With Burger King (NYSE: BKC) announcing earnings Thursday, look for more drama as we go. Last week, Dow Jones Newswires reported that Burger King has agreed to defer “for now” the planned diversion of about 20% of the Coca Cola soda rebate, monies ordinarily paid to franchisees. This action is still the subject of a federal suit still pending in the Southern District of CA. Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported on criticism of BKC’s marketing focus on its core, heavy users and complaints the company had ignored children’s and dessert programs.  There’s also been a flurry of analyst speculation and four downgrades in the last 60 days (eight since May 2009), noting slow sales, franchisee unrest, and concern about a lighter ad fund budget as a...

Australias' Battery World Franchise lodges contentious Third Line Forcing Notification with the ACCC. Third Line Forcing describes a situation where a supply of goods or services is made on the condition that the purchaser buys goods or services from a third party or a refusal to supply because the purchaser will not accept those conditions. In the area of franchising, this is most easily explained as the right to operate the franchise, use of trademarks and other services on the condition that franchisees buy their goods or services from nominated or authorised suppliers. Third line forcing is prohibited unless a notification has been lodged with the ACCC and the ACCC is satisfied that the likely Public benefit will outweigh the Public detriment. Typically, franchisors...

McGraw-Hill’s publisher, Terry McGraw, revealed on Tuesday’s CNBC that the rumors of the Apple tablet are true and that 95% of their publications are ready for it.<!--break--> (See end of the video below.) Apple's CEO Steve Jobs today will stand up to introduce one of the most anticipated technology revelations in years. That bit of techie news will affect franchisees and small business investors. Here's why. Five years ago I predicted the power of social media for franchise and small business owners. With help, I launched the beginnings of Blue MauMau a year later. I built a highly interactive Blue MauMau platform to take advantage of the technology of the day, a Rolls Royce of such platforms. At that time, few in our industry knew much about social media. One kind of social media had...

Having spent ten years operating a franchised business, I’ve had first hand experience dealing with the day to day challenges of working with a franchisor that has some level of control over how my local business operates. It has been my experience that most conflicts between franchisee and franchisor can be explained by a breakdown in communication. Both parties often speak a slightly different language, have different measures of success and conflicting priorities. One of the businesses I most admire is JD Power. This business was based on a single individual’s belief that customer satisfaction is THE most important criteria for success. Understanding what motivates the customer, and then finding ways to best service them is the key to success. He convinced one auto company to...