Franchise Brokers Association BLOG

Today marks 5 months until the FBA’s Annual Convention.

And here at the FBA offices we are eagerly working on plans and preparation for this year’s event.

The 2009 Convention was such a huge success; we had a great deal  of accomplished consultants in attendance as well as various franchise and business opportunities.

Last year we were fortunate to have BeneTrends as our Platinum Sponsor, and Crestcom International as our Gold Sponsor.

Silver sponsors included: Color Glo International, Sport Clips, Aamco, Carl’s Jr., Big Mouth Advertising, P.A.S.S., The National Franchise and Business Opportunities Expo, SignWorld, Express Employment Professionals, Franchise Dynamics, Mercury Road, Lawn Doctor and more!

We’re looking forward to many of last year’s exhibitors returning in 2010, as well as some new faces and concepts.  Stay tuned for a full list of exhibitors as the event gets closer.

Whether you are a Franchisor, Business Opportunity, Franchise Consultant, Business Broker, or someone interested in owning their own business, this is a must-attend event.

If you didn’t attend last year, you can see what you missed here.

2010 FBA Convention
October 20 – 22, 2010
Sonesta Hotel Orlando Downtown
Orlando, FL

For questions or to Register, email Andrea

This weekend, May 15 & 16, FBA members and Executive Director Sabrina Carter will be at the National Franchise and Business Opportunities Expo in Atlanta, GA at the Cobb Galleria Center.

Whether you’re a current franchise consultant or looking to own your own business, stop by the FBA booth and say “Hi!” We’ll be at booth #311

See information on the event here

Are you currently advertising through internet lead sources? Paying for each impression or click through of your brand? Having to go through hundreds of leads before you have a qualified client….

At the Franchise Brokers Association we have an audience of hundreds of consultants and brokers who have qualified clients which are being sold on concepts before they  ever engage you. This is done through a complete comprehensive listing on our FBA website. Our consultants can find your information the same way that a realtor would use the MLS service.

The Franchise Brokers Associations website has different levels of access for consultants, franchisors, and public. This comprehensive tool gives our members the ability to view webinars learn about the financial terms of each concept as well as produce comparison spreadsheets that aid in the stream of information given to the client. We help our featured franchisors by our assimilation detailed information to differentiate them between other concepts. We will expose the benefits to sell your concepts!

Once we create your listing you will have the ability to update information add media or simply change information as needed. From this information we help design presentations our consultants can remotely operate from the website. Our consultants have the ability to do public view presentations while viewing notes from their pages which only consultants can see. We simply make it easy for our members to sell you!

Sales is only part of the equation the other part is marketing. The backbone of the FBA is developmental marketing which has been design websites and lead portholes since they have existed. By having are own in house online marketing company designing all of our members sites we have the ability to branch out into potentially hundreds of advertising websites being found throughout the internet. These porthole websites will rotate your concepts banner advertisements. Once clicked on it will go directly to the FBA listing portion of the website notifying the consultant they have a lead interested in your concept. . Ultimately, potential franchisees will be viewing your listing with the help of our highly trained consultants. Whether you are looking for a complete sales solution or just want to reach out to brokers to help your current team, we can help you sell your concept. Become Featured today!

As a Featured Franchisor with the FBA you can employ the business development team to become your listing consultant. On a monthly basis your consultant will do the following:

• Create your listing so that it appeals to consultants like myself.
• Provide updated members lists
• Evaluate or help design your presentation so that it delivers well to the client and is easy for the consultant to relay
• Schedule training sessions and webinars
• Add testimonials
• Promote concept, publicity and press
• Promote your concept at conventions, meetings with other consultants and other networking events within the consulting community
• Assist with positive reviews to help your credibility with the consultants
• Help design banner add to be placed on FBA controlled websites

In an effort to streamline and better present our content we have given our home page  a new look!  Let us know what you think.

One of the more important new features we have added will allow you to quickly search franchise news and upcoming events.

Last Thursday, April 29th, the FBA hosted an Entrepreneur Roundtable in Orlando, FL.

The event was a huge success!  We had an excellent turnout, and a great deal of really interested people looking to pursue a business of their own.

We welcomed Eric Riess to discuss legal issues of franchising, Sabrina Carter to discuss her experiences as a business owner and franchisee, and Carl Gould to address small business development and sales strategies.  Tom Delgrosso of M & I Bank joined us to address financing in the current market, and two franchisors were represented — STOP (Service Team of Professionals) and Tutor Doctor.

The feedback was overwhelmingly positive.  Everyone found the information to be helpful and interesting.

We’re looking forward to another great event soon.

If you are going to be in Atlanta, GA for the Franchise and Business Opportunities Expo on May 15th & 16th, stop by the FBA booth!

With traditional financing options becoming scarcer for new and expanding franchisees to obtain, franchisors are coming up with internal — and sometimes innovative — funding options.

This article from the Wall Street Journal discusses the lack of traditional funding and how franchisors are solving the problem.

• Edible Arrangements International Inc. has come up with their own financing division, named Farid Capital, to provide funding for new franchisees.
• Dunkin’ Donuts, among other franchisors, has reduced the royalties franchisees pay.
• Quiznos has started a new program in which franchisees pay a low down-payment (according to the article $5,000) and pays Quiznos 80% of their profits until the loan for the store has been paid off.

Interesting article.  With SBA lenders still returning, it’s great that franchisors are providing other ways for potential franchisees to join their systems.