About us
Upside Group has walked in your shoes. With more than 25 years of experience in the franchise industry, we have not only seen it all but have also experienced the exact steps and scenarios you are likely going through now. In the early 2000s, we took over a distressed service brand, revamped its systems, and after increased franchise growth and a large jump in revenue, it was acquired and eventually sold to Home Depot. We also developed our own restaurant brand from scratch, built it up, and eventually the assets were acquired by Kraft Heinz. Our in-house experience managing our own brands, combined with decades of consulting with our clients, puts us in a unique position to help shepherd your franchise to tremendous success. So, whether you are a start-up considering franchising or an established brand needing change to reach your goals, we have the knowledge and expertise to assist you.
Franchising properly is a team effort!
Most business owners considering franchising often believe it is simply a duplication of their current business, but after a few web searches, they quickly discover franchising is more complex than just selling the use of their name and telling somehow “how they do things.” Franchising requires comprehensive development systems for selling franchises and operations systems that include detailed real estate procurement, construction processes, and initial launch and grand opening marketing that dovetails into ongoing marketing. It is also essential for franchise companies to have a quality training system with ongoing support and detailed day-to-day operations materials. Best practices for franchising begins with assembling a quality team of professionals to collaborate on the franchise system. The combination of expertise and experience is how you create, develop, and expand a quality franchise system.
As the saying goes, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. By choosing top professionals who work well and collaborate with the franchise company, you can exceed the sum of the parts and create a franchise system built on a solid foundation leading to strong, profitable growth. Upside Group also brings to the table outside professionals with tremendous experience in franchise real estate, franchise funding, millwork and construction, and many other industries to ensure each aspect of the franchise experience has top professionals collaborating to achieve the highest success.
Responsibilities:
Franchise Owner
- Industry knowledge
- Day-to-day operating knowledge
- Day-to-day management of the new franchise system
- Competitive knowledge
- Proprietary operating specifics
- List of supplier partners
Attorney
- Legal franchising expertise
- FDD drafting
- Legal compliance
- State registrations
Consultant/Franchise Expert
- Strategic consultation on key decisions of the franchise
- Industry and competitive review
- Creation of the operations modules
- Creation of the sales systems
- Education for the new franchise ownership
- Consultation with franchise legal counsel on drafting of the FDD
- Ongoing consulting
- Ongoing strategic planning
Upside Successes as a Franchisor
We have hands-on experience resulting in tremendous success.
- Handyman Franchise
- Established: 2002
- Acquired by Upside Group: 2004
- Acquired by Home Depot: 2008
Upside acquired the brand under great duress, lawsuits, tremendous fiscal issues, and broken systems. We worked tirelessly to manage cash flow, clean up franchise issues, settle legal challenges, and begin selling new franchise units. After doubling the size of the business, Upside sold the brand and continued to work as the development and franchise consulting teams, facilitating international development leading to an eventual sale to Home Depot.
- Clean Eating Restaurant Brand
- Established: 2014
- Acquired by Kraft Heinz: 2018
Upside partnered with a health-based influencer and created a franchise restaurant concept built around clean eating and clean ingredients. Franchise sales were aggressive and resulted in garnering attention from many groups for acquisition. Eventually, the products and intellectual property were acquired by Kraft Heinz
Testimonials
An Intuitive, Unique Proprietary Process Built on Strong Business Principals
Upside Group evaluated the challenges most franchise companies experience and pioneered systems to head off those most commonly experienced by emerging franchise brands. One of the major obstacles was the length of time to garner the first franchise sale. Most emerging brands have their first sale between 18 and 30 months from the time they begin their franchise journey. This long delay creates many issues—the first of which is cash flow. Having expenses on a new project for more than two years can be draining on any business. Other challenges are diminishing confidence and the time value of money. Imagine excitedly beginning your franchise journey only to be two years into the process and not having garnered your first sale. It would be very hard to keep your confidence and even continue with the process. Additionally, because franchising has various fees that are collected each month (e.g., royalties), any significant delays affect not only your upfront capital injections but also the cumulative revenue lost with the delays in selling franchises.
Upside Group evaluated the challenges most franchise companies experience and pioneered systems to head off those most commonly experienced by emerging franchise brands. One of the major obstacles was the length of time to garner the first franchise sale. Most emerging brands have their first sale between 18 and 30 months from the time they begin their franchise journey. This long delay creates many issues—the first of which is cash flow. Having expenses on a new project for more than two years can be draining on any business. Other challenges are diminishing confidence and the time value of money. Imagine excitedly beginning your franchise journey only to be two years into the process and not having garnered your first sale. It would be very hard to keep your confidence and even continue with the process. Additionally, because franchising has various fees that are collected each month (e.g., royalties), any significant delays affect not only your upfront capital injections but also the cumulative revenue lost with the delays in selling franchises.
Seeing the challenges created by legacy consulting systems, Upside Group pioneered our parallel path systems, allowing us to assist our franchise clients in simultaneously creating operations systems and Franchise Disclosure Documentation and beginning to engage prospective franchisees. By utilizing the concurrent path philosophy, Upside Group’s clients can recruit and onboard their initial franchisees 250 percent faster than our competitors—oftentimes as quickly as five to seven months after initial engagement with Upside Group.
Upside’s systems ensure franchisors have elevated systems built on an intuitive timeline, so franchisees have all necessary materials when they need them—without slowing sales development. The other tremendous benefit of this proprietary process is its prudent funding. Upside’s systems allow the new franchise entity to self-fund very early in the lifecycle of the business. This removes immense pressure and builds a strong fiscal foundation for growth.
Upside also knows predictable costs are extremely important when launching a new franchise endeavor, so we work with clients to determine the exact services required to reach the burgeoning franchisor’s goals. Once services are determined, we create a clear payment structure with the goal of mapping out a predictable path to profitability to allow the new entity to self-fund early in the franchise process.
With Upside, there will be no surprise charges, add-on costs, or expensive revisions of your documentation. All the necessary fees for creation, consulting, review, and revision of your franchise system are included, so you can rest easily knowing all costs are explained up front and you are receiving the highest value for your investment.
