Resource Center
Your one-stop-shop for tools, templates, whitepapers, videos, webinars and more to increase franchisee satisfaction and employee engagement to improve performance and accelerate growth. It’s all the resources you could possibly need, organized in one, easy-to-find place.
RESOURCES
2024 Franchising at WORK Key Findings
Watch the presentation of the key findings from the 2024 Franchising at Work Employee Engagement study of over 12,000 franchise employees.
Franchising at Work Report
Download the annual Franchising at Work Study for key findings and industry benchmarks around job satisfaction, well-being, culture, and employee engagement within the franchise sector.
Franchisee Survey Comparison Checklist
Make sure you’re getting the most value from your franchisee survey partner. This handy checklist will help you track the services offered.
FBR Industry Report: Low-Cost Franchises
Download the latest industry report for the key takeaways and trends from satisfaction surveys of over 11,000 franchise owners across 140 low-cost franchise brands.
Resources for LGBTQIA+ Entrepreneurs and Franchisees
Share this list of helpful resources for LGBTQ entrepreneurs with franchisees and candidates interested in joining your franchise system.
FBR Industry Report: Women in Franchising
Download the latest report for the key takeaways and trends from satisfaction surveys of over 8,500 women franchise owners.
7 Danger Zones of Franchise Performance
Each year, Franchise Business Review surveys thousands of franchise owners to benchmark satisfaction in the areas most critical to franchise performance. This year’s data revealed seven surprising “danger zones” that negatively impact system success.
Random Acts of Kindness in Franchising Checklist
With more organizations focused on creating a positive culture, there is a place for kindness in business, and we’re here to promote and celebrate those that spread kindness. With that in mind, we created our “Random Acts of Kindness in Franchising” checklist to recognize those little things that make a big difference.
Franchising at Work Awards Entry Kit
Franchise Business Review's Franchising at Work Awards honor franchise companies that have created an outstanding workplace culture and that make employee engagement a top business priority. Download the official Franchising at Work Awards Entry Kit to find out how to qualify.
Franchising Content Calendar
Content marketing is a must for so many reasons - brand awareness, thought leadership, customer engagement, and of course, SEO. But without thoughtful advance planning, it can be challenging to keep all the moving parts of your content strategy on track. This free, customizable franchising editorial calendar will help you plan your content strategy for the year and keep track of key dates and events for pushing out your content.
5 Things The Progressive Brands Do to Support Their Franchisees
Download this free resource for insights drawn from AC Inc's work with franchise systems worldwide to learn what the most progressive franchise brands are doing to modernize franchisee support.
We Asked a Franchisee How He Chose a Franchise Brand: Here’s What He Said
Franchise Business Review interviewed Chris Willems, who invested in a Two Men And A Truck franchise. Chris shares how Franchise Business Review’s research played a major role in his due diligence process and ultimately led him to select Two Men And A Truck from the 10 brands he was considering.
[eBook] The 10 Biggest Roadblocks to Franchise Performance
Download this free eBook to uncover the hidden roadblocks to franchise growth and learn how to increase franchise performance by building a system of satisfied, growth-minded franchise owners.
How Trust Impacts the Bottom Line in Franchising
Dave Hansen of Client Tether and FBR president & COO Michelle Rowan dig into the complexities of the franchisee-franchisor relationship and why trust is the most important thing for franchisors to get right.
Unlock Your Franchise’s Potential and Cultivate an Inclusive Environment
Learn how franchise organizations can incorporate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives to strengthen engagement, trust and loyalty—from employees, franchisees, and customers.
Hot Dish Advertising: Employee Engagement Case Study
Learn how the leadership team at Hot Dish Advertising used FBR's employee survey data to increase employee commitment and accountability.
Wild Birds Unlimited: Employee Engagement Case Study
How Wild Birds Unlimited used FBR’s employee engagement survey to improve communication and better align teams across the organization.
Promoting Diversity in Franchising
Download these tips to find out how you can combat barriers to diversity in franchising and promote the economic power of franchising to diverse entrepreneurs and communities.
Massage Heights: Employee Engagement Case Study
Learn how the Massage Heights leadership team used FBR's employee engagement survey data to positively impact employee well-being and culture.
