The Franchise Blog 4 Vets

Wingstop Acquired By Roark Capital

The acquisition of Wingstop by Roark buys out Gemini Investors LLC of Wellesley, Mass., and another private investor who had bought a controlling stake in Wingstop in 2003 and owned about 64 percent of the company.

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Veteran Contractors; Increase Your Sales By Doing These Two Easy Things

In this rather choppy economy, there are a couple of pretty easy things you can do to help your business gain more credibility and grow at the same time.

1. Join Angie's List

2. Become members of The BBB

Here's why that's important now, according to a recent article over at Small Business Trends;

• Money is tight. Discretionary spending is not as available as in the past.
• There are scammers out there; a tough economy increases the number of scams.
• People like to buy from people they know, like, and trust AND from people their friends and neighbors know, like, and trust.

Read the rest of this article to learn more about setting yourself apart with these marketing tools....

Veteran Business Owners (VBO's); Are You Experiencing Social Media Marketing Fear?

Are you using social media marketing to help your business grow? Or, are you waiting for business to come through your door, because your business is just that good?

Paul Segreto, a strategic partner of mine, recently wrote a nice article about the fear that a lot of small business owners have when it comes to getting a social media program up and running.

"A misconception about social media is that is a free or low cost alternative. But typing and building relationships takes time – people time – and time costs money. If you have no marketing budget, then you have no budget to pay someone (or yourself) to do the social media legwork. Social media, like all marketing efforts, shouldn’t been selected because it’s the cheap choice, but because it is the right strategic choice. With limited data to support real ROI impact of social media, particularly for B2B products and services, it makes it very difficult for a small business to take it seriously (considering small business’s limited budgets) over traditional direct sales and marketing activities.”

Read more and learn...

Mobile Phones And Your Franchise

Did you know that your cell phone {And your customer's cell phones} can be used for marketing your franchise?

Consider the cell phone and its capabilities if you will: recent studies indicate that there are currently more than 272 million mobile phone users in the U.S. (89% of the total population); of those phones, 99% are text capable and 57% of those mobile subscribers use texting on a regular basis; 15% of active mobile phones have the ability to utilize mobile web applications and 44 million people regularly access the mobile web from their cell phones; and over 84% of cell phone owners won’t leave home without the device. 

Continue reading this article written by Linda Daichendt, President/CEO/Managing Consultant of Strategic Growth Concepts.

Future Veteran Franchise Owners; You Need To Know This

Pete Gombert, from Balihoo, a cool local franchisee automation marketing company, wrote a great article over at The Idaho Statesman. In it, he said;

"Many aspiring franchisees assume that their biggest challenge will be executing within the franchise system, but they quickly find that while running the system is important, the ultimate challenge is translating national strategy to address variables in a local market."


Great franchisors already know this. Average franchisors have to learn it. Below-average ones, just don't get it. If you are a franchisor, do you get it?

Read the rest of the story over at The Statesman

Fast Start For This Franchisor; FCI

                   

Floor Coverings international is doing a lot of things right, during what we all know is a tough economy. From The WSJ;

"Floor Coverings offers its 85 franchisees direct assistance in building networks for referral business. Under what it calls the Fast Start program, Floor Coverings will send an employee to each franchisee for a few days with the mission of helping the franchisee build relationships with other companies that can send clients its way. Typical businesses the team reaches out to include real-estate agents, restoration companies, home inspectors and kitchen remodelers."

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Attention Veterans! Would You Like A Franchise With No Franchise Fee?

                                              

                      FREE

So would I. But, I cannot move to Marietta,Georgia at this time. Can you?

Here is what a Georgia Real Estate Developer is proposing over at Dane Carlson's popular Franchise Business Opportunity Blog;

"My offer to your readers is that I would be willing to pay the franchisee fee for the franchise of their choice as long as they locate the business in my shopping center. There is no catch to this offer whatsoever as my goal is simply to attract a good tenant and franchise business have a greater chance of success, so I look at it as a investment in my success. If my tenants do well, then so do I."

What do you think?

Balihoo Franchise Marketing Solutions To Exhibit at IFA Franchise Show

                                                                                                 

Balihoo, the premier provider of marketing technology and services to franchise organizations, announced today that they will be demonstrating Balihoo Marketer Edition in booth #1509 at the International Franchise Association Annual Convention in San Diego February 14th-17th.

For franchise organizations that want to centralize their local franchisee marketing efforts, this solution really streamlines things.

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