With the ever-continuing problems of receiving financing set against the mushrooming problems in the global economy, it's brilliant to see franchisors taking a proactive approach to the issue of franchise funding. The Wall-Street Journal has profiled the plans of a number of franchises like IHOP, Maaco and Popeyes to directly access funding. This can vary from franchises employing executives to look after financing to franchises "paying for services that match franchisees with lenders" but all in all its a positive step forward for the difficult issue of financing.
One member of the Franchise Direct family, BrightStar, is directly involved in this process.
"Helping franchisees access financing wasn't a franchiser function a couple years ago," says Shelly Sun, founder and CEO of BrightStar Franchising LLC, told the WSJ. "Now it's job No. 1."
This is a great positive step forward for franchisees, and only hope that other franchises follow suit.