Franchise Today

This week, Franchise Today takes a look at how professional athletes are transitioning from the sports ranks and investing in franchise opportunities. Host Paul Segreto is joined by his guest, Michael Stone, a former NFL player and founder of Allied Athlete Group, the premier private membership organization for professional athletes. Michael is also the Founder of Professional Athlete Franchise Initiative (PAFI). Paul and Michael focus on how franchising is often a consideration in life after sports. They discuss the benefits of franchising as well as the potential pitfalls former athletes may face as they make the transition off the field, court or ice to business ownership.

This week on Franchise Today, Paul Segreto welcomes as his guest, David Melton. David is both a successful author and Domino's multi-unit franchisee with locations in New York and Connecticut. Focusing on David's book, "Hire the American Dream" the discussion outlines how to build a minimum-wage workforce into a high-performance, customer focused team. In addition, listen to David explain what he describes as his greatest achievement - helping seven of his former team members become franchisees, and that they now own over 40 stores among them!

This week on Franchise Today, Paul Segreto is joined by Deb Evans, President & CEO at Computer Explorers and BJ Emerson, Chief Technology Officer at Tasti D-Lite. The topic of discussion will be social media from the franchisor perspective including benefits to the franchise organization, social media policies and procedures, and franchisee-franchisor collaboration for optimum results. As Deb and BJ are co-hosts of the Blog Talk Radio show, Social Geek Radio, discussion will also include some of the technical aspects of social media.

This week on Franchise Today, Paul Segreto's guest is Alisa Harrison, Vice President Marketing & Communications at the International Franchise Association. Join Paul and Alisa as they discuss new leadership at the IFA, the upcoming IFA convention in Las Vegas, outlook on the political front, the new IFA website, soon to be released products, and much more.

This week on Franchise Today, Paul Segreto welcomes as his guest, Jeremy LaDuque, President & CEO at Elements, Inc., an industry leader in franchise website development and developers of the ElementsLocal™ online marketing solution. Paul and Jeremy discuss technology in franchise marketing with focus on social media, SEO, local search, and email & mobile marketing.

This week on Franchise Today, the two-part Franchise Financial series comes to an end as Host, Paul Segreto, welcomes as his guest, David Pearl, Business Financial Consultant at Pearl Business Group, and former CFO at E-Brands restaurants and Sonny's Franchise Company. Paul and David discuss what is typically a very furstrating topic for franchisors, Franchise Reporting... you can't fix what you can't see!" Discussion focuses on the practical side of financial reports, what to look for in reports and reading between the lines, and how to utilize financial information for effective franchise management.

This week on Franchise Today, Host, Paul Segreto, kicks off a 2-Part Series – Franchise Financial. In today’s first segment, a discussion on franchise succession planning and business valuation, Paul’s guest is Bruce Schaeffer, Founder and President of Franchise Valuations, Ltd., a company specializing in valuations and appraisals, succession planning and estate planning exclusively for the franchise community. Bruce has been a speaker for the New York University Institute on Federal Taxation, the Practising Law Institute, the International Franchise Association and many other business, professional and academic forums.

This week on Franchise Today, Host, Paul Segreto focuses on why social media should not be viewed as some type of magic for franchise sales. Paul targets recent discussions within the LinkedIn franchise groups including efforts by Haagen-Daz Ice Cream and its Facebook "Boss" game, along with general questions about utilizing social media as a prime source for lead generation purposes.

This week on Franchise Today, Host, Paul Segreto is joined by Jonathan Redgrave, Attorney and Partner at Redgrave LLP, a law firm with singular focus on Information Law, including social media. From the franchise perspective, Jonathan and Paul discuss the legal implications of social media, the reality of lawsuits relating to social media activity, FDD requirements and social media, and electronic records requirements.

Social media within franchising is the focus of discussion as Fishman Public Relations CEO, Brad Fishman, joins Paul Segreto this week on Franchise Today. Certainly a hot topic, discussions about social media pique interest of franchisors and franchisees alike. Often viewed as a communications tool, social media has also been embraced by pr firms. But, has social media really changed pr? And, if it has, how?

This week on Franchise Today, host, Paul Segreto, and co-producer, Joe Caruso discuss the show's improved format, new features and upcoming topics. Also addressed are frequently asked questions by franchisors about social media within franchising, and especially, utilizing social media as part of franchise lead generation efforts.

