Bacon’Que Sandwich Platter
Comfort food enthusiasts can enjoy seven new crave-able options through mid-August
Atlanta, GA  (RestaurantNews.com)  Huddle House, the 400-unit iconic restaurant franchise known for its comfort food, warm atmosphere and value pricing, is treating its fans this summer to the legendary tastes of Texas. The new limited-time menu dubbed “Big Taste of Texas,” which features breakfast, lunch and dinner entrees priced from $4.99 – $7.99, is available from April 28, through August 19…

The editorial team of FastCasual.com has announced its annual list of the vibrant restaurant segment’s most significant brands, people and trends. The downloadable “The 2013 Fast Casual Top 100 …Read more…

I am pleased to announce the launch of two new services that will be showcased at the National Restaurant Show in Chicago this month.
The Customer Engagement Console (CEC) is a tablet based kiosk that businesses can utilize within retail locations, hotels, restaurants, waiting rooms, and other key points of customer traffic to capture feedback from consumers in the moment of the experience, and dually serve to market to those customers and engage in a real time, interactive manner.
This latest technological advancement provides a unique way for companies to collect feedback in the moment of experience, and more importantly, capture feedback and sentiment from those who do not make purchases…

(Update (05/11/13): On May 10th LinkedIn posted this announcement on the LinkedIn blog: “At LinkedIn, we’re committed to putting our members first so we want to let you know we’re planning to update LinkedIn’s Privacy Policy in the next week.” Read the full post here.)
At this point I think that any person that joins a free social network is probably aware that nothing is really free. Even though no money changes hands, when you sign up for a social network account a transaction is initiated.
Your personal data in exchange for access to the network…

NRA Show attendees pursue new digital marketing solutions

NRA Show attendees pursue new digital marketing solutions
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By Chris Luo, VP of Marketing at FiveStars I recently ran my first half marathon, and as I reflected on the experience, I realized that the mindset needed for successful marathon running is very …Read more…

Restaurant industry leaders say employees are crucial to connecting with consumers
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This Harvard Business Review blog offers some tips for improving franchisor performance

It should be obvious to anyone reading these words that it is never a good idea to lie to a court of law.  That’s a pretty basic concept, right?  Lying in court documents is called “perjury,” and it’s a crime in every State in the union. 
So it’s always interesting to hear a story about someone who failed to grasp this fairly simple concept — and how they got caught doing it.  This time it was the Husains, longtime McDonald’s franchisees, who lied to a court in Northern California in litigation against their franchisor…

Operators and industry experts share tips for operators considering franchising
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Every week I conduct interviews with experts on #SmallBizChat. In honor of my 200th episode of my Twitter talk show, the tables have been turned and my co-host Amanda Miller Littlejohn, decided that my fans might want to hear from me. #Smallbizchat takes place every Wednesday on Twitter from 8-9 pm ET. This is excerpted from my interview on branding and social media marketing. Don’t forget to grab a copy of my latest ebook How to Become a Social Media Ninja; 101 Ways to Dominate Your Competition Online and join my #Smallbizchat group on LinkedIn to get even more information on building a strong business brand online…

Los Angeles-based fast casual pizza restaurant The Pizza Studio announced plans to open several new locations this summer and fall. The new restaurants join the 37 units currently in development …Read more…

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., May 17, 2013 /PRNewswire-iReach/ — Saladarity, a Green Fine Salad Company is a two unit fast casual healthy eating restaurant founded in 2004 that specializes in upscale, made-to-order, green leaf salads, soups, and salad wraps prepared exhibition…

Linkedin continues to make strides in making sure their site is as user friendly and efficient as possible. A recent update is definitely worth mentioning, as it can help you increase exposure in front of companies and contacts. 
You now have the option to include “mentions” in your status updates and discussions. Similar to tagging someone in Facebook, mentions will allow you to essentially “tag” other users you’re connected with or companies. Say you’ve written an article featuring a company, highlighting a recent accomplishment…

After years of research, an animal scientist looking for ways to keep inflammation down in cattle came up with a novel approach: feed them flax. The flax in their food helps keep animals healthy and has an added benefit for people who later eat their meat: omega-3 enriched beef.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Leading greeting card publisher and franchisor, Card Connection, has announced it is now the sole supplier to Blakemore Retail stores in the UK.

