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• Damn you COVID, leave our businesses alone
• But restaurant sales also skyrocketed last month

Franchisees Kicking Ass: The Franchisee Is King

The Great Franchisee: Felix Lopez, Amazing Athletes, Orlando

Frustrated with the lack of youth sports programs in his community, the Puerto Rican-born father took matters into his own hands, opening 7 territories with the youth sports franchise.

When sports-lover Felix Lopez’s son was four years old, he began showing the same passion for sports his father had, so Lopez enrolled him in a program with Amazing Athletes, the fast-growing youth sports franchise backed by multi-brand sports franchisor Youth Athletes United. Lopez’s son thrived in the program, but when the family moved to Orlando in 2017, they were unable to find a similarly enriching sports program. So Lopez decided to take matters into his own hands and bring Amazing Athletes to Orlando.

Since opening his first territory with Amazing Athletes in 2017, Lopez has opened an additional six throughout the Orlando and Tampa markets. He has developed partnerships with more than 70 local organizations, including schools, churches and community organizations to bring sports programming to children across the communities he serves.

Yo Broker, Sell My Franchise

Franchise Disclosure Documents, market analysis, franchisee interviews and legal interpretations are just a few ways that a prospective franchisee can familiarize themselves with a prospective brand to invest in. A comprehensive understanding is a necessity when it comes to investing a lot of money, and a defined strategy can help get a franchise unit up and running successfully.

Here are 10 tips from on how to perform this essential due diligence — and ensure that a franchise is operating to its fullest potential upon opening.

The Bottom Thoughts

I was recently talking with a franchisor about 2021 successes (he will know who he is :)). He said he wasn’t seeing many brands talk about their big giant growth of 2021. I said, that’s because 99 percent of brands probably didn’t hit those massive sales goals – or even if they did manage to build a pile of SNOWs, the openings are not happening at the pace they expected. My thoughts:

1. We still need a damaged economy to drive franchise sales. Most franchisees are risk averse, thus, they need something to trigger their move to the next thing.
2. Real estate is tight. It hasn’t loosened up. Brands need to get in front of this, as getting units open is what drives royalties.
3. People still want a good deal.
4. Franchise sales people are only as good as their last deal. It is tough. The deal count goes up every year. Many conversations go something like this – we want 30 deals next year. How many did you do last year? 10. So, triple the marketing spend? Nope, same spend. And you want triple the deals? Yeah? How? I don’t know, that’s your job. Thus…
5. Rarely do franchisors look at data and use that to drive actions…
6. Thus, those releases don’t get announced because they are disappointed.

Now, it’s Christmas time, so here’s a Christmas story.

Back when I was 7 or 8, my Jewish cousin (I was raised believing in the big guy and his leader with a red nose), told me he was fake.

I didn’t believe him.

That night, I wrote Santa a note explaining I knew he was real. And as long as he would bring me a cat, I would believe it forever.

Christmas day came, and i received a note and a gift. The note said, “Dear Nicholas, it was too cold on the sleigh, so, unfortunately, I couldn’t bring you a cat, but here’s a jean jacket instead.”

The point?

Even though my cousin had the data that St. Nicholas was my Mom & Dad, I didn’t believe him. And then, when I tested the waters, I was disappointed with some shitty jean jacket. That’s many franchisors. So, believe your Jewish cousin and get 2022 right :)

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.