Franchise Hiring Guide
Top talent is getting harder to find and even harder to retain. If employee recruitment and retention are a concern for your franchise organization, this hiring guide is a must-read to make sure your hiring and retention strategies outperform other companies competing for the best employees.
[eBook] How to Design an Effective Franchisee Vision Plan Program
This three-step guide is a must-read for any franchisor that wants to increase franchisee satisfaction and improve performance across your system.
How to Assess Franchise Business Coach Effectiveness
How can you ensure your franchisees are getting top-notch support? Start with a 360° skills assessment of your FBCs using these free templates.
A Crash Course in the World of Franchising
This industry primer was created to introduce newcomers to the world of franchising, with tips and pointers to help get up to speed quickly on everything franchising.
The Future of Hiring Within the Franchise Sector
Webinar: Hear from franchise leaders that have designed innovative, award-winning programs to increase employee engagement, retain top talent and build a winning franchise culture.
Franchising Outlook 2022: FBR Industry Report
FBR surveyed nearly 30,000 franchise business owners, thousands of corporate and unit-level employees, and hundreds of franchise leaders to fully understand the current state of franchising and expectations for growth of the franchise sector in 2022.
Franchising Outlook 2022 Presentation
FBR presents the key findings and takeaways from our research on the current state of franchising and the expectations for growth in 2022.
FBR Industry Report: Most Profitable Franchises 2021
Franchise Business Review surveyed nearly 30,000 franchise owners to find out if their businesses are meeting their financial expectations and which franchises present the most profitable opportunities for would-be franchisees. Download the free report.
Strategies & Advice for Optimizing Your Franchise Operations
In this webinar, hosted by FranConnect, a standout panel of Franchise Operations experts share data-driven insights and best practices gleaned from a lifetime of coaching franchisors on driving franchisee performance and satisfaction, ensuring franchisee compliance and creating engagement and alignment.
FBR Industry Report: Food Franchises 2021
See the key findings and takeaways from FBR's 2021 franchisee satisfaction research into the food franchise sector based on surveys of over 10,220 franchise owners.
Increasing Franchisee Engagement Through Peer Groups
This workbook is for franchisors who want to use peer groups as an effective tool to begin, enhance, regain, improve, or maintain franchisee engagement in order to achieve measurable results in their franchise system.
Building a Franchise Advisory Council That Gets Results
Franchise Advisory Councils are a critical business and relationship-building tool: They build franchisee loyalty and trust, increase support and buy-in to corporate initiatives, create better programs, and minimize resistance to change. This workbook is for franchisors who are considering creating an (FAC) but aren’t sure where or how to start.
Six Strategies for Turning Low Satisfaction Scores into a Win
Learn six key strategies to effectively use your survey results to strengthen personal connections with your franchisees, build a culture of transparency, and get franchisees excited about their future with the brand.
The Ultimate Guide to Employee Engagement for Franchises
Download this free eBook to learn why employee engagement matters, how to measure and benchmark your team's engagement, and how to recruit & retain top franchise employees.
Top 5 Drivers of Franchise Performance
These are the five key areas that separate the very best brands from the competition and lead to high franchisee satisfaction and performance.
Making the Grade: How The Learning Experience Increased Customer Satisfaction by 42% During the Pandemic
Learn how The Learning Experience franchise system measures feedback from customers and how they were able to increase customer satisfaction dramatically during the pandemic despite the formidable challenges facing the education and child services sectors.
The CEO’s Guide to Creating and Maintaining a Positive Culture in Franchising
This eBook examines the three foundational components of a positive franchise culture—and provides practical advice for franchise leadership teams for creating and maintaining a culture that leads to greater productivity and profitability.
Any Lab Test Now: The Rx for Franchisee Engagement
CASE STUDY: Learn how Any Lab Test Now implemented FBR's survey to increase response rates and, in turn, used the data to improve communication and franchisee engagement.
What It Means to Be an FBR Award Winning Brand
Being named a 2021 Top Franchise is an objective, third-party endorsement of the franchise brands that have stepped up to provide EXCEPTIONAL support and leadership during the crises this year. Watch now to see what it means to be an FBR Franchisee Satisfaction Award Winner.