Los Angeles-based fast casual pizza restaurant The Pizza Studio announced plans to open several new locations this summer and fall. The new restaurants join the 37 units currently in development …Read more…

Fastest Growing Fast Casual Gives Away Free Barbecue for a Year
Vernal, UT  (RestaurantNews.com)  Dickey’s Barbecue Pit in Vernal is throwing a party on Friday, May 17 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. All attendees will receive Pulled Pork Big Barbecue sandwiches for only one dollar!
“We’re excited to be serving the Vernal community slow smoked barbecue,” said multi-unit owner John Thomson. “We can’t wait to see everyone on Friday for our big celebration.”
105.5 Eagle will be playing the top country hits while customers enter for a chance to win free barbecue for a year…

Guest Article
I’ve got news for you — when you’re building your social media profile (and not your email list), you’re setting yourself up for failure. Here’s why: Your goal with social media should be to drive traffic back to your own website.  Once your target lands there, you’d best have at least three ways to get them to give you their email address.  Without a way to follow-up with more helpful information, your chances of converting a visitor into a customer are quite slim…

Following on the heels of similar strikes in recent weeks in New York and Chicago, hundreds of St. Louis area fast food restaurant employees walked off the job May 9, which affected more than 30 area businesses including a number of fast food franchise businesses. The strikes spread to Detroit on May 10.
These employees joined a growing wave of protests over wages and other terms and conditions of employment in what is one of the fastest-growing segments in the U.S. labor market.
You may even remember similar actions by Wal-Mart employees on Black Friday in 2012…

In my 20-plus years of teaching and consulting with business owners and hiring managers about how to “hire tough so they can manage easy,” I’ve discovered there are 10 commonplace mistakes almost everyone makes that are guaranteed to result in bad hiring decisions and waste untold time, money, and effort.

By Jay Fiske, VP of Business Development & Marketing, Powerhouse Dynamics As the economy and the foodservice industry appear to be gaining steam, are you prepared to reap the full benefit? While …Read more…

It should be obvious to anyone reading these words that it is never a good idea to lie to a court of law.  That's a pretty basic concept, right?  Lying in court documents is called "perjury," and it's a crime in every State in the union.  So it's always interesting to hear a story about someone who failed to grasp this fairly simple concept — and how they got caught doing it.  This time it was the Husains, longtime McDonald's franchisees, who lied to a court in Northern California in litigation against their franchisor…

Fastest Growing Fast Casual Celebrates in Texas this Friday
Tyler, TX  (RestaurantNews.com)  Dickey’s Barbecue Pit in Tyler is throwing a grand opening event this Friday, May 17 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Guests will enjoy $1 Pulled Pork Big Barbecue sandwiches and will have the chance to win free barbecue for a year.
“Dickey’s is a very unique barbecue franchise,” said John Huml who owns and operates this location with his wife Nikki. “It feels like we’ve joined a family with the tremendous support from the corporate team and from our community that we have received…

You and the franchisor may use “advertising” to promote the sale of franchises, subject to the limitations discussed below.
“Advertising” includes website pages, Internet ads, magazine ads, newspaper ads, brochures, handouts, CDs and DVDs oriented to prospects. Less obviously perhaps, “advertising” includes blank pro formas given to prospects, form letters or emails used to communicate with prospects, and copies of published articles and other materials given to prospects. For purposes of this handbook, “advertising” does not include consumer-oriented materials, such as sample ads, menus or point-of-sale displays, shown or given to prospects…

