Pivotal Year: Franchising Needs Your Support

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By Robert Cresanti, CFE

The timing is perfect for this year’s Franchise Action Network Annual Meeting, Sept. 11-13 in Washington, D.C. With legislation in process to overturn the National Labor Relations Board’s joint employer standard, and momentum building toward tax reform and regulatory improvements designed to help small business growth under President Trump’s Administration, the importance of this year’s event is paramount. Despite challenges over the past 10 years, franchising has continued to outpace growth of competing non-franchise market segments, and the trend continues. There are bright days ahead for franchising, but there’s much work yet to be done.
Free for franchisees — yes, free — the FAN Annual Meeting offers the unique ability to meet face-to-face with your local elected officials and staff members in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. Nervous about what to say or haven’t done something like this before? Don’t worry! IFA will prepare and guide you to ensure a smooth and productive meeting, and you’ll have time to rehearse talking points with your team, which consists of other attendees from your Congressional District.
Why must you attend? Meeting face-to-face with congressional representatives is not just about joint employer and policy issues. It’s about you and your business. Congress needs to hear your story — how you got into franchising, how Congress can strengthen the nation’s economy by helping your business, and how the franchise business model has changed your life and the lives of those who help your business succeed. Your story and experiences are unique, and there’s no replacement for sharing your American Dream directly with lawmakers.
Leading speakers, awards, educational programming and networking are other reasons to attend IFA’s D.C. “Fly-In.” U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta will highlight the event as keynote speaker, including an update on NLRB’s joint employer standard.
The new Labor Department rescinded the previous adminstration’s intrepretation of the joint employment rule in June. Secretary Acosta also recently unveiled an initiative to bolster apprenticeship and workforce training programs across various skilled labor industries, and franchising will play an integral role in the nationwide effort. Finding competent and capable people to assume jobs is the top complaint I hear from IFA member companies, so it’s encouraging to see a renewed emphasis on training.
Another key speaker at the FAN Annual Meeting will be franchising’s own Andy Puzder, former CEO of CKE Restaurants, which operates the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. brands. A former member of the IFA Board of Directors, Puzder is a regular contributor to CNBC, Fox Business, the Wall Street Journal and co-author of “Job Creation: How It Really Works and Why Government Doesn’t Understand It.”
An added bonus and annual highlight to the FAN Annual Meeting is the popular Franchisee of the Year Awards recognition ceremony, which salutes top-performing franchisees. The Franchising Gives Back Awards Dinner showcases franchise businesses that are supporting local community service programs and charitable activities. Learn more and purchase your ticket at franchise.org/fgb-awards-dinner.
Franchising’s brightest days are ahead. With growth in the sector outpacing the larger economy, momentum on reversing joint employer and the Department of Labor’s expansion of apprenticeship and training programs, there are several tailwinds pushing the community forward. The biggest risk to the current momentum is inaction. If we do nothing, we’ll get nothing. As someone who lives and breathes the American Dream of franchising, you owe it to yourself and the future of the your business model to attend FAN, especially this year as the new administration takes on the challenge of expanding our economy.
Visit www.franchise.org/fan and register for this year’s Franchise Action Network Annual Meeting. Your livelihood and those who help you succeed need your voice in the halls of Congress. And if you can’t make it in person, please help our phone-to-action campaign by texting “FAN” to 52886 on Tuesday, Sept. 12.
IFA appreciates the support of ADP, the founding sponsor of the Franchise Action Network Annual Meeting and Franchisee of the Year Awards, and all our sponsors.
 
 
Robert Cresanti, CFE, is the President and CEO of the International Franchise Association.
 

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