Excited to meet!

Line 'em up! We are two events into a five meeting swing of Super Regional Meetings this summer. Dallas and Orlando are in the log, Los Angeles, Chicago and NY/NJ lie ahead. These are fantastic meetings for us to get the team together and share what's new among our franchisees. If you haven't made the first two meetings and you're considering or already registered for the ones coming up, here's what you can expect...

• News and updates for your brand. Our Marketing team, coupled with the Advertising and Marketing fund boards for SIGNARAMA and EmbroidMe have exciting announcements for you. See it, learn about them and get your questions answered in person. This is HUGE!


• Suppliers - A "mini" trade show from prominent suppliers dominates the first half day of your Super Regional Meeting experience. New material and product vendors, your business management software folks (Trade Only and SignVox) will all be there. Get great news and info on up and coming advantages you enjoy by being a part of a large organization.


• Your peers - It's amazing to see how far others have taken the same concept you learned in our Training School. What's working best, what's new and surging forward? Also as important but sometimes overlooked is what's NOT working. Share and participate in roundtable discussions, meals and after-hours activities with fellow franchisees. This to many is their best reason to attend.


• Distance - Shhh. I'm parting with a UFG secret here. We know you're most likely to absorb new ideas when you climb out of the day-to-day events in your store. If you can mentally distance yourself from your projects for a day or two, you'll open yourself up to better methods and plans to succeed. It happens most to those that ride the fence, wondering until the last minute if they should attend. I say it's these franchisees that benefit greatly. It takes some doing to say, 'Yes." Consider the stale alternative of not putting yourself where you could grab tips and new systems to build on. It's worth your time to attend the meetings that are coming to your region!

We have a full schedule of items on each city's agenda, that much I can promise. This series of meetings will allow you to keep rolling forward towards your 2013 goals, for which you have less than 6 months left. I won't be touring with the band this summer, so your postings to social sites and photos shared with our Marketing team will tell the story. Apparently I'm in the "on deck" circle, having been recently tapped to lead the effort to produce World Expo 2014 in Orlando. I'm happy to be spearheading the massive effort behind our Expo again. I'll bring new ideas, format changes and some of the fun and excitement that belong at our events. If you've been with us awhile, you know how it works. Many of your suggestions fuel the content for World Expo, speakers, sessions, events. etc. If you enjoyed San Antonio in 2006, Disney in 2008 or Caesar's Palace in 2009, you're already looking for the REGISTER NOW button to click! We will have that up and live soon so you can plan to be in Orlando during the final week of May. Now do you understand why we are so excited to meet?

It's a geat time to be growing a business - allow our traveling show of support services to help your efforts.

-dm

Franchise Financing, who knew?

I preface this posting by saying, "I work here everyday, I should know this stuff."  

I had heard the chatter in the office and at our last Quarterly Meeting about a new financing program that we had been selected to tap into at United Franchise Group. Not being from that side of our business, I half listened and therefore only half understood this to be financing that people could use to start a franchise. Traditionally, we help candidiates secure financing to launch a new business.  Some get there own sources independently, some use SBA, others opt for financing we provide.  This Franchise Financing program is just that, but it is also good for established franchisees looking to grow or restructure their business.

I had a brief conversation with Tim Phillips, our expert here on all things financing.  That's how I learned new entrepreneurs aren't the only ones using Franchise Financing.  He reports that existing franchisees are also using this "line of credit" style financing to boost their business in their community.  These are some examples Tim shared with me, UFG franchisees can:

• Grow your business through expansion of facilities, new staff, new product offerings, new equipment, new services offered to customers.
• Dive into a niche market you've had your eye on.
• Buy-out competitors, taking on their customer lists and incorporating their business into yours.
• Consolidate credit and make sense of spending and borrowing that might have occurred over the last two years.
• Support large deposits. When a significant project is secured, can you proceed with the confidence that you can fund the job with your vendors before being paid in full by the customer? This financing has proven to be the piggy bank buffer some franchisees need to service larger accounts and deliver higher volume sales.

In many cases, this approach is better than what some would hatch on their own. Some attempt to borrow moeny from family members... a daunting task with long tenticles.  Others say they are reluctant to apply for financing because of their credit history or past transgressions - here's where family can help. A family member can secure this type of financing on behalf of your business, freeing their money from being the source of your growth.  In speaking with Tim, he says franchisees are usually pre-approved in 24-36 hrs, with the bulk of approved applicants receiving their funding in 2-4 weeks. 

I am not the financial advisor for our franchisees as many people know, but I have great contact with many of our franchisees over the course of a week.  I told Tim I'd like to get the word out, this could be just what some of our franchise operators are looking for to pull their business to new heights!

Link to post with Franchise Financing Press Release info.

Re-entry...

World Expo 2010I've been missing from these parts - concentrating more on Facebook and Twitter posts and updates. I am overdue for commenting on what I see happening and how I feel about events.  We succeeded in throwing the conference we call Expo 2010 Orlando, producing a great show, working with suppliers and adding kinship to an admittedly smaller group than I'm used to seeing.  I feel those that attended the show came back to their businesses with an advantage. They said,"Yes", paid to attend, did flights, hotels, travel, and put themselves in the right spot to grow. The feedback I've received about the event was very positive. You'd expect me to say that, right? I thought that the "best of the best" believed enough of what we had said about the importance of the event to show up and build. The franchisees that are less "in tune" and "in touch" usually don't come to the event - not a surprise. They have a problem being fed more of what they heard at training, which they most likely didn't follow, so our Expo is like salt - sprinkled delicately into the wound. The cash-strapped (which is a taller number than in previous years) couldn't make the decision to spend more. We made phone calls trying to persuade them to come and help find resources and the remedies, but it's easier to not chance it and say, "Next year." I hope they make good on that statement!

I didn't spearhead the Expo this year, which felt peculiar. I knew what was going on, what should be happening, but didn't have the "keys to the building" as in years past. I thought it would be easier, attending, participating, having more time to be involved with our franchisees, all that.  I was correct until about a month before the event - that's when the Expo committee saw potential holes in the itinerary and needed help. The common theme of,"Dave's not running the conference this year, he can do that" rang through their heads. I had so many diverse things to do that all required different skills, what a crush this became as the Expo grew closer.  For example, I was responsible for the Saturday Roundtable Sessions, from getting the best topics to matching franchisees and Corporate staff with their proper tables and scheduling. I was responsible for the technology and A/V equipment that we brought to Orlando - cyber cafe, registration printers, laptops, projectors, computers and things all over the trade show.  Find a guest speaker? How about Dana M. Nelson, that was a bunch of fun for me, but time consuming, too.  Do a General Session technology update, as usual. Emcee the event with Brenda? Yup, got that one, too. I had to be very organized  and aware of what was happening at all times - for fear I'd miss something I was supposed to be doing! 

I'm glad I was a part of Expo 2010, this year from a different vantage point. To those franchisees that attended, I've already heard from so many of you thanking us and saying what a good event it was. I always enjoy the down time with friends from around the world - we do that well, don't we? (You know who you are people!) If you didn't attend, we have plenty of the materials on out new UFGtv site, downloadable through OSCAR, pictures on Flickr, all that. Expo was a whirlwind of planning and executing as always.  I have never missed one, Europe, Australia, USA, all notched off!  It's good to be back, even if in a different role.