It’s National Small Business Month and here are some quick ideas to jumpstart your small business for the second half of this year.
Have you updated your elevator pitch? When is the last time you sharpened your marketing plan? Do you have monthly sales goals? Are your business finances updated by the 15th of the month? Do you do at least one thing a day to generate sales? If you answered “no” to any of these questions, it’s not too late to start moving in the right direction.
Here are 6 things you could do today to generate a sale in your small business:
1)      Send a thank you note…

Fatburger has announced plans to enter the Indian market for the first time in the company’s 60-year history. The fast casual chain has agreed to a 25-unit deal with VAZZ Foods Private Limited, a …Read more…

This week I personally experienced the frustration of trying to download some online content where I wasn’t sure where to sign up, the form was not taking my information and after the order I could not find my PDF file to download.
Dysfunctional landing pages are bad enough but when I talk to some franchisor website owners I am always amazed at how many do not have any landing pages at all.
In a recent study by HubSpot and presented in my eBook, Lead Generation Lessons from 4,000 Businesses, websites with over 31 landing pages get 7 times more leads than websites with less than 5 while websites with over 40 landing pages get 12 times more leads…

McAlister’s Deli Awards The Saxton Group Franchisees of the Year
Awards Given at Annual Franchise Conference in Las Vegas
Alpharetta, GA  (RestaurantNews.com)  McAlister’s Deli™, a leading fast casual restaurant, awarded The Saxton Group and Southwest Deli with the Franchisee of the Year Award at its annual Franchise Conference in Las Vegas last week.
Led by Kelly Saxton , Dallas-based The Saxton Group owns and operates 53 McAlister’s restaurants in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri…

SACRAMENTO—The National Federation of Independent Business announced on Friday that it is supporting California's Senate Bill 610, a fair franchising amendment to California's existing Franchise Relations Act. The measure aims to protect owner-operators of franchised establishments by boosting legal standards of "good faith" and "fair dealing" and their right to associate with other like-minded small business owners without fear of retribution by a franchisor.
"Small businesses in California already face a mountain of uncertainty as they strive to create jobs, build the economy, and keep their doors open…

Marketing Matters

Marketer Laura Ries discusses the importance of consistency in a restaurant brand’s advertising message
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US fast food franchise Burger King opened its first SA store at midday on Thursday, 9 May 2013, in the centre of Cape Town to the blare of DJs‚ music and no speeches.

Following on the heels of similar strikes in recent weeks in New York and Chicago, hundreds of St. Louis area fast food restaurant employees walked off the job May 9, which affected more than 30 area businesses including a number of fast food franchise businesses. The strikes spread to Detroit on May 10. These employees joined a growing wave of protests over wages and other terms and conditions of employment in what is one of the fastest-growing segments in the U.S. labor market. You may even remember similar actions by Wal-Mart employees on Black Friday in 2012…

Arby’s chief marketing officer Russ Klein discusses what’s on the horizon for the chain from a marketing perspective
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HOUSTON, May 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Fuddruckers®, home of the “World’s Greatest Hamburgers®”, is cooking up a surprise for hometown fans this weekend, as the fast casual chain rolls into the 26th Annual Houston Art Car Parade for the second time.  Created around the…

INDIANAPOLIS, May 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Noble Roman’s, Inc. (OTC/BB: NROM), the Indianapolis based franchisor and licensor of Noble Roman’s Pizza and Tuscano’s Italian Style Subs, today announced results for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2013. 

First Quarter 2013…

Marketing leader discusses integrating newly acquired Romano’s Macaroni Grill

Marketing leader discusses integrating newly acquired Romano’s Macaroni Grill
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Every week as SmallBizLady, I conduct interviews with experts on my Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat. The show takes place every Wednesday on Twitter from 8-9 pm ET. This is excerpted from my recent interview with @Restaurant_Lady, Misty Young.  Known for her relentless approach to systems development in restaurant marketing, leadership, financials, operations and service, From Rags to Restaurants author, Misty Young is a tried and tested professional. Her own multimillion dollar restaurant chain, the Squeeze In, now has 4 locations…

