Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2018 i Entrepreneur Magazine

There are few workplace institutions so widely reviled as the annual performance review. Managers dread them because they’re time-consuming to prepare and nerve-racking to deliver. Employees see the review process as upsetting and outdated. In a recent study conducted by the software company Adobe, 59 percent of office workers said reviews had no impact on the way they approached their work, and 37 percent said they had reacted to a review by looking for a new job. When it comes to providing companies with solid appraisals of their people, performance reviews disappoint there, too. The management research firm CEB Global reports that nearly nine in 10 human resources leaders don’t think annual performance reviews yield accurate information. It’s no wonder that leading companies like GE, Accenture, IBM, Adobe, and Gap…

Strapped for cash? You’re not alone. The business press may make it seem like every startup rakes in millions from VC firms, but in reality, many, many, many more entrepreneurs build without any cash infusion. And that often makes them smarter and scrappier. “The idea of bootstrapping is positive in the sense that it forces you to sell before you build,” says Patrick FitzGerald, a lecturer at the Wharton School and a serial entrepreneur. He sees an increasing number of his students bootstrapping—some to keep control of their company vision, and others because they’re buried in business-school debt and can’t fathom taking on another loan. He sympathizes. “I myself have always bootstrapped,” FitzGerald says. “My parents are teachers, so I’ve never had the luxury of not bootstrapping.” On the following…

That old adage that beauty is pain? Jessica Le doesn’t buy it. After suffering through a costly four-hour eyelash-extension procedure in 2010, Le, a cosmetology graduate, set out to build a better system. Eventually she developed four lightweight lash styles that could be applied quickly using a minimal amount of adhesive—taking just one hour of work, and costing less than $100. Along with her husband, Edward, she opened the first Amazing Lash Studio later that year. By 2013 the couple was operating three locations in the Houston area and set out to franchise. Today they have more than 180 locations across the U.S., opening between four and 10 new franchises every month. The key to success, as Jessica sees it, is to keep innovating, keep educating franchisees, and keep giving…

ELECTRONICS REPAIR franchise uBreakiFix has expanded rapidly, but the company’s leaders attribute that growth in part to the fact that they took their time in the beginning. The company was founded in 2009 but waited until 2013 to franchise. It had opened 47 corporate locations first to tweak and tune its systems and processes to perfection. It also built a proprietary platform called Portal, which allows data, training resources, and technical updates to be shared easily between stores and corporate headquarters.…

Sylvia Acevedo is used to being the only woman in the room. The engineer and rocket scientist spent the bulk of her career at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, along with stints at Dell and IBM, but she never doubted herself in those rarefied settings. That’s something she credits to lessons learned at a very young age, taught by passionate leaders at the Girl Scouts. Now, as the CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA, she’s working to increase and expand STEM activities among members, improve outreach to minority communities, and build strategic partnerships that will help set up Girl Scouts to become the entrepreneurs of the future, long after they’ve sold their last box of Samoas. You joined the Girl Scouts when you were 7, and the organization clearly…

SEATGEEK IS a work-hard, play-hard type of place. For proof, look no further than the ticketing platform’s New York headquarters, where an expansive kitchen serves as a gathering space for company-wide meetings as well as meticulously planned happy hours—like the Winter Olympics– themed gathering that took place in February, complete with virtual-reality ski-jumping competitions. It’s also the place where staff members can linger well past quitting time and pull down an oversize projection screen to watch the night’s basketball game over a few beers. The office is seen, affectionately, as a home away from home, which is perhaps why the 337-employee company is attracting so much new talent: It recently added 11 new hires to the New York office in a single week. They’ll surely be making themselves comfortable. TARA…

In 2015, Tyler Haney showed up at the Crosby Street Hotel for one of the biggest pitches of her life. She was meeting David Fialkow, of General Catalyst, to add him to a Series A funding round for her startup clothing brand, Outdoor Voices. And she was bringing two unexpected things to the table: a photo of Girls star Lena Dunham jogging in head-to-toe Outdoor Voices wear, and a shiner. The night before, Haney, a former track star, was jogging her usual route down Manhattan’s West Side Highway, her favorite place to clear her mind, and a spiritual path of sorts for her company: It was on this same road, four years earlier, where Haney first hatched the idea for Outdoor Voices. This time, however, she tripped over a dog.…

With more than 1,000 companies applying for the 2018 Entrepreneur Franchise 500, just getting on our list was an achievement. But some companies rose even higher above the rest, claiming the highest ranking in their category. These 110 franchises range from one of the newest (Lendio) to one of the oldest (Baskin-Robbins), but whatever their age, they all found a way to be at the peak of their industry in the present day. On the following pages, we’ve highlighted what just a few of these companies have done to get to the top, and how they plan to stay there. The 2018 Franchise 500 rankings, from which this list is derived, are determined by an evaluation of more than 150 data points in the areas of costs and fees, size…

