Food Franchise

Posts Tagged ‘Franchisees’

Baja Fresh is a Mexican-Grill franchise which has become popular in many areas of the United States. This excellent opportunity for entrepreneurs was founded on the philosophy of being a convenient, yet “fresh”, alternative to the growing trend of processed fast food.

If you are thinking about taking the plunge to becoming an food service entrepreneur franchisee, have no interested in the traditional fast food venue and love Mexican style food, Baja Fresh might be the answer to your dreams in owning your own business. The company is continuously recruiting franchisees who are interested in becoming a part of their company.

COMPANY HISTORY

Born in 1990, Baja Fresh emerged with a solid philosophy in creating a healthier alternative to fast food. The goal was to offer fast service but sell fresh food. The company prides itself on quality products served fresh and offering optimal service with a firm commitment to meeting these goals consistently in every franchise.

They company has constructed a long term vision which strives to “become the leading national restaurant known as the defining standard for the highest quality and convenience in fresh Mexican food” (www.bajafresh.com). Their mission is to prepare this fresh food with the convenience of fast food, but with fresh ingredients and served in an aesthetically pleasing and clean environment.

Baja Fresh has also developed a set of values which include: teamwork, coaching, open and honest communication, team members doing their best, commitment, growth and spirit. The company seems to pride themselves on a team based environment.

FRANCHISE CRITERIA

Before you can go ahead and open your own Baja Fresh restaurant, you need to find out if you qualify. To do this you will need to demonstrate you meet specific criteria before you’ll be considered for approval.

The Baja Fresh qualifications require you have restaurant experience or have been an operating partner with at least 10% ownership to be considered. The financial requirements seem to be a bit on the high side because you’ll need to have $200,000 liquid cash to open the restaurant, and you must possess $1,000,000 net worth for each restaurant you plan to open.

Additionally, Baja Fresh requires franchisees to pay a $50,000 franchise fee per restaurant and royalty payments of 5%. The minimal time frame for the franchise agreement is 10 years.

SITE CRITERIA

There are two kinds of Baja Fresh restaurants you can open, the Express

Last week’s question from Anthony R. on how to choose the franchise that would best fulfill his life-long dream of owning his own business sparked a number of emails from other readers wanting to offer their two cents on the subject.

Some folks offered helpful insights and suggestions on how to pick a franchise and a few things to watch out for, while other emails came from current franchise owners asking me to help them sell their operations to Anthony R.

Hmm, sounds like it’s time to update the old business card once again. Tim Knox: Franchise Broker At Large… Who knows, maybe I can franchise the concept.

Last week I promised we’d take a closer look at a few of the things you should look for when considering a franchise opportunity. Keep in mind that there are thousands of franchise opportunities that range from the low end opportunities available for a few thousand dollars to the high end franchises that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The difference in price is reflected in many ways: the viability of the opportunity, the level of training and support offered to the franchisee, the track record and financial stability of the franchisor, the success rate of the franchisees, and a dozen other factors.

All a lower end franchisor might offer is a training manual and the right to use their company name. Many also have very little interest in weeding out potential franchisees. The truth is many are in business just to collect franchise fees. They have little interest in whether or not a franchisee actually succeeds. If you have a pulse and a checkbook, you can become their franchisee. And your pulse does not have to be that strong.

The higher end franchisors have very strict franchisee requirements and will not allow just anyone to become a part of their franchise system. They also go to much greater lengths to ensure the success of their franchisees. They offer complete hand holding from start to finish and remain heavily involved in the business even after the doors open. Yes, you do pay dearly for their assistance, but as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.

Here are a few things to look for in a franchise opportunity:

Turnkey operation
This is the most appealing feature of many franchise systems. Many of the top franchisors will scout the best location for the business, build and equip the facility, hire and train employees, put you through an extensive management training system, then toss you the keys. Furthermore, they will work closely with you for the first few months to help make certain that you know what to do with the keys once they’ve been tossed to you.

The majority of franchises don’t offer such complete turnkey packages, so be prepared to do much of the upfront work yourself. Often it is up to you to find a location, negotiate the lease, build out the space or erect a building, install the equipment, hire and train a staff etc.

Proven track record and management system
As mentioned earlier, many of the lesser-known franchise systems offer you a training manual, maybe a training video, and a few hours of telephone support. Not the best way to learn how to run a business. A good franchisor will provide you with thorough management training, either at their facility or onsite at yours. Since one of the reasons for buying into a franchise system is to tap into their expertise and know-how, thorough training should be a foremost consideration.

Customers waiting for the door to open
I don’t have the statistics in my pocket to back this up, of course, but I’d bet the farm that every time a new McDonald’s opens its door, it’s a mere matter of minutes before the first Happy Meal is sold. Many franchisors spend hundreds of millions of dollars on national ad campaigns to promote brand awareness. This works great for the franchisee who can literally have customers waiting for the doors to open on the first day of business.

Always consider the downsides
There are downsides to franchising. Foremost is the high cost of entry. The top franchise opportunities require considerable investment on the front end, usually more of an investment than if the entrepreneur started a similar venture on his own. You could open an independent hamburger fast food restaurant for a fraction of the McDonald’s franchise fee, but you probably won’t sell as many hamburgers. What you’re buying from McDonald’s is not just a fast food restaurant that sells hamburgers. What you’re buying is a brand, a reputation, and a proven business system with ready to eat customers. Be prepared to pay a premium for it.

Another downside is that when you buy into a franchise system you often have to pay a percentage of your revenues back to the franchisor. You might also be required to buy supplies from the franchisor, including inventory, paperwork, software, computer systems, and anything else the franchisor decides that they should supply to you.