Under the FTC’s Franchise Rule, a franchisor is permitted, but not required, to answer that all-important question asked by would-be franchise buyers: “How much Money Can I Make?”  
A franchisor that chooses to make a “financial performance representation” (“FPR”) must put the representation in its Franchise Disclosure Document (“FDD”). 
The representation can take one of two forms.  It can be: (1) an earnings claim based on historical performance of operating units; or (2) a projection of possible future performance…

New monthly feature explores ever-changing marketing landscape for restaurants

New monthly feature explores ever-changing marketing landscape for restaurants
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National Franchise Company Opens Newest Restaurant in Florida – Proudly Owned and Operated by the Dean Family

Kansas City-based SPIN! Neapolitan Pizza will not only sponsor free supervised bike rides for all ages and experience levels this summer, but the fast casual pizza concept will donate $1 (up to $3 …Read more…

Tabbedout, the merchant marketing and mobile payment solution provider for restaurants and bars, has expanded its partnership with the restaurant POS company Future POS. The partnership makes the …Read more…

Kansas City-based SPIN! Neapolitan Pizza will not only sponsor free supervised bike rides for all ages and experience levels this summer, but the fast casual pizza concept will donate $1 (up to $3 …Read more…

ALPHARETTA, Ga., May 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ – McAlister’s Deli™, a leading fast casual restaurant, awarded The Saxton Group and Southwest Deli with the Franchisee of the Year Award at its annual Franchise Conference in Las Vegas last week.

(Logo:…

Fast Casual Chain Brings Its Genuine Hospitality to 34th Annual Mississippi Picnic in Central Park
Alpharetta, GA  (RestaurantNews.com)  McAlister’s Deli™, a leading fast casual restaurant, announces its latest digital promotion that will bring one lucky winner and a guest to New York City for the 34th Annual Mississippi Picnic in Central Park.
“McAlister’s was founded in Mississippi, so we are thrilled to return to the Mississippi Picnic in the Park event for the eighth year to serve our Famous Sweet Tea,” said McAlister’s President and CEO Frank Paci…

Pro-active steps can improve the purchase price of a franchisor.

DUBAI — Executives of several America-based chains pitched their business models to a room filled with possible franchisees last month at the International Franchise Forum in Dubai. Three of …Read more…

The Nation’s Fastest Growing Fast Casual Chain Serves Dollar Sandwiches in Utah
Sandy, UT  (RestaurantNews.com)  Dickey’s multi-unit owner John Thomson is eager to celebrate National Barbecue month with a grand opening celebration in Sandy on Friday, May 10 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Guests will enjoy mouthwatering Pulled Pork Big Barbecue sandwiches for only one dollar and three lucky guests will win free barbecue for an entire year!
“Dickey’s offers true authentic pit smoked barbecue,” said Thomson, who owns and operates this location with his wife Jan…

Customers come in all shapes, sizes, and communication methods. Social media has given customers a new way to easily communicate with businesses, and, just like other channels of customer service, it allows for some…um, awkward situations that are now very public.
Consider the Twitter conversation between what I’d consider an awkward customer and Cineworld Cinemas.
An apparently unhappy customer was asking for the company to justify their ticket prices, and also accused the company of deleting the customer’s posts:

While this conversation went on for some time, and you can read the entire conversation here, it is a good illustration of how to handle customer complaints in social media, especially when they are customers who may be looking for a public argument…

Sponsored post
Running a small business is hard work, especially for a “mompreneur.” In many cases, you are doing the three full-time of jobs of wife, mother and business owner all at the same time. Every day you are doing more with less and trying to figure out how to get it all done smarter, cheaper and faster.  But remember, on the airplane the flight attendant always says you must put the oxygen mask on yourself first before helping anyone else. This idea is true in your business and personal life as well…

ADDISON, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Fiesta Restaurant Group, Inc. (“Fiesta” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: FRGI), the owner, operator, and franchisor of the Pollo Tropical® and Taco Cabana® fast-casual restaurant brands, today reported results for the first quarter of 2013 which ended on March 31, 2013. Highlights of First Quarter 2013 Results Include: Total revenues increased 5.9% to $133.6 million compared to $126.1 million in the prior year period; Comparable restaurant sales increased 3.8% at Pollo

