We have so many exciting things to announce! The IDCFA Board is spending a majority of our time on the Focus Five initiative. It's a proposition the board brought to DC&A in March 2013 with a vision of where we want to be in five years. The IDCFA Board had a two-day meeting with DC&A in January 2014 and created a focus for the next five years. We started with a foundation of who we are: the Dale Carnegie principles and Dale Carnegie experience. The focus was then placed on where we want to play: the primary market, which is small to medium sized businesses under 500 employees, and the secondary market, which are businesses with 500+ employees.
IDCFA is working hand in hand with DC&A on strategies to win and we have already seen some progress. DC&A will be releasing their strategic plan soon. This is the first time in 15 years franchisees have been involved this deeply with DC&A and the strategic planning process. The largest initiative to evolve so far is the WOW experience. You're seeing DC&A, franchisees and members jump in on this initiative and this is only the beginning. The IDCFA Board is working hard to make sure that the plan is executed effectively.
IDCFA had their 2014 Owner's Meeting last month in Austin, TX. There were approximately 60 franchisees and 11 representatives from DC&A in attendance. This was the highest attended meeting in the past five years. Many segments were co-facilitated by both IDCFA and DC&A and focused on primary and secondary markets. For the first time, IDCFA released the meeting handouts to IDCFA paying members so everyone could see what we experienced in hopes that those who did not, or could not, attend this year will join us at an upcoming meeting. We encourage every owner throughout the world to attend our summer owners meeting next year. Location to be announced soon!
IDCFA will be holding a meeting on December 2 in Atlanta in conjunction with the International Convention. We will have guest speakers that will help us be better in our business. Watch your email for more details on this meeting!
Finally, I would like to announce a new Innovation Team - Franchise Profitability. If our businesses could make a lot more money, it would be easier for us to build wealth and sell at a high amount. A couple of ideas for the team to exploring a mentoring program to help new franchisees, look for additional ways to reduce costs, testing of digital manuals, etc. If you are interested in joining this team, please let me know.
See you in Atlanta!