There are, it seems, two ways to establish a competitive advantage -- in the restaurant industry, as well as other fields.
…
Continue
Added by Rod Guinn on July 22, 2010 at 4:00am —
No Comments
Although I try to be positive in this column, it’s been pointed out to me that I do spend a fair amount of time decrying shortfalls, failures, and other (apparently) inexplicable behavior. In general, my “complaints” are aimed at those sectors of the capital markets which sometimes seem to conspire to make life more difficult for the smaller, independent operator, although
…
Continue
Added by Rod Guinn on July 8, 2010 at 3:30am —
3 Comments
A year ago, many articles were being written on the complete, and seemingly intractable, seizure in the capital markets. Lenders weren’t lending, and investors weren’t investing, for many reasons, but a central cause was their lack of certainty as to the value of their existing positions. The resulting lack of liquidity exacerbated the problem. (In simple terms, if no on
…
Continue
Added by Rod Guinn on June 24, 2010 at 3:30am —
No Comments
Last time we asked why some companies choose to franchise, while others do not. This time I’ll reverse the question and ask why some operators choose to be franchisees, while others prefer to follow their own vision.
…
Continue
Added by Rod Guinn on June 10, 2010 at 3:30am —
No Comments
The subtitle for this week might be “Franchising -- Not For Dummies”. We’re continuing along the first few steps in the path I introduced recently, looking at some of the key success factors -- and pitfalls -- for franchisees and franchisors. This week’s focus is on the franchisor.
…
Continue
Added by Rod Guinn on May 27, 2010 at 4:00am —
No Comments
Recent hits in popular cinema and literature have brought renewed attention to vampires (the “Twilight” series, among others) and zombies (everything from George Romero’s films to the amazing Jane Austen homage -- or parody -- entitled
…
Continue
Added by Rod Guinn on May 13, 2010 at 4:00am —
1 Comment
Franchising, at its heart, is a bet on the American Dream. Interestingly, and perhaps uniquely among such bets, both parties are betting on the same outcome. As promised some weeks ago, we’ll begin exploring franchising in this column, and over the coming weeks, while also continuing to cover some of the relevant issues and details of bankruptcy, which has become so promin
…
Continue
Added by Rod Guinn on April 29, 2010 at 3:30am —
1 Comment
We’ve been discussing bankruptcy in recent columns -- the mechanics, the players, the benefits, and so forth. Here is a story, with identities disguised, which conveys the importance of cash -- for flexibility in executing a business plan, avoiding bankruptcy, or making one’s way through bankruptcy relatively smoothly. Remember the comment I noted several weeks ago:
…
Continue
Added by Rod Guinn on April 15, 2010 at 12:30am —
No Comments
As promised, some special commentary on some of the Myths and corresponding Realities of bankruptcy, from a practitioner with a view of both sides.
William Freeman is a partner with
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP (
http://www.pillsburylaw.com), who has represented both debtors and creditors, in both bankruptcies and out-of-court settlements, and has written on both current practice and case examples. You can find his bio and background at
http://www.pillsburylaw.com/i…
Continue
Added by Rod Guinn on March 25, 2010 at 3:00am —
4 Comments
In our continuing exploration and demystification of bankruptcy, I want to spend some time this week discussing some of the ways in which bankruptcy might be avoided. Separately, I also want to share a couple of other timely observations on things going on in the debt market, and in the press, which have some bearing on our industry and our near-term prospects.
Finally, I want to invite you to stay tuned for the next episode in this series, which I expect will have some valuable information f…
Continue
Added by Rod Guinn on March 11, 2010 at 4:00am —
2 Comments
So there I was, sitting on a cross-country flight, reading the most recent of several articles published in the past few weeks about the fragile state of Greece’s economy and the involvement, at key points, of Goldman Sachs (
seemingly this era’s manifestation of the Wizard of Oz -- the manipulative figure behind the curtain of every economic issue). It suddenly struck me that, in at least two critical aspects,
the story of Greece was illustrative of the restaurant bankruptcy exploratio…
Continue
Added by Rod Guinn on February 25, 2010 at 4:30am —
No Comments
Almost immediately after posting my last blog entry, I received some suggestions among the responses. As some of these came directly to my email, rather than being posted to the blog’s comments area, I’m taking the liberty of recreating them here with modest edits, and they will serve as a starting point for the subject.
