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<div id="pastingspan1" style=""><span style="">2016 is off to a fast start, and spring has already sprung. As it has since, well, 1851 &#8211; the franchise industry continues to hum along. FranNet, a franchise consulting company with over 25 years of experience and more than 100 consultants across North America, is a good measuring stick of the industry overall. </span></div><div id="pastingspan1" style=""><span style=""><br /></span></div><div id="pastingspan1" style=""><span style="">1851 recently spoke with <a href="http://www.frannet.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=franchisings-gears-are-turning-frannet-ceo-jania-bailey-and-frannet-vice-president-of-marketing-and-pr-john-blair-share-insight-on-industry-trends-4671" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">FranNet</a> CEO Jania Bailey and FranNet Vice President of Marketing and PR John Blair to discuss the first few months of 2016.</span></div><div id="pastingspan1" style=""><span style=""><br /></span></div><div id="pastingspan1"><span style=""><strong>After the first four months of 2016, how are things going at FranNet?</strong></span></div><div id="pastingspan1"><span style=""><strong>Jania Bailey</strong>: We&#8217;re way ahead of last year. We&#8217;re ahead of budget and ahead of sales.</span></div><div id="pastingspan1" style=""><span style=""><br /></span></div><div id="pastingspan1"><span style=""><strong>What do you think is the reason for that?</strong></span></div><div id="pastingspan1"><span style=""><strong>Jania Bailey</strong>: We started seeing it in the 4th quarter last year &#8211; things just started breaking loose.  We are a good gauge of the industry overall. When there is fear and reluctance overall, no one is selling. When people are a little more optimistic, we sell.</span></div><div id="pastingspan1" style=""><span style=""><br /></span></div><div id="pastingspan1"><span style=""><strong>John Blair</strong>: It&#8217;s an odd year. Around election years there is a little uncertainty about what the new president might bring, what&#8217;s going to happen in Congress. But it seems like people aren&#8217;t worrying about it &#8211; they&#8217;re grabbing their own future. At the end of the day, they&#8217;re realizing that government isn&#8217;t ultimately going to dig you out. It&#8217;s almost becoming part of the culture. You need to grab your own future.</span></div><div id="pastingspan1" style=""><span style=""><br /></span></div><div id="pastingspan1"><span style=""><strong>Jania Bailey</strong>: (Laughing.) After the last administration, people are realizing that we can&#8217;t be worse off.</span></div><div id="pastingspan1" style=""><span style=""><br /></span></div><div id="pastingspan1"><span style=""><strong>Talk about that for a minute. Do you think the franchise industry is better off now as we wind down the Obama administration, or worse?</strong></span></div><div id="pastingspan1"><span style=""><strong>Jania Bailey</strong>: President Obama caused a lot of uncertainty and fear. It&#8217;s been something we&#8217;ve all had to maneuver through. Obamacare, the discussion about what is a full time employee, the NLRB and joint employer situation. He has done us no favors. Despite that &#8211; and I think it speaks to the resilience of the franchise model &#8211; we&#8217;ve continued to grow and create jobs.</span></div><div id="pastingspan1" style=""><span style=""><br /></span></div><div id="pastingspan1"><span style=""><strong>What issues are going to be most important for the next president to focus on for the franchise industry?</strong></span></div><div id="pastingspan1"><span style=""><strong>Jania Bailey</strong>: Being aware of who the job creators are is going to be important. These people are risking their own livelihood to create jobs. Obamacare needs to be repealed. The NLRB needs to be reined in. I&#8217;m not talking big mulit-national corporations. I&#8217;m talking about our business. This is where the job creation is coming from and we shouldn&#8217;t be penalized and punished for that.</span></div><div id="pastingspan1" style=""><span style=""><br /></span></div><div id="pastingspan1"><span style=""><strong>Talk about NLRB a little bit more. What is the worst case scenario here, and what do you hope is the end result?</strong></span></div><div id="pastingspan1"><span style=""><strong>Jania Bailey</strong>: The worst case scenario would be if they lump us all together as a joint employer. Someone needs to get a clue about how our model really works. The difference between franchisor and franchisee is important. They have to take an in-depth look. Our model is one that unless you&#8217;ve been in the industry, it&#8217;s difficult to understand. The normal person just thinks of McDonald&#8217;s. They don&#8217;t realize that there are individual franchisees out there who have risked their life savings. The NLRB needs to take their blinders off and truly understand our model.</span></div><div id="pastingspan1" style=""><span style=""><br /></span></div><div id="pastingspan1"><span style=""><strong>What are the hottest segments that you&#8217;re seeing so far in 2016?</strong></span></div><div id="pastingspan1"><span style=""><strong>Jania Bailey</strong>: The demand continues to grow for low-cost, semi-absentee retail opportunities. We&#8217;re seeing more and more people who are staying employed but are buying a franchise as a safety net. Any concepts that are semi-absentee and low-cost are going like hotcakes right now. They like proven concepts with a store front, that don&#8217;t require a super high initial investment.</span></div><div id="pastingspan1" style=""><span style=""><br /></span></div><div id="pastingspan1"><span style=""><strong>John Blair</strong>: We&#8217;re seeing some newer concepts pop up that are doing very well, like children&#8217;s hair care. Kids&#8217; party planning is a hot one right now too. Not sure if this is a trend but we&#8217;re starting to see some good movement there. Another thing that we&#8217;re seeing is a lot more women and Millennials that are getting involved in franchising. We&#8217;re still seeing a lot of men from corporate America, but seeing a lot more from those two segments joining the industry. We&#8217;re up 10% in male owners, but up 46% in female owners. Women have broken through the glass ceiling and are having a lot of C-suite jobs, but with that means that they are also becoming the victims of downsizing more so than ever before &#8211; which means they&#8217;re turning to franchising as an opportunity.</span></div><div id="pastingspan1" style=""><span style=""><br /></span></div><div id="pastingspan1"><span style=""><strong>Are there any other trends or interesting developments you&#8217;ve seen this year, or recently, in franchising and specifically at FranNet?</strong></span></div><div id="pastingspan1"><span style=""><strong>Jania Bailey</strong>: Women now have the investment opportunity that they never had before. If you&#8217;re coming out of a middle or lower management system, you might not be in a position to be a business owner, but the higher up you are, the better chance you can say, &#8220;I can do this.&#8221;</span></div><div id="pastingspan1" style=""><span style=""><br /></span></div><div id="pastingspan1"><span style=""><strong>What are your goals or hopes for the rest of 2016?</strong></span></div><div id="pastingspan1"><span style=""><strong>Jania Bailey</strong>: Beat last year. Do more deals. We want to continue to focus on the basics. Keep your nose to the grindstone, keep putting the customer first, and partner with good franchisors.</span></div><div style="   font-style: normal;"></div>

1851 Franchise

With 2016 almost halfway through, 1851 sat down with FranNet’s leadership to take the pulse of the industry and see what the rest of the year might hold

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Franchising’s Gears Are Turning. FranNet CEO Jania Bailey and FranNet Vice President of Marketing and PR John Blair Share Insight on Industry  Trends    

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Franchising’s Gears Are Turning. FranNet CEO Jania Bailey and FranNet Vice President of Marketing and PR John Blair Share Insight on Industry Trends

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