Another Face of Franchising---Cooperation on the local Level. Meet the Franchise Business Network
By Howard Bassuk

Go ahead, admit it. Although you may know a lot about franchising, you probably don't think about better ways for different franchisors, franchisees, suppliers and other franchise professionals to work together in their local communities. You probably haven't thought too much about how franchise professionals can seek out and work with other franchise professionals to build each other's businesses. And you probably never considered whether there was a way for franchisors, franchisees and other franchise professionals to come together to provide services and support to the community that they are a part of.

You probably thought that franchisors, and franchisees from different systems had very little reason to work together. You might have even thought that franchises from different systems avoid each other like the plague.

You'd certainly be in good company if you felt that any cooperation between franchisors and franchisees from different systems would amount to helping your own competition, and therefore very unlikely to occur.

After all, this is war, isn't it? Don't franchisors compete with each other to attract good franchisees? Isn't it also true that each system is proud of its "points of difference" that attract buyers to them rather than to other franchisors?. Isn't it an everyday fact of life that franchises compete with other franchises for prime locations? And don't they fight tooth and nail to attract customers, and win market share?

Of course they do! But now, more than ever, there's more to the picture than just the competitive nature of franchising. There's also a cooperative side that is growing, building and flourishing like never before.

Working together is certainly not entirely new in the franchise industry. For years, franchisors have worked together on such key issues as legislation, and on cross promotional opportunities that promote each other's products and services. More recently, "co-branding" locations to offer consumers greater choice and convenience by combining brands available in a single location has become a major theme for franchise cooperation.

However, these areas of cooperation between franchisors have typically been regional or national in scope, rather than on the local community level.

Until recently the opportunity and environment for franchisors, franchisees and others within the local community to work together, and build both their businesses, and the welfare of the community has simply not existed.

There has been no cohesive, grass roots entity that was specifically designed to take advantage of local ties within each community. Until now, that is!

Let me introduce you to the Franchise Business Network (FBN). FBN is the product of IFA's 1996 strategic planning process. It is the brainchild of the IFA Board of Directors who identified the need for a grassroots delivery system for franchising's legislative regulatory and public relations agenda.

The Franchise Business Network has been created specifically to make franchising more effective, more productive, more relevant, more responsive, and more valuable to franchisors, franchisees, and other franchise professionals in our own local community!

Many of us know the IFA. It has long been the most recognizable and most established franchise association, both in the United States, and throughout the world.

It has also been thought of a group with a National and International orientation, whose membership has been predominantly made up of franchisors.

Now the IFA is seeking to broaden its umbrella so that it can be more effective as a voice for all of franchising. Local FBN chapters are an important key to helping the IFA achieve this goal.

Not only are FBN chapters creating a forum where franchisors, franchisees and franchise suppliers get together locally, the FBN chapters are being driven by local steering committees that create curriculum, calendars and projects to focus on. This gives each FBN the opportunity to address the issues most relevant to the particular community that it serves.

So, while the resources and backing of the IFA are there when needed, each FBN is charged with making itself relevant to both the franchise industry, and to the community as a whole. Truly, for those who have said they wanted to be involved on a local basis, there is a now a golden opportunity to do so!

The FBN's are a reflection of changing times. As Don DeBolt, president of IFA said, "In order for the International Franchise Association to be most effective as a voice for franchising, it must both get input from, as well as initiate action at, the grassroots level of the community. FBN is designed to do just that."

Since the FBN's are focused on issues that most affect the business climate in each community, input is not only likely to be more broad based, but may also be more relevant to the needs of both the franchise industry and the community at large! Simply put, FBN's give more of a voice to the local community, rather than have one centralized entity trying to make decisions that work for everybody.

Does this all sound familiar? It is analogous to the same debate that goes on about the U.S. Government. Today, more and more people argue that relevancy and ideas come not just from within "the beltway," but from throughout the land. The IFA, with its FBN program has embraced this same idea, and the results already look promising.

Additionally, when groups of franchisors and franchisees from different franchises start to work together within the community, some very good things start to happen. Common needs and shared interests that affect every segment of the franchise industry become visible to all, so solutions for issues that affect most business owners can be discussed and addressed.

And indeed, franchisors and franchisees do share many concerns in each market. Everyone wants to win more customers, do better marketing, stay on top of technology, and network in the community.

National programs and conferences, while very valuable, occur too infrequently and often at too great a distance to be completely responsive to the needs of the franchise community, so the FBN program fits the bill beautifully.

