October 2010
Franchising World
The President’s Column
by Stephen J. Caldeirs
Like many other organizations, a year ago IFA was assessing the impact of the recession on our ability to deliver high quality programs and services. While the recession did cause us to tighten our belts and make adjustments for expected lower revenues, IFA did not cut programs and services. In fact, we even enhanced areas to help our members weather the storm. Specifically, we considered how we could provide more timely educational information on issues that were top of mind to our members. One solution was developed and executed by the Supplier Forum—the highly successful WednesdayWise webinar series, where Supplier Forum members and content experts conducted monthly webinars on issues that are of critical concern to franchising.
This may not seem too significant on the surface, but if you read the article by IFA Supplier Forum Chair Dawn Kane on Page 9, you will see that it is very significant. There was a time not too long ago when suppliers were not allowed membership in the IFA. In her column, Dawn describes the journey of Supplier membership in IFA and the foresight of past IFA leaders in advocating for their inclusion. Supplier membership has grown from just a few in 1984 to close to 600 today. But more importantly than the growth in numbers is the growth of the number of Supplier members who support IFA not only through sponsorship and other revenue ventures, but also through the expertise they provide to IFA and our members, particularly through our advocacy efforts.
For instance, credit access has been and continues to be a top priority for IFA members. The many experts at financial services and research companies have proven invaluable as we have worked with Members of Congress and the Administration on solutions for more credit access for franchise businesses. And they continue to provide support and expertise to the Credit Access Working Group that is developing programs to help update franchise business leaders on the latest requirement by the lending industry.
The contributions and fundraising efforts for FranPAC, our political action committee, and the actions at the grassroots level to educate Members of Congress that Supplier members provide make our advocacy efforts stronger than ever.
The legal and business services areas of our industry of course are another important segment. With more and more states looking to raise new revenue by taxing businesses, we will need to continue to stay focused on legal precedents and definitions of franchising by state legislatures. Our Supplier members with expertise in these areas are critical to us in protecting the franchise model.
In addition, as we continue to expand our public relations and communications effort to spread the word about the importance of franchising to the U.S. economy among opinion leaders, we are truly appreciative of the efforts of the many IFA public relations and advertising company members that extend the messages through their exhaustive media activities for their clients. These companies, along with technology member companies, have provided enormous help to IFA as we leverage the many new programs and services to help us manage our information more effectively and to utilize the digital media capabilities available today.
These are just a few examples of the important contributions that Supplier company members provide to IFA and the entire industry. They have been a big part of the IFA’s growth over the past decade and they will no doubt continue to provide valuable support and services as we move forward. We are very fortunate that past IFA leaders saw the value of having Supplier companies as members.
I can also unequivocally state that with the support of my team, we will continue to look for ways to provide additional return on investments and value add for our Supplier partners because this is what they expect, and quite frankly, that is what they deserve. They have my personal commitment that we will deliver on that promise.