If you live in a cold climate, you know what’s in store for any driver in the coming months – icy roads, ice covering the windshield, snow smothering the car roof, slush spraying everywhere on your vehicle.  Due to many of these conditions, salt is applied to the roads everywhere.  Our cars take a pounding with any number of these elements from November through March.  Whether it is repeated snowfall in the north and midwest or ice storms in the south, few places are immune to the toll the winter weather takes on our vehicles. Which is why you really may want to think about getting paint protection film. Even if you’re often parking your car in a garage, time isn’t your car’s friend either. Eventually, if not winter sludge, road salt or snow-melting chemicals, something is going to make that nice looking car of yours a little less beautiful. And it may not have anything to do with weather ... read more

Some people think that if you’re a franchise owner, that’s it. You own one franchise, and you’re almost a glorified employee who works for the franchisor. You aren’t really a business owner. You can never grow your business. You just have one stand-alone store in the franchise network, and that’s it. But that simply isn’t the case, as you may already know. Some franchise owners end up running businesses that operate and manage several different franchises. You could own a corporation that has five gas stations in a region, six restaurants and three clothing stores. No, it wouldn’t happen overnight, but the point is that some people do take that approach. Those people are often called master franchisees or area developers, and obviously, it takes a long time to get to that stage in one’s career, if you go that route. But the point is, being a franchise owner never means that you can’t grow and expand your business – and we tak ... read more

People can learn a lot from Randy Durham. After all, winning the annual Franchisee of the Year award, which is voted on by fellow franchise owners throughout the system, which he did last year, is a sign that your business is on a good path. But securing it two years in a row? Randy is clearly doing something right. So, what’s the secret to all his success? We recently caught up with Randy came away with a few takeaways that other franchisees may want to emulate. First, there are no secrets. Randy that he talks on the phone to a lot of fellow Alta Mere franchisees and often shares tips about his business – mostly on topics like handling the window tinting of certain high-end cars. He learns a lot from other owners, and other owners likely learn from him. It’s never a bad idea to get to know your fellow franchisees and ... read more