Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Looking for a way to speed up the franchise growth curve? In anaggressive move toward expansion, Cleveland-based ProForma Inc. isencouraging its franchisees to consider mergers and acquisitionsthrough a research database that connects its franchisees withcompetitors who are looking to sell or who may be enticed to phaseout their businesses over a short time. A distributor of document,multimedia and promotional products, ProForma has added a mergersand acquisitions department to keep up with the leads.
"We don't have any company-owned [units], so wearen't buying anyone out ourselves," says Al Miano, chiefmarketing communications officer. "We're playingmatchmaker." ProForma encourages franchisees by doing theresearch for them, training them on handling acquisitions, andproviding the capital needed to buy other businesses.
Continue reading this article — and all of our other premium content with Entrepreneur+
Join the internet’s leading entrepreneur community! With your subscription you’ll get:
- Unlimited access, including premium content
- No ads
- Subscription to狗万官方magazine
- Four free e-books a year
- Subscriber-only events with our experts