Enforcing Compliance with System Standards While Maintaining Franchise Relations
Download key takeaways from the session, Enforcing Compliance with System Standards While Maintaining Franchise Relations, at the IFA's Emerging Franchisors Virtual Conference.
Franchise Business Plan eBook
As the franchising environment changes, now, more than ever, it's important to help franchisees create effective franchise business plans. This eBook equips you with everything you need to get started and provide proactive support.
How 360clean Closed 5 Deals in 5 Months During the Pandemic
Learn how 360clean was able to reduce the average deal length by two-to-four weeks using FBR’s lead generation and validation programs, and close five deals in five months during the pandemic.
Franchise Employee Culture in the New Normal
As the country continues to reopen or increase restrictions again amidst the ongoing pandemic, what are the big takeaways for franchise companies? FBR talks with franchisors two franchisors to learn how they responded, how they adapted their communication and culture while the country was mostly in lock down, and how employee engagement data can be used to improve employee relations as we move forward.
Disrupting the Lifecycle
Franchisee validation is a clear and measurable indicator of operational soundness; however, the typical franchisee lifecycle shows that a new franchisee’s satisfaction usually declines after a few years – which can negatively affect validation and franchise sales. Learn unique approaches franchisors are taking to mitigate or break the franchisee lifecycle and turn those programs (and their franchisees) into a development tool.
How Innovation Can Drive Sales and Profitability
In these live case studies, learn how forward-thinking brands are using operational innovation as a differentiator to bring in more candidates, award more franchises, and ultimately, drive unit-level profitability.
Bringing Your Ops and Development Stars into Alignment
Operations and development don’t always go hand in hand. In practice, however, these two functions need to be closely aligned to create a positive and profitable culture. This session brings together brand leaders from both sides of the house to share strategies and best practices for aligning their teams.
5 Operations Pitfalls That Are Stunting Your Franchise Growth
Leaders from five of the most experienced operations companies in franchising share the biggest operations pitfalls franchisors encounter - and what you can do about it to accelerate franchise growth.
Why Franchisee Satisfaction Is a Critical Element of Your Validation and Growth Strategy
FranNet hosts Franchise Business Review to help franchisors understand why franchisee satisfaction is a critical element of their validation and growth strategy. Hear from leading franchisors who are using franchisee satisfaction data to speed up the validation process and help brokers close more deals, faster.
Shifting Mindsets: The Role of Culture in Aligning Teams for Success
There’s a disconnect between the C-Suite and other corporate staff when it comes to their views on how aligned their operations and development teams are. This webinar explores the role culture plays in alignment and strategies for getting ALL teams on the same page.
TWO MEN AND A TRUCK: Making Moves that Delight Customers and Franchisees
CASE STUDY: Learn how Two Men and a Truck uses a data-driven approach to providing top-notch franchisee support and, in turn, attracting high quality leads.
15-Minute Franchise Crash Courses
Want to learn how some of the most successful companies in franchising achieving top performance? Watch these free franchise crash courses for practical tips and real-life examples you can easily implement in your own system.
Franchise Report Card
Franchise companies only achieve sustainable success and growth when their franchisees are satisfied with their performance. And the most satisfied franchisees feel that their franchisor is invested in their personal success. If you want to build a system where everyone wins, you need an action plan. That means understanding what you’re doing well and where you can improve. Start by downloading this free franchise report card to rate your system.
357 Franchise Field Audit Questions
Are you looking for inspiration on your field audit questions? Download FranchiseBlast's "357 franchise field audit questions" now including Customer Service, Marketing, Food Safety and Quality, Cleanliness and Management.
Women in Franchising 2019 Infographic
Franchise Business Review compiled survey feedback collected over 18 months from 8.,800 female franchisees representing 266 franchise brands. 88% of female franchisees say they enjoy operating their business. Learn what the data shows about flexibility, financial expectations, income, and more.
TWO MEN AND A TRUCK: Thinking Outside the (Moving) Box
Read this case study to see the creative approach the TWO MEN AND A TRUCK development team took to differentiate the brand, attract quality candidates, and accelerate the sales process.
