We don’t officially know how many green restaurant franchise setups exist just now, but it is growing, says the International Franchise Association. The organisation has noticed an increase in would be restaurateurs enquiring about green restaurant franchises. The green trend has been noted across all sectors, so existing franchises are changing their practices and new franchises are opening up and starting from the perspective of being totally environmentally conscious.

Lets look at one eco-friendly restaurant franchise, which has done exactly that. Its fittings are environmentally aware, with cushions made from soybean extract to work surfaces of recycled bottles. Cooking equipment are made from potatoes and food holders from cornstarch. All of these biodegrade in thirty days. 98% of food offered is organic with discounts to customers who return pizza boxes. The restaurant also meets standards of the US Green Building Council. This might sound extremely eco-friendly restaurant franchising, all the market points to other businesses also adopting eco-friendly processes.

Even before operating out of your premises, it is compulsory to register with your Local Authority. You must register at least twenty-eight days before opening a food outlet. Registration is obligatory whether you are running a catering business from home, a restaurant franchise or temporary premises such as mobile catering vans or market stalls and each individual outlet must be registered. Sometimes premises may be used by more than one catering venture, such as a conference centre or a community hall. In these cases, it is the responsibility of the owner of the premises to register them.

Registering on line when opening a food outlet is now possible with many Local Authorities. Other Local Authorities require the form to be posted, faxed or emailed, although application downloads is now nearly always available.

Until recently, healthy eating in the UK had a (possibly deserved) reputation for bland and boring food, bound to leave you still feeling hungry. However, limp lettuce leaves and dry crackers have been consigned to the past, according to one new healthy eating restaurant franchise which is planning to expand across London and the south east and hopes to revolutionise the healthy eating market. To create an exciting new healthy food experience for the UK market, the new business has a large salad and wrap bar with a choice of fifteen house combinations, or customers can create their own. It also has a range of healthy sandwiches and wraps, with full nutritional and calorific content displayed. Their breakfast menu includes a range of toasted granary bread, lean bacon rolls on low GI granary bread, yoghurts and granola as well as fresh juices and fair-trade, organic coffee. In the winter months they plan to serve hot salads and soups, handmade chillies and stews, Scottish porridge and jacket potatoes.

This also meant more expensive restaurants suffering while
fast food and quick casual models gained ground.

Here are some things to watch out for in selecting a food franchise.

1 – Avoid over represented franchises. If you can already name several restaurant franchises in your part of town, it is probably saturated.

2 – Avoid expensive franchises. Always ask , “What am I paying for?” You should be investing in a proven system and experience, but you want to make a profit. Too much at the start going in, can endanger the bottom line.

Here are some things to positively seek out:

1 – Good food. There is no substitute.

2 – Original presentation. Winning concepts have a unique presentation that attarcts interest and keeps customers coming back.

3 – Reasonable investment. Some well established franchises often demand high premiums. Set your investment limits and set realistic profit goals.

In the US there are over 800,000 frachised business operations. The top 10 franchises in 2005 were
Mcdonalds 30,000 units
7-eleven 29,000 units
burger king 11,104 units
pizza hut 12,500 units
subway 24,000 units

Whatever system or franchise you buy into, it is unique because there are 2 interested parties. One is you as the franchisee willing to spend money and operate a system.
The other is the franchisor who wants to expand his business without spending any money
Becoming a a franchisee involves you in paying a basic fee and agree to operate specific business for maybe 10 or 15 years.At the end of this time if it goes well you may be offered a renewal by the franchisor.

According to a survey carried out by Franchise India Holdings Ltd (FIHL), there are currently over 400 brand franchisors of which seventy per cent were concentrated in Delhi, followed by Western India with 386 brands, with the majority being from Mumbai and Gujarat. 250 brands were in the south, with the majority in Bangalore and Chennai and 58 brands in the eastern region, the majority being concentrated in Kolkata.

So now we have seen the advantages of restaurant franchising, the big question is: can your restaurant be franchised? The answer is that almost any type of restaurant can be franchised, as long it is credible to prospective franchisees. This means that your business must be professionally designed, have something unique about it and also be capable of being cloned or “systemized”. The most important factor, however, is that your restaurant must provide a sufficient return to both you and your franchisees, which means it will be necessary to deduct a royalty. If your business currently receives a number of unsolicited franchise requests, then that is a pretty good measure of its “saleability”.

One of the reasons given by business owners for deciding to open a restaurant is a lack of ready capital. When it comes to expansion, the main obstacle is always a shortage of investment funds and restaurant franchising provides an obvious advantage in this respect. As the franchisee provides the initial investment, growth occurs at a greatly reduced cost. For franchisors, investment in growth tends to be restricted to the development of franchising documentation and recruitment costs. Thus a considerable reduction in start-up costs is afforded in comparison with the typical sums involved in opening a non-franchised restaurant. Moreover, it is the franchisees who sign the leases and commit to the various service contracts. Therefore, restaurant franchising enables growth at a greatly reduced risk, with practically no contingent liability.

Many restaurant owners claim that it is difficult to find and retain good managers for their business. It has been reported that turnover rates sometimes exceed 100 per cent a year. These businesses can spend months recruiting and training a manager, only to see that manager leave or, even worse, headhunted by another restaurant. Restaurant franchising avoids this pitfall by replacing that manager with a highly motivated franchisee. As the franchisee has invested his or her own money in the business, it is likely that restaurant performance will improve. Also, the franchisor’s income is based on the franchisee’s gross sales and not profitability, which facilitates monitoring unit level performance and also requires fewer staff.

In exchange for these usages, the franchisee gives to the franchisor a fee – a percentage of the gross monthly sales from the business, and royalty fees for the use of the trademark. The franchisee also takes on the responsibility of the standards of quality and the operational procedures from the franchisee. The franchisee may be bound by the terms of the contract to buy supplies from certain places, and make concessions in the interests of brand uniformity and consistency.

Usually franchises contain fully established strategies and provide you with limited amount of input regarding how to go about running it. Restaurant chains are obvious examples of this type of franchising. While such entities are franchises, the term “franchise” is not limited to them.

Product or trade name franchising is a looser form of franchising where the franchisee sings up for the right to distribute a brand of product only, without clearly defined guidelines for running the business. A prime example of this is vending machine ownership. An owner may enter into a franchising contract to use a specific vending machine for a specific product, such as a trademarked brand of beverage.