Community Involvement

: Michelle Hansen; Columns; 06 September 2019

Community Involvement

Get Involved

Tips for connecting with the community beyond your walls to make a national franchise feel local.

By Michelle Hansen

How can you make a franchise feel less like a chain and more like a local business? My husband and I wrestled with this question as we prepared to open our first location in Thornton, Colo. Not only was this our first franchise endeavor, it was (and still is) Your Pie’s first location in the state of Colorado, and we were a little bit anxious about how it would be received by a community that loves all things local.

Attracting Customers

Genuine Care

How a franchise can increase reach and attract customers by expanding its services.

By Marianne Christman

Expanding your services – especially those that offer unique opportunities within your niche – can be a great way to increase your reach and attract new customers. Adding new products or service offerings can often meet the needs of current customers, attract new customers with different needs and help you compete more strongly in your industry.

However, you must know and genuinely care about your customers and their needs. Think long and hard about the value a new product or service would bring and how it would help your customers.

Women in Franchising

WomenFranchising

The top three things franchisors look for in a franchisee,

and why women make excellent franchisee candidates.

By Lynne M. Hanson

Women are becoming business owners at increasingly higher rates, and the same is true for the sale of franchised businesses. The International Franchise Association (IFA) reports that in 2017, women owned 27 percent of franchised locations, compared to 20.5 percent in 2007. That doesn’t even include another 17 percent of franchise businesses owned by male/female partnerships.

Franchise Success

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A foundation for success: Tips on how you can create a corporate culture that works for everyone.

By Mark Cottle

It is often said the goals of franchisees and franchisors are the same, meaning one cannot be truly successful without the other. Anything franchisors do to make running a business easier for their franchisees will ultimately pay off for them. One of the most important aspects of laying the foundation for franchise success is helping franchisees define their workplace culture.

Health and Wealth

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How being proactive can help you shape up both your personal health

and your financial wellness.

By Cramer Soebbing

The overlap of personal health and wealth is much more significant than franchise owners realize. Each plays a fundamental role in our lives. Success (and difficulties) in one can lead to similar outcomes in the other. Parallel to how you might take an approach to good health, good financial wellness takes planning, discipline and – typically for best results – guidance from specialists to ensure individuals are held accountable and ultimately goals are achieved.