Creating a Positive Culture in Franchising
This whitepaper by Roger McCoy, Franchise Business Consultant at Direct Energy, explores what determines an organization's culture, why franchises are even more dependent on culture than other business models, the foundations required for building a positive culture, and the role of franchise leadership in creating a positive culture that in order to drive productivity and profitability.
Women in Franchising 2018 Infographic
Franchise Business Review compiled survey feedback collected over 18 months from 5,723 female franchisees representing 240 franchise brands. Overall, female franchisees overall say their work/life is balanced or very balanced.
Franchisee Satisfaction and Your Bottom Line: Real-World Case Studies
We often hear that the data we provide has helped our clients identify key issues among their franchisees, but it can sometimes be difficult to put an operational value on tracking franchisee attitudes. In this webinar, we speak with three franchisors about how moving the needle on satisfaction has also helped them grow their brand, both in same-store sales and new development.
Councils, Committees, and Advocates: Best Practices for Leveraging Franchisee Input and Rolling Out Changes
A system with 500 franchisees handles communications very differently than one with 25, but regardless of size, franchisees demand that their voices be heard and respected -- and rightfully so. Still, finding the optimal strategy to solicit feedback, make decisions, and roll out changes while making sure everyone feels represented can be extremely difficult for any brand. Our panelists discuss how a brand of any size can create efficient, open communication channels to keep both franchisor and franchisees happy.
Rising Tides: How Sharing Unit Level Data System-Wide Benefits Everyone
We've often discussed the importance of collecting and analyzing unit-level data to help franchisees improve their profitability and grow their bottom line. This time, we focus specifically on WHY it's important not just to collect the data, but to share it with the entire system. Our panelists discuss what they share, how they overcome franchisee pushback, and what benefits they've seen by making this data available system-wide.
Tech Talk: Implementing the Right Technology at the Right Time for Your Franchisees
If every franchise brand had a fully integrated, customized, easy to use, modular, cost-effective technology platform for their franchisees, operations would run very smoothly. Unfortunately, the perfect tech options seem too expensive for the brands that need them most and the questions involved with moving from one platform to another can quickly halt a much-needed upgrade. In this webinar, we speak with panelists who can clarify how to make the choice in platforms, when to make the investment, and the most seamless ways to roll out a new system.
Creating Franchisee Vision Plans (and Aligning Them with the CEO’s Vision)
Franchisees are motivated by the potential to realize their dreams. Unfortunately, it can become very easy to lose sight of the long-term goals while dealing with the short-term challenges within the business. Working with franchisees to put their vision in writing can help them to stick to it and track their own progress, and helps YOU to make sure their vision stays aligned with the brand's so that both parties are working toward common goals.
The Tipping Point: Best Practices for Closing Franchise Deals
You’ve nurtured ideal franchisees all the way through the sales pipeline; now all that’s left is to sign on the dotted line. This webinar will take you through practical strategies for closing franchise deals, including using discovery days and shadow programs, why you should reveal the good AND the bad to candidates, tools (checklists, templates, FAQs) to speed up validation, and how to deal with candidates who sabotage the validation process.
Wooing the Sophisticated Multi-Unit Franchisee
Today 55% of the franchise industry is controlled by multi-unit unit operators. But landing a multi-unit operator can sometimes feel like reeling in a whale. This webinar will help you better understand what sophisticated multi-unit candidates look for when seeking a brand and how they evaluate it. You’ll learn tips and techniques for adapting your development process to multi-unit candidates and how to make your brand more attractive to the lenders that finance them.
Attracting Better (Not More) Candidates: Finding the Right Franchisees
Everyone wants more leads, but increasing the number of leads coming in doesn’t do you any good unless they’re quality leads. Listen to franchise development experts share their experience about what works best, tactics for marketing your brand to candidates, how to get more referrals, and how to convert more leads by being transparent throughout the sales process.
What Story Is Your Item 19 Telling?
More than ever, savvy franchise buyers are honing in on your FDD’s Item 19. After all, it’s the closest they can get to answering the burning question, “How much money can I expect to make?” FBR's President & COO Michelle Rowan shares three need-to-know tips to make your Item 19 accurate and engaging.
