Bright Future of Franchising

By Robert Schiller

On February 22-24th I attended the International Franchise Association annual Convention. The IFA boasts over 1,275 members of which OpenWorks is one of those members. There are also 12,500 individual franchisees that are part of IFA. The association brings franchisors and franchisees together to learn and grow our individual business and the franchise industry as a whole. This was my first IFA convention and while there I attended over 12 sessions on everything from digital marketing to customer service to growing your franchise base. The sessions were all very informative and as I sat and listened to the presentations, a lot of the learnings and best practices are the things that we already do every day at OpenWorks.One of the highlights of the conference was the afternoon luncheon dedicated to inducting five inductees into the Franchising Hall of Fame. The inductees were James Maynard, the founder of Golden Corals restaurants, Thomas Monaghan, the founder of Domino Pizza, Tony Martino, the founder of MACCO, Bill Marriott, found of Marriott Hotels and Conrad Hilton, the founder of Hilton Hotels.I have a picture of the inductees and representatives from the organizations. What struck me were the five incredible stories of people that had a dream and started a small business; they were able to grow that business through franchising over the past 50 years. These are companies that have used the power of individuals buying a franchise and joining the franchise organization to make these brands powerful and strong in their respective fields. Every time I stay at a Hilton Hotel or order a Domino's Pizza that I am doing business with a franchise organization.The takeaway for OpenWorks is that we have been building a great brand for the past thirty years and our future has never looked brighter. With facility services growing at over 4.5% in the U.S. every year, the facilities industry is strong. OpenWorks service delivery is based on our amazing franchisees delivering great service every day. Servicing our customers is what is driving our growth as a company and will continue to help us build our brand into the future.Learn more about OpenWorks Franchise Opportunities.