Franchise Today starts the new season with a discussion on a perennially important topic within the franchise world, Franchise Finance. Host, Paul Segreto, again welcomes as his guest, Ron Feldman, CEO at Siegel Capital. Paul and Ron focus their attention on Small Business Jobs Act, the current lending environment and how it affects franchising, and the recently launched Franchise Finance America program. The season premiere also debuts a new format for Franchise Today, and includes Franchise News, The IFA Corner, and an editorial feature, "Are you kidding me?"

This is a replay of a special 30-minute segment of Franchise Today. In this popular segment, Greg Nathan, renowned psychologist and best selling author of Profitable Relationships and The Franchise E-Factor, was Paul Segreto's special guest. Greg and Paul focused their attention on Greg's "Profitable Partnerships - Franchise Relations Boot Camps" and discussed reasons why franchisors should make every effort to attend. There is an upcoming event in Atlanta on October 5th and 6th. Paul Segreto | Greg Nathan | Franchise Relationships | franchising |

In this replay of another popular segment of Franchise Today, Paul Segreto welcomed as his guest, Rhonda Sanderson. As many within franchising are aware, Rhonda is the Founder at Sanderson & Associates, the premiere PR firm in franchising. For the past 27 years, Rhonda has had a hand in the growth of hundreds of franchise companies. This show aired live in April 2010, and focused on integrating social media within current pr programs. Rhonda shared some practical insight and experience how Sanderson & Associates has embraced social media while still maintaining best practices in public relations.

In this segment of Franchise Today will originally aired live in July 2010,, Host, Paul Segreto, was joined by Dylan Trache, Attorney and Partner at Wiley Rein, which Washingtonian Magazine has called, "One of the country's most respected law firms." Paul and Dylan explored the world of bankruptcy from both the franchisee and franchisor perspective, and discussed how bankruptcy affects all parties to the franchise agreement.

In the last segment of the Legal Eagle Franchise Series that originally aired live on Franchise Today in May 2010, host Paul Segreto welcomed Leslie Curran as his guest. Leslie is a Franchise Attorney at Plave Koch PLC and Board Member / President-elect at NAWBO Greater DC. Paul and Leslie discussed how to utilize franchise brokers while mitigating risk. In addition, Leslie reported on the IFA Legal Symposium and provided some insight into the Women's Franchise Network.

This week, in the replay of the third segment of the popular four-part Legal Eagle Franchise Series on Franchise Today, Host, Paul Segreto, welcomed as his guest, Franchise Attorney, Warren Lee Lewis, to discuss Franchise Sales Best Practices. Warren is the author of The Franchise Seller's Handbook and is Shareholder - Franchising & Licensing at Akerman Senterfitt. Paul and Warren focused on maintaining compliance throughout the franchise sales process, permitted and prohibited franchise sales practices and much more.

As the Legal Eagle Franchise Series continued, Host Paul Segreto was joined by Lane Fisher, Partner at Fisher Zucker LLC. Lane is a very active member of the International Franchise Association (IFA) and is a member of its Board of Directors. Paul and Lane discussed developing Financial Performance Representations (FPRs) for inclusion in Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDDs). They focused on the do's and don'ts of utilizing those representations to ensure compliance within federal guidelines while effectively utilizing the representations for mutual benefit of franchisor and franchise candidates. This segment of franchise today aired live on May 6, 2010 as the second segment of the Legal Eagle Franchise Series.

This is a replay of the initial segment of the Legal Eagle Franchise Series. The date was April 27, 2010 and the segment title was Independent Franchisee Associations and Their Role in Franchise Relationships. Our guest was Michael Webster, Principal at the Law Office of Michael Webster and Chair of Strategic Committee at International Association of Franchisees and Dealers. Franchise Today host, Paul Segreto, and Michael Webster explored legal issues within franchising today. Paul and Michael also discussed the purpose of independent franchise associations, alternative dispute resolution and the convention for the International Association of Franchisees and Dealers was which held May 10-12 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

This week, Host, Paul Segreto, is joined by Dylan Trache, Attorney and Partner at Wiley Rein, which Washingtonian Magazine has called, "One of the country's most respected law firms." Paul and Dylan will explore the world of bankruptcy from both the franchisee and franchisor perspective, and discuss how bankruptcy affects all parties to the franchise agreement.