IFA Emerging Franchisor Conference — Agenda

Join IFA member seasoned leaders for an informative town hall about growing and protecting your emerging brand. Each of these executives will share their words of wisdom from decades in franchising, touching on what they would do again as well as what they would do differently if starting their brand over today. This session will include a town hall style question and answer opportunity for attendees, so come ready with your questions for the speakers!

Scaling a franchise isn't just about adding units—it's about building the right foundation. In this candid session, a successful founder shares the lessons learned of the trade-offs and important decisions to get through the cash drain stage to the sustainably profitable stage, including key growth milestones, common mistakes to avoid, and the key decisions they would make again. Walk away with practical insights to help your brand grow smarter and with less risk.

When Rob Price became CEO of School of Rock in 2017, he inherited a franchise system facing significant franchisee dissatisfaction and organizational challenges. In this keynote, Price shares how he rebuilt trust, strengthened franchisor-franchisee relationships, and led a remarkable turnaround that positioned the brand for long-term success. Attendees will gain practical lessons on leadership, transparency, and the power of franchise relations in driving sustainable growth.

Your biggest growth challenge may have already been solved by someone sitting in the room. Before the conference, attendees will identify the issues they're facing most. During this fast-paced session, emerging franchisors who have successfully navigated those same challenges will take the stage for a series of three-minute stories sharing what worked, what they would do differently, and the practical advice they wish they'd had sooner. It's peer-to-peer learning designed to spark ideas, build connections, and give you actionable strategies you can put to work immediately.

The wrong technology decision can be costly to undo—but waiting too long can be just as damaging. This session breaks down which systems matter most at 10, 50, and 100 units, from CRM and franchise management systems to reporting, operations, and communication tools. Through real-world examples from growing franchise brands, speakers will share what they implemented, why it worked (or didn't), and the lessons they learned along the way. Walk away with a practical roadmap for building a scalable tech stack, knowing what can wait, and avoiding the common pitfalls that lead to expensive migrations, duplicate systems, and frustrated franchisees.

Validation lives or dies on franchisee profitability and the numbers behind it. In this session, you'll learn which unit economics every emerging franchisor should measure, why each metric matters, and how those results shape both your Item 19 Financial Performance Representation and the Item 20 information prospective franchisees rely on during validation. Gain practical insights into tracking, interpreting, and communicating financial performance to build credibility, support sustainable growth, and strengthen franchisee confidence.

Many emerging franchisors are still marketing like a single business. This workshop explores the critical shift to franchise marketing—building brand standards, enabling local execution, driving franchisee adoption, managing marketing budgets, and creating simple, repeatable tools that support system-wide growth.

This session addresses one of the least-discussed but most consequential transitions in early franchising: the moment a founder's instincts, which built the brand, start to limit its growth. The conversation would cover hiring people better than yourself (and being willing to lose latitude to bring them on board), the emotional shift from operator to franchisor, and what it actually means to build a team rather than a following. The honest question worth putting to the room: are you hiring people you'd be nervous to lose to a competitor?

Emerging franchisors often confuse selling franchises with building a strategic geographic footprint. This session will show leaders how to move from opportunistic "dot-on-the-map" growth to a disciplined market expansion strategy. Panelists will break down how to identify priority markets, determine when a brand is operationally ready to enter them, and choose the right development approach—whether through infill, clustering, multi-unit agreements, or strategic new-market entry. Attendees will leave with a practical framework for balancing franchise demand, whitespace, operational support, real estate, supply chain, marketing efficiency, and the risk of expanding too far, too fast.

Culture is exponentially harder to fix than to create intentionally. Early investment in culture pays dividends in franchisee engagement, brand consistency, and long-term scalability, making it both a growth strategy and your best defense as you expand.

Every emerging franchisor hits a moment when a growing need can either be covered by outside expertise or handed to a full-time hire, and the choice made in that window compounds. Get it right and you've built a foundation that scales with you. Get it wrong in either direction and it becomes a costly correction down the line. This session breaks down the signals that actually indicate a role has crossed from useful-to-have-on-tap to needs-a-full-time-owner: repeatability of the need, frequency of the decisions required, and the risk of losing institutional knowledge when a consultant's engagement ends. It also names the false signals founders tend to chase instead—revenue milestones, unit count, or simple headcount envy. Attendees leave with a practical framework for evaluating their next key hire, whether that's operations, marketing, or franchise development.

Standard chart of accounts across the system; using online tools and having access to them; setting up royalties to be pulled automatically instead of billing and waiting; when you should pull royalties (weekly / monthly); and what KPIs to track, how to share them system-wide, and how to use them as a tool to drive performance.

The Franchise Business Consultant (FBC) role is one of the most critical positions in an emerging franchise system because they are the bridge between brand strategy, communication and training, and franchisee execution. This topic will explore how to better define, train, and support FBCs so they can drive accountability, trust, and performance in the field.

Why adding more steps to your discovery process could produce better candidates and faster decisions. This working breakout session examines how a more rigorous, curriculum-driven process actually accelerates decisions. Attendees will map their own discovery processes in real time, identify where depth is missing, where qualification is left to chance, and where candidates opt out before reaching Discovery Day.

The strongest franchise systems are built not only by selecting the right franchisees, but also by having the discipline to say no to the wrong ones. This session explores how ethical franchise development, realistic expectations, and thoughtful candidate selection protect franchisee profitability, strengthen validation, and create sustainable long-term growth.

Learn how to make marketing channels, local presence, and your first franchisees your lead generators.