Franchise Today

That’s the business philosophy of Multi-Flagged aread developers, empire builders and co-founders Grant Simon and Greg Thomas...It's also how they got their name – LSGF Management.  (Life's Short, Grow Fast!) LSGF Management provides management services to franchisees and operators of retail and quick service food locations across the southeast. We currently support 50+ Great Clips in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina; 100+ T-Mobile Premium Retailer Stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee; and 7 Smoothie King stores in Georgia and Alabama.  Grant and Greg will share valuable nuggets about what it takes tfor franchisors to attract the attention of leadership and development guys like them.    

This week we’re joined by two marketing gurus:  919 Marketing's Founder and CEO, David Chapman and Rallio’s VP of Business Development, Ryan Hicks.  This promises to be a robust discussion about the intersection between traditional marketing and today’s digital world, as described by the ubiquitous Gary Vee and others.  In this conversation, David and Ryan will discuss the ingredients needed for the perfect recipe, to help you break through the white noise that assaults us all daily.  Tune in and learn, as these two pros help you make sense of it all.  David and Ryan will offer helpful tips on how to create interest, engage prospects and manage the top, middle and bottom of your franchise development prospect funnels.  It's all coming up next, on Franchise Today.

Retro Fitness CFO Robbie Sprechman talks about both the Fiscal and Physical Gains of Retro Fitness Ownership, This Week on Franchise Today! $2,197,482: AVG GROSS SALES PER UNIT FOR THE TOP 10% OF RETRO FITNESS CLUBS $628,203: AVGERAGE EBITDA REPORTED BY TOP 10% OF RETRO FITNESS FRANCHISE OWNERS 3,029 :MEMBERSHIP BASE AT THE AVERAGE CLUB (TOP 10% HAVE OVER 5,800) $140.18: AVERAGE REVENUE PER SQUARE FOOT FOR THE TOP 10% OF RETRO CLUBS The top 10% of Retro Fitness Clubs Avg. Gross Sales, Avg. EBITDA and Avg. Rev. Per Sq. Ft. numbers as published in Item 19 of the Retro Fitness 2018 Franchise Disclosure Document. Read Item 19 in its entirety for important defined terms, assumptions and qualifiers relating to these figures.

Shane Evans co-founded Massage Heights in 2004 with her husband Wayne. Today she is responsible for the company’s services, products and programs, and also helps develop strategic initiatives. Shane feels whole when balancing a busy career with family life, supporting her children and husband in their passions: exercise, art, dance, horseback riding and sports. She also relishes getting frequent massages, reading, hot yoga, running, and group CrossFit classes.   Passionate about family, franchising and relationships, this  former Undercover Boss strives to make the lives of everyone she touches better, in any way she can.   

It all started when two enterprising women, Cathy Deano and Renee Maloney, wanted to do their part to rebuild their Hurricane Katrina-devastated community and give people a place to relax, unwind and get creative. Their guests loved the idea so much that today Painting with a Twist has created over 11 MILLION PAINTINGS in fun-filled studios in 39 states.  This week on Franchise Today, co-founder Cathy Deano invites us to learn all about the journey.     SEE OUR STORY

"Everybody has problems and issues," says J.D. Busch, chief energy officer of Houston-based Busch Global. "It is about how people have succeeded and grown effectively. I'm not afraid to ask people to learn from their mistakes and to learn from people who are doing things right." Busch has been a disrupter in franchising from the start. In 1995, the former college cheerleader put three different franchises--an NCA Super Center, Kid Fit Sports Day Care, and United Taekwondo--under one roof, long before brand synergy was common practice.  

Michael Isakson is the retired President and COO of ServiceMaster Franchise Services Group, an international franchise services company, where he had responsibility for the development and growth of more than 5,000 franchises worldwide with sales totaling more than $2 billion annually.  As part of the $4 billion ServiceMaster Company, Mike led ServiceMaster Clean, Merry Maids, Furniture Medic and AmeriSpec brands, specializing in residential and commercial cleaning services, disaster restoration, on-site furniture repair, and home inspections.Mike was also the Chair of the IFA in 2008-2009 and is the Immediate Past Chair of the IFA Education Foundation.   Today, he and his partners Doug Pound and Jim Wassell, give guidance to their clients and through Insight to Execution, help guide them on their journeys.