[As I mentioned previously, this is not a “how to”, but is intended to de-mystify the process somewhat. This is also primarily geared toward corporate or commercial bankruptc…
Continue
Added by Rod Guinn on February 11, 2010 at 4:30am —
7 Comments
For my next round of postings, throughout the balance of the winter and into the spring, I want to focus on two very different topics, and feature each several times. As in the past, we may be interrupted by pressing events or issues, but I’ll try to keep the focus on:
1.
bankruptcy; and
2. the things one needs to know before either
franchising one’s business or
becoming a franchisee of someone else’s business.
Believe it or not, there are some areas of…
Continue
Added by Rod Guinn on January 28, 2010 at 4:00am —
2 Comments
The
New York Times recently printed an article (December 23, 2009) detailing the efforts of Danny Meyer and other restaurateurs -- from Huddle House to the highest of high-end dining -- to manipulate their menus in order to keep customers coming in, spending money, trying new items, and generally combating the wave of consumer reluctance which has been an obvious and unavoidable corollary to the current portion of the economic cycle. It’s a valuable article, including commentary from “men…
Continue
Added by Rod Guinn on January 8, 2010 at 4:00am —
No Comments
Having just seen (again) Steve Martin’s classic sketch regarding Christmas wishes from an old Saturday Night Live, I’m tempted to follow suit, but will try to resist.
Still, if I were granted just one wish this Christmas, ...
I’d wish for confidence. There are hazards remaining between us and a robust recovery, including the still-unresolved issue of commercial real estate defaults across lenders’ (and investors’) portfolios. Still, most economists and analysts believe that this i…
Continue
Added by Rod Guinn on December 25, 2009 at 4:30am —
4 Comments
Like most of you, I have a perpetual list of things to do. Also, like many others, I suspect, my list seems longer at the end of each day than the beginning. Therefore, I’m NOT here to suggest ways to improve your life by managing your personal list. This column has a different focus.
Most owner operators, at some point, will want or need to raise capital, whether via a complete sale or solicitation of debt or equity. There’s a long list of things which should or must occur to be successful in…
Continue
Added by Rod Guinn on December 11, 2009 at 4:00am —
6 Comments
Of course, we each have many reasons to be thankful, even though you’re probably like me and don’t reflect often enough on them all. In this brief column, I only want to focus on some industry-related reasons to be thankful ... some for operators, some for consumers, and perhaps even some for investors and lenders.
Be Thankful you’re not some other industry. Yes, it’s been a tough year (or two), but -- unlike some other industries I can think of -- your customers don’t really dislike you…
Continue
Added by Rod Guinn on November 27, 2009 at 4:00am —
2 Comments
As I mentioned in a prior column, I just spoke at the Restaurant Finance and Development Conference, an annual event put forth by the Restaurant Finance Monitor and Franchise Times. As always, it was a quality event;
John Hamburger and Mary Jo Larson have done a terrific job of making this a valuable information forum for operators, investors, and lenders, as well as an opportunity for many of us to gather with current, past, and prospective clients and renew a few friendships.
This will…
Continue
Added by Rod Guinn on November 13, 2009 at 4:00am —
7 Comments
I know I promised a cheerier topic, but it is Hallowe'en, after all ...
There have been many news articles in recent months about the terrible damage done to the lives of homeowners unable to cover their mortgages -- being uprooted, losing perhaps their most valuable investment, and damaging their credit standing for the foreseeable future. I won’t to try to suggest an equivalency, as it’s evident the borrower bears the brunt, but there is also damage done to the lenders in such c…
Continue
Added by Rod Guinn on October 30, 2009 at 3:00am —
4 Comments
Next month, I’ll be speaking on a panel with the illustrious tandem of
Andy Barish (longtime restaurant equity analyst, now restaurant investment banker, of Cowen and Company) and
Mark Saltzgaber (longtime restaurant investment banker, now investor in, advisor to, and board member of various restaurant companies). We’ll be panelists at the Restaurant Finance and Development Conference, held annually in Las Vegas. Our topic is a look back (over the past eight years) and look forward…
Continue
Added by Rod Guinn on October 16, 2009 at 3:30am —
2 Comments