Even though the FBN is relatively new, having been prototyped in Houston, Boston and San Diego, it has already started to pay dividends for all the participants. By opening the local FBN's to be an all inclusive organization, that equally solicits participation from franchisors, franchisees, and suppliers, both great ideas and new ways to grow everyone's business have already emerged.

Recently, in Houston, one FBN attendee looking for a better way to work on corporate travel arrangements wound up sitting next to a UNIGLOBE franchisee. Needless to say, they immediately found that they had great reason to talk together.

It's really a natural. Franchisees are always looking for ways to expand their businesses. Other franchisees are a natural market for that expansion. Before FBN arrived on the scene, there was no good way to do this. This avenue for networking, in and of itself, represents a compelling reason for all segments of the franchise industry to support the FBN chapter in their community.

It doesn't take much imagination to see that many franchisees could benefit from, and provide additional business to, franchisees in other businesses. Whether its by getting help with shipping and packaging needs, finding a better way to put together a party, or getting the food to serve there, franchisees can certainly help each other's businesses grow.

They can also help to keep costs down by giving each other volume or corporate discounts. By doing so, franchisees, can help other franchisees be more competitive

But, FBN's aren't just about increasing business locally. Like so many other networking opportunities, FBN is an effective platform for putting franchisors, franchisees, and other related parties together in the same room.

Although a person may come to the monthly FBN meeting simply to learn more about that month's topic, many additional benefits can quickly accrue to each attendee. Something as simple as meeting others in the franchise community, and getting to know them has a host of possible benefits associated with it.

FBNs can also be the impetus for legislative action. Many franchisors and franchisees share concerns about issues that confront small businesses. Whether these issues deal with wages, or with zoning requirements, FBN can be a strong, effective platform for surfacing issues, and creating a unified voice to bring them to the appropriate agencies whether they are local, state or even federal.

A recent example of this shared focus came in Houston, where the Houston FBN played a major role in defeating a burdensome minimum wage increase proposal in the city.

FBNs may also be the perfect outlet to show an entirely different face of franchising too.. In addition to being activists in business, franchisors and franchisees are often community activists as well. Now with FBN there is a franchise industry focal point that can unite everyone to focus on more effective projects and assistance to the community.

The San Diego FBN, chaired by Tom Herskowitz, Executive Vice President of Mail Boxes Etc. (MBE) has already begun to focus on a project aimed at providing job opportunity, training, and assistance to the community at large.

In a terrific example of what local cooperation can mean, many franchisors, franchisees, and suppliers have also expressed interest in helping to launch programs like this. Amongst them is Postal Annex Plus, another San Diego based franchisor, who, under other circumstances would be competing with MBE. Here, however, each is working to make the project a community wide success. This shows the true value of FBN.

Many franchise systems share similar concerns, similar needs, and similar points of view on a broad range of issues. However, until now, the ability to give voice to these points of view on a local level, has been limited. FBN is an important step towards changing that.

Perhaps, most importantly, FBN helps to unite the franchise community on issues that are shared by everyone in franchising. Too often, the focus has been on those issues where different segments of the industry have differences.

Although FBN can certainly be an effective platform to help discuss different points of view, it may have even more impact by highlighting the more plentiful areas where franchisees, franchisors, and suppliers to both have a common and united philosophy.

In today's tabloid society, areas of disagreement seem to get much more attention than areas of broad agreement. The theory is that unless its sensational, its just not newsworthy.

The pity of this mentality is that it overlooks the positive and excellent role that good franchising plays in our economy, and our society as a whole. It can also make people believe that there is more wrong with franchising than is actually true. Although the industry is certainly not perfect, it certainly has much to be proud of. FBNs, as a place to meet and interact with others in the industry, can help to put the perspective on franchising back into balance!

In addition, FBN's can also be an excellent platform for providing education to the local franchise community. There is no question but that all businesses need to continually investigate and incorporate new technologies, new ideas, and more efficient business practices. FBN meetings are an excellent forum to bring experts in these fields to the attention of everyone within the franchise community.

FBN's are not the last word in franchising, but rather the latest. They represent an important attempt to make the industry more responsive to its members, and to make the members more empowered within the community.

The FBN project is still in its early stages, and so much of what the FBN's will hopefully do, is yet to happen.

But they're already making a difference, and there's a great opportunity for all of us associated with franchising to take advantage of this new program, and make it another milestone that franchising can proudly call its own.

Joe Lamble is chairman of the FranNet Group membership committee, and owns FranNet of Mid America. Mr. Lamble has been involved in the franchise industry for many years, including local, regional and national sales management positions.