And there in lies the biggest downside of all. When you buy into a franchise system you don’t control your business, the franchisor does. You have very little say-so in running the business. You must follow their processes and procedures without variation. And should you decide to get out of the business you may not even be allowed to sell the franchise to just anyone. The new owner would have to be approved by the franchisor before a deal could be made final.

The bottomline, Anthony, is to do your homework and make sure the franchise you choose fits your personality, your lifestyle, and your pocket book.

With hundreds of new franchise concepts being started every year, it is nearly impossible to keep track of the freshest ideas. Here is an update of two new franchises and how they have fared in their first several months of franchising.Since 2003, The Counter has received the type of press that most companies can only dream about. After being listed as one of the top 20 burgers in the country by GQ, the holy grail of endorsers, The Oprah Winfrey Show, named it the Best Burger in the USA. (An aside on the power of the O-nod, sales jumped from $44,000/mo to $245,000/mo after the endorsement)So how is it going? The company has already inked agreements for 60 restaurants in California alone. Next up is expansion into Florida, New York, Arizona and Nevada followed by the rest of the country. With long range projections of only 400 to 600 units, The Counter is well on its way to franchising stardom.EQUIPRO focuses on providing service for the following manufacturers: ICS, MI-T-M, MK Diamond, Sullair, and Wacker. The franchises are also full-service dealers for Honda, Briggs & Stratton, Robin/Subaru, Wacker and Kohler engines.Franchising since June 2005, new franchisees can expect to invest between $145,000 and $350,000. EQUIPRO has opened 12 service centers and plans on opening 33 units by the end of 2006 and 150 in the next seven years.

At almost the same moment three men saw the same thing and got the same idea. Fifty-four years later that idea has transformed the way America eats. The men were Ray Kroc, James McLamore and David Edgerton. What they saw was a drive-in burger place in California called McDonald’s. They were amazed by how popular the place was and how fast people could be served. Kroc worked out a deal with the owners of the original McDonald’s and opened the first McDonald’s of his own in Des Plaines, Illinois. 1397 miles away in Miami McLamore and Edgerton launched Burger King. Worldwide over 11 million people visit Burger King restaurants each day, making it the 2nd largest fast-food chain in America, trailing only the late Mr. Kroc’s McDonald’s. What has been the key to the success of Burger King? The company likes to call it “the power of the whoosh.”

While other fast food chains fry burgers, Burger King’s burgers are “flame-grilled”. The sound the grill makes when it’s ignited is what they call “the whoosh”. They think of the sound as also symbolizing the high level of energy and the commitment to excellence of their franchisees.

Since 1974 the cornerstone of Burger King’s marketing efforts has been “Have it your way”. If you want extra mustard and no pickles that’s not a problem at Burger King because they don’t assemble it until you order it. That’s not the case at most fast food chains where the burger is already sitting there waiting for you before you even figure out that you’re hungry. Asking for something different puts a kink in their assembly line and can change “fast food” to “kinda sorta fast food”.

At the top of the Burger King menu is the Whopper which was introduced in 1957. How many different ways can you order your Whopper? Someone at Burger King actually figured it out and they say you can “have it your way” in 221,184 different possible combinations.

McDonald’s has always rigidly controlled their franchisees, making sure that the food is always the same. But in the early years Burger King had a franchise system that was rather casual at best. The result was inconsistent food and service. This created an image problem that continued until the 70’s when new-owner Pillsbury made substantial changes and hired Donald Smith to oversee the franchise system.

Over the years Burger King’s advertising hit a lot of bumps in the road and the company went from ad agency to ad agency hoping for a marketing miracle. Then in 1982 Burger King took

In corporate terms: You are what you employ.

So if getting the ultimate team together can be the difference between market domination and receivership, how do good managers ensure that they both hire and retain the best employees possible? Well, if you find any of the insights I’ve gained over the past 15 years hiring staff (on behalf of several large restaurant franchisers and franchisees), help yourself. The following represents what I learned after interviewing hundreds of potential employees and dozens of prospective management candidates.

These are the 8 things I wish someone had told me when I first started:

1) In a situation where a number of people hire employees, track the success of each new employee hired and who made the hire. Some managers are better at hiring than others and their opinions should be given more weight.

2) Understand that some of the best hires you will get will be referrals from your top employees. Understand also that some of the worst hires you make will be referrals from your top employees.

3) Employees who share in the company’s success are more loyal. Employees absorb cutbacks easier when they feel that they also shared in the gravy times.

4) Employees who earn low salaries but high commissions are more likely to move to companies that offer a moderate base salary and commission rate. People understand the cyclical nature of the economy and 9 out of 10 employees prefer security to the potential for quick short term gains.

5) Experience isn’t everything. Some people with a lot of experience can bring a lot of other things to your firm too-like bad habits, hardened attitudes and they may try to intimidate some of your existing personnel.

6) Employees need to hear when they are doing a good job too. We know how quickly they hear when they don’t! It isn’t enough to think that an employee will construe “no news is good news” about the job they are doing. They do not need cash or rewards every time they do something well-sincere appreciation and knowing they are valued goes a long way.

7) Try behavior-based interviewing. In an interview, ask the prospective employee how he or she has handled or would handle a difficult customer. If the interviewee doesn’t have such an experience or can’t imagine themselves resolving a problem professionally, go to the next candidate!

Allow good employees to move onwards and upwards. Shortsighted managers will sometimes try to discourage employees from moving up which can create a very stagnant and toxic environment. Get a reputation for being someone who develops people and you will find an ever growing line-up of people wanting to work with you.

Had I known these things, I’m confident I would have cut employee turnover in half and saved big bucks on training.