TRADITIONAL LENDERS reject about 80 percent of the small-business-loan applications they receive. Online lending marketplace Lendio, with its network of more than 75 lenders, offers more options—but only if business owners know about it (and trust it). The solution: franchising. Local franchisees help entrepreneurs in their communities apply for loans through Lendio’s online platform. Bringing this personal touch to online lending resulted in $5.9 million in loans facilitated in less than a year.…

What do you do when you get married, buy your first house, and then doctors tell you that you have six months to live? You start an ice cream company, of course. Prior to my diagnosis, I had a successful career in the food-and-beverage and consumer-goods industries, including long stints at PowerBar, Pepsi, and Saucony. But around 2013 I started feeling restless. I wanted something new—something to call my own. But what? I thought back to my college days. I used to drive a Good Humor truck. I loved it. Not only did it help pay for school, but I remembered the pure joy in people’s faces when I gave them their ice cream. There’s a photo of me in the truck [ above ] from those days that I’ve…

Chelsea Hirschhorn was in a bind. Her infant-products company, Fridababy, was profitable. But if it was going to grow, she needed more products. The problem was, she had no design experience, no R&D staff, no money, and no time. Like we said: a bind. She hadn’t started as an entrepreneur. In law school she did a stint with the New York Mets. Then she was a bankruptcy attorney during the recession. After that, she moved to south Florida and landed a gig with the Miami Marlins. One night in 2013, while Hirschhorn was pregnant with her first child, a neighbor told her about a product she was importing from Sweden, the NoseFrida. It was “an oral nasal aspirator”—that is, a tube parents use to suck snot out of their babies’…

1/ Free gifts “When we launched [job marketplace] Vettery, we sent personalized gifts to everyone who found employment through us. A new job is a big deal, and we wanted to help them celebrate! One guy got placed at a mattress company, so we hand-delivered him a new mattress. We quickly learned this wasn’t scalable, but we still firmly believed in celebrating each candidate placement. This led to the idea of a bonus. Now everyone who finds a job on Vettery receives $500.” —ADAM GOLDSTEIN, cofounder and CEO, Vettery 2/ Company quarters “When Jopwell was in Y Combinator’s summer 2014 accelerator class, our eight-person team rented a house in San Francisco. In terms of work-life balance—or sanity—living together wasn’t the best. But it taught us how to understand one another.…

Jennifer Fitzgerald is cofounder and CEO of Policygenius. But in 2013, when her company was starting out, it had a different name: KnowItOwl. “We thought it was a clever play on the term know-it-all,” she says. The company helps consumers find the right insurance policy for them, so she wanted a name that suggested wisdom and guidance, with a friendly animal like the GEICO gecko. “Then we started talking to investors, engaging our first users, and talking to vendors and insurance company partners, and we just kept having to repeat the name—spell it, explain it. Pretty soon we were like, We’ve got a problem.” And it’s not an uncommon problem. A name is one of the biggest early decisions a company founder will make, and many get it wrong. Best…

In theory, getting a loan for a franchise business should be easier than financing a new startup. You have brand recognition, a proven track record, and hard data on your side. But even when armed with franchise facts and figures, convincing someone to lend you north of $350,000—the typical loan amount for a franchise startup—is an intense process. “Most of these people are getting into business for the first time, and this can be a scary process,” says Anthony Byrd, director of business development at DCV Franchise Group, a California-based advisory firm that helps secure Small Business Administration (SBA) loans and serves as matchmaker between banks, franchise systems, and business owners. “We’re the last piece of the puzzle that allows an entrepreneur’s dreams to come true,” he says. There’s a…

“PRIMROSE on Premise” is a new program that further boosts the Primrose brand by partnering with employers to provide childcare. The first two employer-sponsored Primrose Schools opened last year at two Procter & Gamble corporate campuses in Cincinnati, with more expected to open this year. “Employers recognize that providing quality early education and care—either on or near their campuses—can enhance company culture and employee engagement,” says Annette Heng, Primrose’s senior vice president of school excellence.…

SOMETIMES SMALLER IS BETTER. Wienerschnitzel’s new “Heritage” restaurant design, with an attention-grabbing look that pays homage to the iconic A-frames of the original Wienerschnitzels, is just 780 to 1,200 square feet in size. The smaller footprint allows franchisees to plant their stores in places competitors can’t. The buildings also reduce labor and increase speed and efficiency. The company has two Heritage restaurants open in El Paso and Albuquerque already, with plans to open nine more this year.…