{"id":3092,"date":"2018-01-18T21:23:46","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T21:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/52.10.1.109\/?p=3092"},"modified":"2018-01-20T00:23:29","modified_gmt":"2018-01-20T00:23:29","slug":"franchising-with-the-sharks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/?p=3092","title":{"rendered":"Franchising with the sharks"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY PETER JONES<\/strong>
\nNEWS EDITOR<\/p>\n

The Founder<\/i>, a recent movie starring Michael Keaton, tells the story of Ray Kroc, the consummate dealmaker who turned a fledgling southern California hamburger stand into fast food\u2019s golden icon of American franchising.<\/p>\n

Several decades and billions-of-burgers-sold later, Carolyn Miller got a job at McDonald\u2019s\u2014though she was more likely to consult on architecture than ask if you\u2019d like fries with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned so much about company structure and dotting I’s and crossing T’s,\u201d she said of her years in Chicagoland\u2019s corporate office.<\/p>\n

Miller was caught between the pickles and special sauce when she was asked to take the lead in helping the chain set up satellite locations in Walmarts across the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey told me the margin for error is zero,\u201d she recalled. \u201c\u2018We want one person at the center of the hourglass aircraft-controlling everything.\u2019 That still stands out as my favorite job ever. We opened almost 1,000 locations in five or six years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller would move to the Denver area in 1998 after McDonald\u2019s made a major investment in Colorado-based Chipotle Mexican Grill. Ironically, the infusion of capital kept the fast-casual eatery out of the franchising game that McD\u2019s had helped create.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Miller plied her trade\u2014and appetite\u2014for such franchisors as Carl\u2019s Jr., Red Robin and CiCi\u2019s Pizza, developing expertise while consulting the industry\u2019s players and newcomers on real estate, design, staffing, budgeting and marketing.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow they know what\u2019s coming,\u201d Miller said of those who listen. \u201cThey used to think it was just a light at the end of the tunnel. Now they know it\u2019s attached to a freight train.\u201d<\/p>\n

She guides franchisors through the other side of the ominous tunnel too.<\/p>\n

Much of Miller\u2019s advice is condensed in the new Brick & Mortar Franchise Success: Know the Costs or Pay the Price<\/i>. Her book is a sort of syllabus for the gamut of courses she leads at the National Franchise Institute, the Greenwood Village-based education center she founded in 2015. As dean for an adjunct \u201cfaculty\u201d of attorneys, accountants, brokers, architects and engineers, Miller\u2019s team strives to save wide-eyed franchisees from costly mistakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think the time to hire an architect is after you\u2019ve signed a lease, you\u2019ve potentially lost a lot of money. It\u2019s kind of like ready, fire, aim,\u201d she said. \u201cOne mistake could cost $40,000 to $50,000. It could be $80,000. You need to know all that is involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller says too many new franchisees are under the illusion that opening a new Supercuts is as easy as sweeping up the hair. She stresses that inking the document that gives one right to a name, business model, and supply chain is much more involved than turning a key.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For one thing, signing the lease is a strategic move.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could do everything else right, and if the location is wrong you can still fail,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

Franchisees should also never let their \u201cstyle\u201d get in the way. The chief advantage of franchising is bucking trial and error, though not every franchisee learns that the easy way.<\/p>\n

Four years ago, a Steak \u2018n Shake owner operating in Centennial and Sheridan took a more circuitous route when he defied corporate pricing and wound up in court.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019re being as honest with themselves as they should be,\u201d Miller said of renegades. \u201cThe sophisticated brands that have been around for a while can see this coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Miller says, the franchisor-franchisee marriage must be win-win.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about relationships,\u201d she said. \u201cIf the franchisees are not successful, the franchisor is not successful either. A great franchisor needs to say, \u2018Here\u2019s the mission. Here\u2019s why we\u2019re doing it. Let me know what roadblocks I need to remove so you can keep moving forward.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Oftentimes a franchisor\u2019s credibility is a huge part of that forward momentum\u2014even in a service business like a dog-daycare center.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you going to take your dog to Acme I-hope-I\u2019m-going-to-see-my-dog-at-the-end-of-the-day? Or are you going to take them to a place where you know they have a reputation to protect? To do a business on your own is a huge, huge undertaking,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

Those who do it anyway and grow into franchisable concepts are lucky.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe it\u2019s a great product. Maybe it\u2019s in the right place at the right time,\u201d said Miller, who will consider such issues as she mulls whether to franchise the National Franchise Institute.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have asked me that,\u201d she said. \u201cAt this point, I want to get strong in where we are here. Would we have other offices located in different cities? Potentially.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY PETER JONES NEWS EDITOR The Founder, a recent movie starring Michael Keaton, tells the story of Ray Kroc, the consummate dealmaker who turned a fledgling southern California hamburger stand into fast food\u2019s golden icon of American franchising. Several decades and billions-of-burgers-sold later, Carolyn Miller got a job at McDonald\u2019s\u2014though she was more likely to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}