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What We Believe

Before understanding what makes franchising work, you must first understand what it is. This is not as simple as one might think.

What is franchising?

Contrary to popular opinion, franchising is not an industry or a segment of the economy. It is a business strategy; a marketing and distribution system that has proven extremely effective at enabling companies to capture a disproportionate market share.

What it takes to succeed

We believe, for a franchise system to succeed, it must do five things very well:

• attract new customers
• retain current customers
• get customers to purchase more of its products or services more often
• continually increase market share
• maintain a sufficient profit margin

Franchises vs. independent businesses

The average success rate for franchise is far greater than for independent businesses. Although statistics prove this is true, few people understand why. Simply put, it is because franchises (and company-managed outlets) have a clear advantage in all of the success factors listed above.

First, we provide franchisees with marketing programs that build brand image and attract customers on an ongoing basis. Second, we provide franchisees a proven operating system that retains customers and builds repeat business. Third, we provide franchisees ongoing support to help them in all aspects of their business. And fourth, we provide franchisees with development opportunities to nurture existing markets and build new ones.

Why franchising is the wave of the future

We live in increasingly brand-driven cultures. People are reluctant to buy a product from a company they've never heard of. On the other hand, they will pay a premium for a brand name with an excellent image or reputation, even if they cannot discern the difference in quality themselves.

Whether your company is a brand new start-up or a market-savvy Fortune 500 organization, franchising can be a uniquely effective strategy that meets the needs of the franchiser, the franchisee and the customer. But...and it's a big but...only if you successfully apply the guidelines we're about to lay out in the following section.