A fascinating look at franchise development with Dick Rennick, co-founder of Team Rennick.

Rennick is recognized as one of the leading experts in the franchise community, and has built large scale multi-unit operations such as American Leak Detection. He also served as chairman of the International Franchise Association Educational Foundation and in 2005 became chairman of the IFA. Today, with the creation of Team Rennick, Dick is helping to provide insights, experience and possibly some shortcuts to emerging franchise company entrepreneurs.

If you’re curious about how to build a loyal, dedicated team of employees with low turnover rates, high job satisfaction metrics—-all this in the Pizza Business—-our guest on this segment can help. Dave Melton joined Dominos Pizza as a delivery person in 1982, then opened his first franchise unit in 1990—-and has never looked back.

John Hayes has worked in the franchise community as a consultant, franchisee and franchisor since 1979. He is the author of several franchise-related books and countless articles that have appeared in media worldwide. Dr. Hayes has served as an advisor to franchisors, franchisees and small business owners internationally. His areas of expertise include management development, marketing, customer service, training, and strategic planning.

JD Heiden makes his living pinching pennies, and the economic downturn has business booming at his four-year-old Miami-based company, a franchise of the global Expense Reduction Analysts. (ERA) The firm specializes in cutting expenses for corporations in non-core areas, such as telecommunications, office supplies, merchant credit card fees, freight and package shipping, equipment leasing, uniforms and utilities.

Our guest on this segment is an expert presenter, writer, consultant and speaker on the topic of franchising. Joel Libava is the “Franchise Expert In Residence” and columnist for the award winning Small Business Trends website, and over at the OPEN FORUM by American Express blog, joining other small business experts like Guy Kawasaki, John Battelle, and Anita Campbell.Joel is also the franchise-expert source for The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, MSNBC.com, Bottom Line Personal and Crain’s.

Jason Zickerman is the President of the Alternative Board, a franchise peer-support network with a presence across the USA. In this segment we talked about the boards work, and how they help the participants with issues they face in their businesses.

Our guest on this segment of the Smallbiz Brain is an expert in helping people who are over fifty start their own businesses.

Jeff Williams is the CEO and Chief Coach for Bizstarters.com, this resource was selected by the editors of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine as “The Best Entrepreneurial Web Guide For People Over 50”.
In 2007 he launched the Virtual Incubator Coaches Network to connect experienced 50+ business start-up coaches with 50+ entrepreneurs to help them plan, launch and grow their businesses.
He’s the author of eleven workbooks, guides and DVDs on business start-up, including his newest workbook:“The Ultimate Boomer Business Start-Up Guide”.
Jeff’s a frequently contributor to Kiplinger’s, BusinessWeek.com, Fortune.com and MSNBC.

Sam Horn is an award-winning communication/creativity consultant who has a 20 year track record of results with an international clientele including Fortune 500 Forum, Young Presidents Organization, Hewlett-Packard, NASA, Kaiser Permanente, National Governors Association, KPMG, Boeing, Intel and Capital One. She was selected ( along with Tom Peters, Seth Godin, Tim Ferris and Michael Gerber) to be a featured speaker at INC Magazine’s annual convention for the top 5000 entrepreneurs in the country.

About Steve Olson

Steve Olson is a leading authority on franchising. He is Publisher of Franchise Update Media Group, an industry resource for over 2000 franchise organizations. He has recently authored the book, “Grow to Greatness: how to build a world-class franchise system faster.”

With nearly 30 years in franchise consulting, sales and executive management, Steve specializes in accelerating expansion for emerging and established franchise brands. He has served on franchise boards and is a frequent columnist and speaker on the subject of franchising.

Matt Phipps has enjoyed an impressive career in the creative, brand building and operational part of the business arena. Today, his entrepreneurial talent and experience are what drive him to continue to create the vision and direction of his company, Blendz.