Franchisee resource center

[Matt Wilson, FranchiseHelp]: Hello everybody. This is Matt Wilson coming from FranchiseHelp.com. I am here with Deborah Renshaw-Parker,former NASCAR driver and Apricot Lane Boutique franchisee. Deborah is coming to us from Bowling Green, Kentucky, where she owns an Apricot Lane franchise. We want to pick her brain a little bit. Thanks for coming on the show.

The most successful entrepreneurs, however, eventually come to recognize that achieving long-term success requires that they step back and put in place the right systems, processes, and people to expand their company beyond what any one individual -- no matter how motivated and sleep deprived -- could possibly manage on his or her own. Once a business owner sees what's possible when employees take on operational responsibilities that free management to actually manage instead of act like their own employee, he or she quickly understands the enormous power that scalability means for a business.

FranchiseHelp.com interviews Right At Home franchisee Diane Fortner. While working as a commercial insurance broker with a six-figure salary, Fortner felt the entrepreneurial itch, and soon discovered her calling after underwriting a policy for a successful Right at Home franchisee.

As far as the incentives go, there are three main categories that franchisors tend to work with when they're looking to increase access to their systems for minorities. The most popular method used, by far, is to offer discounts on initial franchise fees. The second most popular incentive offered to minorities by franchisors is financing assistance and other discounts to help pay off the sizable franchising fees that new franchisees incur. Finally, in rare instances, franchisors offer minority franchisees administrative and development support above and beyond what they provide to the non-minority franchisees in the system. Here is a list of franchises that have gone the extra mile to reach out to minorities looking to get involved in franchising.

Many franchises incentivize minorities to join their systems. As president of the World Franchising Network Rob Bond puts it, these franchises "grease the skids" on behalf of minority candidates because they see value in promoting diversity among their franchisees. On account of a still-languid economy, however, many franchisors' approach has changed significantly in recent years. As Bond explains, “African Americans and Hispanics were being aggressively recruited five years ago to fill vacancies.” But today most franchisors are more concerned with trying to grease the skids for foreign investors with significant piles of investment capital.

Why do some team members underperform in their jobs while others fill their respective roles and more? It’s easy to spot which team members aren't pulling their weight, but understanding why they are underperforming and how to get them to work up to their potential is another matter.

The Item 3 disclosure requirements are complex compared to other items of the FDD, but they can generally be summarized as follows. In Item 3, franchisors must disclose:

During a recent conversation with a well respected franchisee recruiter, we discussed the qualities of an excellent listener. We came up with four different levels of listening. This franchisee recruiter explained that as he moved up in listening levels, he increased his results exponentially.

Even if you have all of the required start-up capital sitting in your bank account, and even if you have mentally prepared to invest a considerable sum into a franchise, you may be wary of risking your very bottom dollar for the new venture. There are alternatives, including raising debt or equity funding, but both of these options come with a set of benefits and drawbacks that you'll need to weigh carefully before committing to any particular path.