Ace Hardware is urging all franchisees to spend an average $150,000 to upgrade the store building and layout.

Ace Hardware helping their franchisees by project weather-related sales: Ace Hardware’s Director of Inventory Control, Paul Sikes, pointed out that, “We have been able to make weather part of the DNA and culture at Ace, so that when we talk about sales opportunity, sales risk and past performance, weather is now just a part of that.” Sikes shared an example from ’07-’08 winter season when Ace substantially increased inventories for snow removal products based on Planalytics’ projections. “We made an extra $10 million in sales in a tough economy because we planned it and we bought it. We were able to service 91% on the hottest seasonal category I’ve seen in years at Ace because of the support of Planalytics and the actions we took off that information.” Subway franchised restaurants using weather to better understand buying trends: SFAFT is a non-profit organization that provides marketing support to Subway’s franchised restaurants. Adam O’Hara, Manager of Reporting and Analytics for explained in his presentation how the company isolates weather’s impact on sales through “a transaction-based model” specifically developed with Planalytics. “Our weather-driven demand number is tied directly to what percentage of our sales were up or down,” O’Hara remarked. “You would be amazed at the correlation between how our volume performs and how the weather performs.” Identifying the degree to which sales are impacted by weather enables SFAFT to better measure the effectiveness of advertising and to optimize the timing of programs going forward. Source: News Blaze

Finding complimentary businesses and locating next door is an obviously smart move for a budding franchisee. For example, if you are starting a coffee franchise, locating next to an Ace Hardware (caffeine hungry contractors) or CVS (heavy foot traffic) can double your sales over a generic strip mall. In this instance, an Advance Realty locates next to a Daily Grind coffee house in an old firehouse. In case you are curious….Daily Grind: $300K estimated initial investment, 5% royalty fee, 1% advertising fee, $30K franchise fee…about average

VERY OUT OF DATE.  Do a search instead.  This was manually updated March 21, 2006 Companies Mentioned in Posts (likely incomplete):Automotive 1-800 RADIATORS Oil Butler Lube N’ Go On-Site-Lube Business & Home Services 1-800-WATER-DAMAGE Bartercard Garagetek Help-U-Sell Home Instead Homewatch Caregivers My Girl Friday PropertyGuys.com Sears Carpet & Upholstery Tax Centers of America Cleaning & Maintenance none Computer & Internet (some are listed in “Retail”) Screenz Food and Restaurant Arby’s Auntie Anne’s Blimpies Cheeburger Cheeburger Chipotle Dippin’ Dots Dream Dinners Doc Green’s Gourmet Salad Dominic’s of New York The Dugout Durango Grill Fazoli’s Fire of Brazil Fogo de Chao Goldstar Chili Jamba Juice Jerq’zine Krispy Kream Lenny’s Sub Shops Mauwi Wauwi Original Hamburger Stand Panaderia Taza Papa John’s Pizza Factory Pizza Patron Pretzel Time Quiznos Red Rock Chili San Francisco Soup Co Shane’s Rib Shack Skyline Chili Smoothie King Smotthie Planet Soup Nazi Steak-out Subway Submarina Sub Station II Super Suppers The Soup Box Supercuts Suzanne’s Kitchen We’re Rolling Pretzel Company Wetzel’s Pretzels Z Pizza Zoup! Fresh Soup Co (List all sub franchises) Health & Fitness Curves Liberty Fitness Home Building & Repair Services See “Business and Home Services” above Personnel & Staffing none Pet Retail and Services Camp Bow Wow Doody Calls The Pet Pantry Wag My Tail Interquest Detection Canines Pets Are Inn Retail Franchises Ace Hardware AuctionDrop Battery Plus Best Cuts GNC Educational Outfitters Fantastic Sams Fastframe Foot Solutions Friendly Computers Geeks on Call GNC Hair Cuttery Herman’s World of Sports Imagine This Sold Orbit Drop Play It Again Sports QuikDrop Roosters Men’s Grooming Centers Screenz Snips Its Sports Clips Stone Mountain Carpet Mill Tom’s Foods We the People Categories: eBay drop offs (generally) Hair Travel & Hotel none Industry Lists & Research 2004 Same Store Sales Growth of QSRs (quick service restaurants) Royalty and Advertising …

Positive 1-800-GOT-JUNK Article Uniformed drivers remove junk from where it’s located, break it down to conserve volume, load it in the truck and haul it away. … The cost for the volume-priced service starts at $120 and goes up to $598 per truck load. The average job in Hawaii ranges from about $375 to $400. … When McDowell took over the Hawaii franchise last year, she started with two junk trucks. She’s since added a third truck and is considering purchasing a fourth vehicle. McDowell has grown her staff to five full- and part-time employees and is looking to expand. “Business has more than doubled in the last year,” McDowell said, adding that she’s found quite a need for the business in Hawaii, where many people struggle to live in small spaces or in multifamily situations. Believe it or not, the “800” franchises tend to do well and receive reasonable flow given the name of their business is their telephone number (clever).  Partnering/revenue sharing with local funeral homes, moving companies, or hardware/equipment rental stores is smart way to keep business volume high and expand with more trucks.  The laborers you can obtain inexpensively from emove.com may dampen cap the business potential, but this would be a reasonable franchise for those with a strong back and keen marketing/parntering skills.