Growth Club
1851 Growth Club
Top Franchise Suppliers: Business Services
10 industry suppliers to watch.
Franchising is all about support. Franchisees may cite any number of reasons for investing in their concept, but the support provided by the franchisor is always near the top of the list. And it’s not just franchisees who rely on support to grow their business. Franchisors, too, rely on a diverse roster of third-party services to help grow their systems, market their brands, refine their systems and provide a range of other services.
We rounded up 10 of the top business-service providers in the franchise industry. This list includes services for marketing, development, consulting and more, but each company is dedicated to helping franchise brands offer a stronger opportunity for franchisees and a better product for customers.
Apex Franchise Development Group**
Apex Franchise Development Group’s flagship offering is dedicated development services for both emerging and established franchise brands, allowing franchisors to focus on operations rather than tracking down leads for new franchisee prospects. But Apex also offers an extensive menu of consulting services in other areas for franchisors, including marketing, business analytics and organizational development. Apex customizes its services to the needs of each franchisor it works with, developing a unique growth strategy to help brands of every size reach the next level.
Billing themselves as “online marketing and conversion-rate optimization experts and one of the top digital agencies in the USA,” Blue Corona is a digital marketing company that offers a range of marketing services for small, medium and enterprise businesses. From its offices in Maryland and North Carolina, Blue Corona provides online marketing services for business across the country. For franchisors, one of Blue Corona’s most valuable offerings is it SEO service, which can establish an expansive digital footprint designed to target both consumers and investors. Because Blue Corona works with businesses of all sizes, their services are available and effective for both franchisors and franchisees.
Compared to some of the other companies on this list, EZ CERT Management has a fairly narrow focus, dedicated exclusively to providing insurance-compliance management for franchisors. But that singular focus has made EZ CERT the authority in an area that has proven to be cumbersome and time-consuming for franchisors, particularly larger brands with many units across state lines. Every franchisee has a range of insurance requirements, many of which vary from state to state, and because a franchisor can be held liable for an underinsured franchisee, it’s essential that every franchisee remain fully compliant. EZ CERT tracks and manages insurance certificates to ensure franchisees are meeting the insurance coverages required by a franchise’s FDD.
FranConnect provides an extensive array of software solutions exclusively for franchise brands. The brand’s flagship offering, FranConnect Sky, is a cloud-based franchise management program that allows franchisors track and manage their entire franchise system in with an intuitive and streamlined UI. For franchisees, FranConnect’s management software allows area managers and multi-unit operators to measure and optimize each of their units. To date, FranConnect’s services have been adopted by more than 700 franchisors and more than 110,000 franchisees, making FranConnect the most widely used franchise-specific software provider in the world.
The FRM in FRM Solutions stands for Franchise Relationship Management, and it is that focus on relationships that distinguishes FRM Solutions from other franchise consulting services. FRM Solutions is dedicated to improving and supporting the relationships between franchisees and customers and between franchisors and franchisees. FRM’s software provides tools for franchisees to track and analyze their store-level performance. For franchisors, FRM allows oversight and insight into the entire franchise system and helps optimize every aspect of the operation, from franchise recruitment to operations support to FDD compliance.
Founded just five years ago RainTree has quickly become one of the most sought-after service providers in the franchise industry. Focused solely on franchise development, RainTree relies on strong relationships with brokers, portals and media vendors to provide comprehensive franchise sales strategies for its clients. And because the world of franchise development is always changing, RainTree works to constantly update and adapt its approach, staying ahead of trends offering new and innovative ways to market franchise opportunities. To date, RainTree has helped sell nearly 1000 franchise opportunities for its clients.
Offering marketing services for small businesses and franchise brands of all sizes, SeoSamba boasts a uniquely adaptable and customizable menu of services. The company’s “Do It Yourself” option provides turnkey digital marketing software a la carte, while the “Do It For Me” option provides a full-service package, including strategy and execution. Franchisees can use SeoSamba to optimize and signal-boost their consumer sites or step up their local marketing efforts, and franchisors can beef up their development strategies with SeoSamba’s franchise recruitment programs. SeoSamba currently has thousands of small-business and franchise clients around the world and offers its software in 14 languages.
Since 2009, SMB Franchise Advisors has helped more than 200 brands transition into franchising. But the company does not work exclusively with emerging franchisors. A full-service consultancy for franchisors of all sizes, SMB Franchise Advisors proposes strategies and solutions for any hurdle a franchise brand may face. Whether yours is an emerging brand looking to perfect your operational model, a mid-size brand looking to scale up your development efforts, or a legacy franchise in the midst of a brand refresh, SMB Franchise Advisors works closely with your leadership team to pinpoint any potential difficulties and develop a strategy to move past them.
BoeFly is an online marketplace that connects commercial investors with the most appropriate lenders for their projects. Even for experienced business owners, the financing process can be a mysterious and convoluted process, with lenders’ vetting thresholds shifting with every change in the market. BoeFly was designed to simplify the process by helping business owners prepare financing requests for the lenders most likely to deliver based on the candidate’s credit profile and investment plan. BoeFly also helps franchisors qualify candidates, offering full criminal background checks, credit checks and financial pre-qualification of applicants.
Zoho’s multi-channel CRM software includes more than 40 integrated applications to help businesses manage and automate their systems. Though Zoho’s software was not developed specifically for franchising, its applications in the industry are many. From sales and marketing to finance management to communication tools, Zoho provides any number of tools to help large franchise brands track, manage and optimize their entire systems. Currently, Zoho boasts more than 35 million users and supports some of the biggest companies in the world, including Amazon, Facebook, Netflix and Discovery.
*Brands marked with an asterisk are clients of 1851 Franchise or No Limit Agency*.
*This brand is a paid partner of 1851 Franchise. For more information on paid partnerships please click here.
