NOV. 16, 2009 10:00:00 AM | BY DARRELL JOHNSON
When the economy turns downward it's harder for most franchisors and franchisees to increase revenues. The cost to achieve an incremental dollar of revenue is higher in a down economy, which means that less of each new dollar reaches the bottom line. Not surprisingly in this environment, companies turn to the expense side of their income statement, where every dollar of expense reduction falls almost fully to the bottom line. It's a simple business strategy: if you can't increase revenues, reduce expenses.
SEP. 21, 2009 08:00:00 AM | BY DARRELL JOHNSON
Occasionally, it's good to confirm the obvious. What attracts prospective franchisees to a particular brand is a combination of expectations and emotions. While this is generally understood, we were able to use personal interviews at the March 2009 International Franchise Expo to delve into this topic further. We are grateful to the Expo sponsor, MFV, for allowing us to do this work.
AUG. 10, 2009 08:00:00 AM | BY DARRELL JOHNSON
I made a presentation to a national law firm's franchise practice group a few years ago with the title, "You Won't Believe What You Can Learn From a UFOC." The presentation was made to people who were responsible for putting UFOCs (now FDDs) together. They were surprised to learn all the things that could be analyzed and extracted from the documents they prepared.
JUN. 17, 2008 08:00:00 AM | BY DARRELL JOHNSON
We are no longer doubting whether we are in a downturn. (As an economist, I'll refrain from calling it a recession until the economy's performance meets the technical definition.) Now the issue is how long, and how deep, a downturn we are in. Let's take the conservative approach to economic forecasting and assume that it could be longer and deeper than the past few downturns. What does that mean for unit development?