Ray Margiano started working in his dad’s Derby, CT, auto garage when he was just 10 years old. After a brief stint in the Navy, he returned home to pump gas, wash windshields and do service repairs 50 hours a week, all while attending school full time. Although he couldn’t wait to get away, it was his first generation Italian father’s entrepreneurial spirit and fierce determination that laid the path for his own success in the footwear industry. Today Ray tells how he kicked his corporate career down the road, in favor of living the dream of "making dreams come true for others," as a franchisor. 

This week on Franchise Today, I speak with serial entrepreneur, founder and franchising icon, David McKinnon.  Over the past forty years, David has demonstrated an extraordinary ability to recognize unmet needs in the marketplace, innovate solutions, and establish recognizable brands. David is a fire-tested executive with business acumen that is combined with a set of unshakeable beliefs, With that as a foundation, David McKinnon has guided his companies through three major recessions including the dot-com meltdown and the Great Recession itself. McKinnon’s business interests have spanned technology, home services, business-to-business telephony, and consumer products. As co-founder of Service Brands International (SBI), he built numerous franchise companies that employed more than six thousand people with combined revenues exceeding $400 million. McKinnon sold his interest in SBI in 2015.  Today, McKinnon is provides a sizeable endowment to the International Franchise Association’s (IFA) Educational Founda

From a living room in Tulsa, OK, in 1997, to Forbes Magazine's list of top ten U.S. franchises for three straight years, (JBF) Just Between Friends co-founder and President, Shannon Wilburn joins us this week on Franchise Today.  With more than 150 locations across 30 states, JBF has also been named one of Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top 500 Franchises for the past six years, earned The Franchise Business Review's,  “Franchisee Satisfaction Award” and has landed on FBR’s Top 50 franchise List, for the past ten years. JBF has also been featured on numerous national television shows including The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS Early Show, Fox News, ABC News, CNN, Headline News, Inside Edition and CNBC’s The Big Idea. This week, Shannon Wilburn’s “Bright Light” shines here.  Her passion, her story and her love of "life and family," "God and church,"  "business and friends," will undoubtedly inspire others to live their lives to the fullest, too.  

Shane Evans  co-founded Massage Heights in 2004 with her husband Wayne. Today she is responsible for the company’s services, products and programs, and also helps develop strategic initiatives. Shane feels whole when balancing a busy career with family life, supporting her children and husband in their passions: exercise, art, dance, horseback riding and sports. She also relishes getting frequent massages, reading, hot yoga, running, and group CrossFit classes.   Passionate about family, franchising and relationships, this  former Undercover Boss strives to make the lives of everyone she touches better, in any way she can.   

ENCORE EPISODE: Three of Key Bank's key executives join me tomorrow, to discuss Key Bank's commitment to franchising and entrepreneurship for women, financial dignity in low and moderate income communities and how Key is increasing it's footprint to serve all 50 states, as a Top 15 SBA Lender.  Learn too, about Key's financial committment to the IFA Educational Foundation, in the name of diversity, women, veterans and next generation entrepreneurs.   Next week we will be joined by Shane Evans, Co-Founder and President of Massage Heights Franchising, a membership-based Massage Franchise based in San Antonio Texas with retreats nationwide

Passionate as he is competitive, CraftWorks Holdings President Mark A. Belanger talks about his love of family, friends, cycling and franchising.  Learn how this executive, with ten brands in the corporate portfolio, manages to balance it all, this week on Franchise Today

Three of Key Bank's key executives join me tomorrow, to discuss Key Bank's commitment to franchising and entrepreneurship for women, financial dignity in low and moderate income communities and how Key is increasing it's footprint to serve all 50 states, as a Top 15 SBA Lender.  Learn too, about Key's financial committment to the IFA Educational Foundation, in the name of diversity, women, veterans and next generation entrepreneurs.  

