisors and numerous supplier sponsors gathered to discuss topics such as Changing Technology and Lead Generation. This two-day event is always done well and most importantly quickly. Jam-packed sessions over a fast-paced two day period make this an extremely efficient event.