Under the FTC's Franchise Rule, a franchisor is permitted, but not required, to answer that all-important question asked by would-be franchise buyers: "how much money can I make?"  A franchisor that chooses to make a "financial performance representation" ("FPR") must put the representation in its Franchise Disclosure Document ("FDD"). The representation can take one of two forms.  It can be: (1) an earnings claim based on historical performance of operating units; or (2) a projection of possible future performance…

Can they see me?
Guest Article
Tracking where and how your employees spend their time is critical, especially for service-oriented companies that bill per hour. It’s also important to understand what the overall productivity level is of your employees, especially those who work from home. It’s not that you don’t trust your employees, but when you measure something, people tend to be a lot more serious about it. Here are some ways to make the process of employee time tracking easier…
Keep an eye on employees even when you can’t see them…

CEO takes long view of plan after first-quarter sales drop

CEO takes long view of plan after 1Q sales drop
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Leading greeting card publisher and franchisor, Card Connection, has today announced it has appointed a new Business Development Manager.

Stuart Gee
Irvine, CA  (RestaurantNews.com)  As Mimi’s Cafe moves forward in its resolve to return the joie de vivre back to the beloved brand, two senior-level leaders have been appointed to manage and lead the team on day-to-day restaurant operations.  Effective May 1, Stuart Gee will take over as regional director of operations for the central United States region, and Daniel Boyd will be promoted to senior director of operations services and training.
In his new role, Stuart will be instrumental in building the foundation and infrastructure for Mimi’s future growth by establishing cohesive teams, delivering operational excellence and overseeing people and processes in the central region…

Bart Golub, Manager of Slot Marketing for Tropicana Las Vegas, explain how The Tropicana Las Vegas re-invigorated their Players Club by using emerging mobile data collection technology to grow their loyal customer base our On The Spot Systems’ mobile survey tool.
As part of an initiative to re-market the Tropicana Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas to younger generations to come, the Trop had to look closely at the ways that they were communicating with their target audience.
“We just began a large-scale marketing campaign on the Las Vegas Strip to drive new enrollments to the Trop Plus Players Club,” said Bart Golub, Manager of Slot Marketing for the Tropicana Las Vegas…

With bourbon sales growing fast, small distillers are looking for ways to get their product to market faster. One Cleveland company has come up with a way to shrink the aging process from years to just days, while also cashing in on the craze for all things local.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Maine State Capitol Dome, photo: wikipedia

AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine's legislature has joined a growing chorus of states that are pushing laws to protect franchised businesses. Last Thursday a group of powerful state senators endorsed LD 1458, the Maine Small Business Investment Protection Act. The bill aims to help small business owners defend themselves from abusive franchising practices.
For example, a franchisor must give a franchise owner-operator time to cure a violation of company standards before it can be terminated…

Nation’s Fastest Growing Fast Casual Chain Opens New Location in Texas
Kerrville, TX  (RestaurantNews.com)  Dickey’s Barbecue Pit opens this Friday, May 3 in Kerrville. The first 100 customers in line will receive a free Pulled Pork Big Barbecue sandwich.
“I’ve always been a huge fan of Dickey’s mouthwatering barbecue,” said franchise owner Tom Freeman. “I wanted to own a restaurant that offered amazing food at a great value and Dickey’s fit that bill.”
This new location is located on the south side of Junction Highway, also known as Main Street, between the Walmart and HEB grocery store…

I am delighted that CAFA is able to introduce both a young new and exciting franchisor, Buffalo Wing Factory and Pub Franchising and Nikki Sicilian, along with a seasoned franchise salesman and good friend of mine, David Gould, recently of Kiddie Academy.
We know a number of younger franchisors and more established franchisors have trouble selling franchises on a consistent basis.  A quick peak at many franchisor’s Item 20 comparing their last year’s projected openings with actual openings is revealing…