This week Tom Portesy, President and CEO of MFV Expos, makes a return appearance on Franchise Today.  Our discussion though will be about something other than Expos.  On this episode, Tom will be talking about MFV’s acquisition of the Best Franchisee of the World competitions, a series of national events culminating in an international event in Florence, Italy celebrating the best franchisees from around the world. How has franchising impacted their families, their futures, and their communities? Nominees submitted by their franchisors could win National Titles… or even Best Franchisee of the World. MFV Expositions is invested in highlighting the extraordinary people that are changing the franchising industry and changing the world.  Tune in to learn more about this amazing global competition and the U.S. Competition that precedes it.  The U.S. competition is now open for entries.     

This week I talk with Solink VP Jim Farrell, as we discuss how restaurant and retail operators can revolutionize the way their locations use video, when they deploy Solink’s cutting edge, loss prevention technology.  Solink identifies and solves transactional problems that affect franchised businesses daily, linking security footage with actual transaction data, creating “real-time” insights into daily business pain points and making it easy to have full visibility into every action and transaction, at every site, from any device, on demand.  It does so by cutting through the noise and excess footage taken by security cameras and instead, points directly to the day’s notable events, unusual transactions and unauthorized activity.  This puts the operator’s current systems on double-duty: providing “added value” from existing POS, cameras, and other digital systems. The impact that Solink delivers, will interest every franchisor concerned with unit level economics, multi-unit franchisees and yes, even single u

As Franchise Today celebrates its 10th season and start of a new era, Stan Friedman transitions from his former role as co-host to the show's new host. In this segment of the increasingly popular podcast, Stan welcomes as his guest, Chris Spears. Chris, a returning guest on Franchise Today is Co-founder and Chief Marketing Technology Officer of FRM Solutions parent company, Arke. Stan and Chris discuss how Arke, a digital business consultancy specializing in implementation and integration of marketing technology solutions has developed relationships with a growing number of franchisors across various industry segments. This segment of Franchise Today airs Wednesday January 23rd at 12PM EST with on-demand access on iTunes. Franchise Today is sponsored by FRM Solutions along with new sponsor, Arke.

In this Special Edition of Franchise Today celebrating its 10th anniversary, Stan Friedman and Paul Segreto reflect upon the podcast's history from its early beginnings in 2009 to its increasing popularity through 2018. Co-hosts for the past five years, Stan and Paul discuss their time together interviewing some of the leading founders and executives in franchising. To set the stage for 2019 and beyond, Stan and Paul also share some exciting news that is sure to take Franchise Today to new heights.  This segment of Franchise Today airs Wednesday January 9th at 11AM CT / 12PM ET with on-demand access on iTunes, and is sponsored by FRM Solutions and Franchise Foundry.     

In this segment of Franchise Today co-hosts Stan Friedman and Paul Segreto welcomed as their guest, Chris Fisher, Founder & CEO of Shine Window Care and Shine Holiday Lighting. Chris shared how he followed his grandfather's advice and instead of taking a sales job, he opened a window cleaning business in Austin, Texas. In 2011, he decided to franchise the business and rebranded as Shine Window Care and Holiday Lighting, and two of his longtime employees became his first franchisees. Then his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer; she recovered, but it convinced the couple to hit pause. They handed the business to friends, went to do missionary work in Uganda for two and a half years, then returned to the U.S. (and the business) in 2014. Franchise Today airs Wednesdays at 11AM CT / 12PM ET with on-demand access on iTunes, and is sponsored by FRM Solutions and Franchise Foundry.   

In this segment of Franchise Today hosts Stan Friedman and Paul Segreto welcomed back Steve Greenbaum. Now in his role as CEO of ComForCare Health Care Holdings, LLC, a premier provider of non-medical in-home care with nearly 200 locations throughout the U.S., Canada and the U.K. Steve discussed his role with The Riverside Company, ComForCare's private equity partner and how he is creating and leading a multi-brand franchise parent company with plans for expansion across the home care industry. Franchise Today airs Wednesdays at 12 PM Eastern Time / 11 AM Central Time with on-demand access on iTunes and is proudly sponsored by FRM Solutions and Franchise Foundry.