For Franchises, Growing Rapidly Isn't Always Best

Dane, over at Business Opportunities Weblog, links to a Wall Street Journal article "For Franchises, Growing Rapidly Isn't Always Best"

The key take-aways:

• "We outgrew ourselves," says Ralph Rubio, founder of Rubio's Restaurants and current chairman. "We thought we had a prototype such that we could just franchise it, but it wasn't working." Recently the chain decided to start franchising efforts again -- this time with a more disciplined approach.

• "When growing quickly trumps other goals, such as grooming competent leaders, controlling costs, picking prime locations or building a customer base, the company's operations can turn sloppy."

• "The problem (with Boston Markets) , experts say, was the company became so obsessed with growth that it overlooked principles of good business like grooming good managers and building relations in the community.

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