Franchisee Satisfaction Data Among Emerging Brands
Looking at franchisee satisfaction data spanning a recent 18-month period, franchisees of Emerging brands showed a more positive sentiment in several key areas compared to all franchise owners Franchise Business Review surveyed.
The Link Between Franchisee Satisfaction and Performance
Franchise Business Review's data shows that brands with high franchisee satisfaction drastically outperform brands with low satisfaction on every key performance metric. This graphic illustrates the gap between brands in the top quartile of satisfaction and brands in the bottom quartile in annual unit growth, royalty revenue, franchisee turnover, and franchisee income.
5 Creative Ideas for Discovery Days
Discovery days are an integral part of every brand’s development process. FBR's President & COO Michelle Rowan shares shares the top five creative ideas shared by leaders from: Smoothie King, Mathnasium, College Hunks Hauling Junk, Right at Home, and InXpress in FBR's Development Webinar Series.
4 Warning Signs of Franchisee Dissatisfaction
Using the data Franchise Business Review has collected from over 1,100 franchise brands, we've identified four warning signs that indicate that your franchisees are unhappy or disengaged - which means your system is at risk. FBR's Michael Kupfer talks about what you need to watch out for.
Three Things All CEOs Need to Know
The most successful CEOs lead by taking cues from what their franchisees are saying. Learn the three things that ALL CEOs should be doing if they truly care about the health and wealth of their system.
3 Ways You’re Wasting Money
Nobody likes to waste money, but time and again, we see franchisors making simple mistakes that are costing them. In under three minutes, FBR's President & COO Michelle Rowan shares three ways you could be losing money - without even knowing it. Watch now to find out if your system is at risk and learn how to fix it.
4 Ways to Attract More Multi-Unit Franchisees
Attracting multi-unit franchisees isn’t as simple as just saying you want them. Michelle Rowan, President & COO of Franchise Business Review shares four ways our most successful clients are bringing more multi-unit owners into their system.
5 Easy, Low-Cost Ways to Boost Growth: 5-Minute Fridays
Franchisee satisfaction can have a direct impact on your bottom line - but it doesn’t have to cost you a lot. FBR's President and COO, Michelle Rowan, shares five easy tips that don't require a budget to help you boost the growth of your franchise system.
How Sandler Training Ties Franchisee Feedback to Continuous Growth
Dave Mattson, CEO of Sandler Training, explains why Sandler surveys with Franchise Business Review, and shares his thoughts on why franchisees find it valuable as well as how Sandler uses their feedback to make continuous improvements and grow the brand.
Quiz: Find Your Perfect Franchisee Match
Is your current lead strategy getting you a million first dates, but no commitment? Do your leads seem great online but turn out to be duds? Are they putting out the vibe that they’re interested but never return your calls? Take our two-minute quiz to find out if your lead strategies are getting you to the final commitment ceremony or you’re losing out on great relationships.
How to Use Franchisee Satisfaction Data As Part of Your Content Marketing Strategy
Producing content is easy. Producing GOOD content is a lot harder - especially if you have limited resources. In this five-minute video, FBR’s franchise marketing guru, Michael Kupfer, shares three easy tips for leveraging franchisee satisfaction data to produce GREAT content - and speed up the buying cycle.
Data Sharing as the New Franchise Industry Standard
Franchise candidates today expect transparency. They want access to data early on when researching franchise opportunities. In under five minutes, FBR President & COO Michelle Rowan shares TWO tips for leveraging franchisee satisfaction data online to give candidates the information they expect - AND speed up your development efforts.
Re-Engaging Senior Franchisees: 5-Minute Fridays
It's no secret that franchise owners' performance plateaus over the years. So how do you keep them engaged? FBR's CEO, Eric Stites, shares the most common challenges facing franchisors and tips for re-engaging senior franchisees in this short 5-minute video.
Franchisee Satisfaction 101: 5-Minute Fridays
Want to learn how to start building better relationships with your franchisees? In under five minutes, FBR President Michelle Rowan shares two things you can do RIGHT NOW to build trust and start winning over your franchisees.
Case Study: Golden Corral’s Golden Ticket
Learn how the Golden Corral franchise system more than doubled its franchisee satisfaction survey participation - and lived up to its commitment to giving its operators a voice - by partnering with Franchise Business Review.
Women in Franchising
Franchise Business Review asked the franchise industry to nominate the women leading the way in franchising through exceptional leadership, knowledge, and creativity. This special report highlights some of the nominations we received, along with franchisee satisfaction data around women franchisees, resources, and advice from franchisors on building a more profitable system.
Infographic: What a Typical Multi-Unit Franchisee Looks Like
This infographic captures data from Franchise Business Review’s franchisee satisfaction research on the top 50 multi-unit franchises for 2017. The research is based on surveys of 9,125 multi-unit franchisees representing 317 franchise brands.
5 Tips for Overcoming Analysis Paralysis
Whether the thought of analyzing data fills you with dread, or you just don’t know where to start, this 30-minute webinar will help even the most data-phobic franchisor understand how to use your data to drive your strategic efforts and start outperforming your competitors.
eBook: The [Franchise] Happiness Project
If you can commit to focusing on one area to work on each month and embedding it into your corporate culture, you may find that a step-by-step approach to change can end up making a big difference. This eBook lay out 12 best practices you can implement over the course of a year to increase satisfaction and improve productivity.
Moving the Needle: 5 Ways to Turn Dissatisfied Franchisees into Brand Champions
This 30-minute webinar will show you how to turn poor franchisee satisfaction into an opportunity to positively impact your bottom line and get franchisees excited about their future with the brand.
Maximizing Franchise Advisory Councils
There is an art to properly running a Franchise Advisory Council. Download this whitepaper from Ingage Consulting to learn how you can maximize the effectiveness of your council.
Awarding More Franchises to Top Performers
Learn how successful brands "sell franchises" differently and tips for tweaking your development process to recruit more star performers.
Closing the Franchisee Performance Gap
Learn where the most common franchisee performance gaps exist and five tips for building a network of engaged, highly successful franchisees.
[whitepaper] Maximizing Franchisee Surveys
This whitepaper from Ingage Consulting outlines best practices for maximizing franchisee surveys to develop and nurture a highly engaged franchisee organization.
Quiz: Do Your Franchisees Love You?
Do you really know how your franchisees are feeling… or saying to your franchise candidates? Take this two-minute quiz to find out if your franchisees really love the brand or if you’ve still got some work to do.
New Ideas to Close More Franchise Deals
Closing deals with prospective franchisees doesn’t have to take up valuable time and resources. In this 30-minute webinar, learn five tips for closing deals more easily and efficiently.
High-Performing Business Development for Franchisors
In this special report, franchisors share their development challenges and how they’ve addressed them to improve performance. In addition, it features practical advice and tools to help you attract better candidates and close more deals with the right franchisees.
Best Practices in Franchise Surveys: Boefly Webinar
Hear franchise experts share best practices in using surveys.
Five Tips for Emerging Brands
Grow your brand the right way. Learn what top emerging brands are doing to grow their brands and cash in on franchisee satisfaction--and how you can, too.
Donatos’ Missing Piece of the Pie
Learn how Donatos partnered with Franchise Business Review to see how how they stacked up against their competitors and make a measurable impact on system performance.
Turbocharge Franchise Development by Inspiring Financial Confidence
Learn how one pizza franchise brand turbocharged franchise development and achieved a 14-times higher lead-to-sale conversion rate by partnering with Boefly.
How Marco’s Pizza Has Achieved Revenue Growth of 23.5%
Marco’s Pizza opened 113 stores in 2015, with revenue growth of 23.5% over the previous year. President and Chief Operating Officer, Bryon Stephens, shares some of the strategic revenue boosting approaches the brand has taken.
BEST PRACTICE: Recruiting Franchisees from Within Your Company
There are many advantages to recruiting franchisees from within your company. Randy Shacka, who began working at TWO MEN AND A TRUCK as an intern and is now its president, shares his thoughts about doing so.
The 2016 Smart Ideas Project
FBR Insights, Issue No. 1, Spring 2016 We asked franchisors across North America to share the innovative ways they’re moving the needle on franchise performance. Our goal was simple: to gather the collective brainpower across top franchise brands and share as many smart ideas as possible on ways to improve business performance. The results are compiled here in the 2016 Smart Ideas project, the first in our series of reports for exclusively for franchise professionals.