Jeff Johnson has been immersed in franchising for over 40 years. His entrepreneurship began after leaving a Fortune 500 company to invest in a franchise at the age of 29. Jeff was Schlotzsky’s New Franchisee of the Year in 1985; then as a multi-unit owner, he made the National Top 20 ranking regularly. As an Area Developer, he opened 22 franchises in 10 years, which earned him an Area Developer award. He was elected (for many years) to the Franchise Advisory Council (FAC), Franchise Marketing Council (FMC), and Presidents Council.

With 17 years of franchisee and Area Developer experience, Jeff learned that franchisees often do not share important insights with franchisor executives for fear of retribution. Without open & honest communication, franchise executives are left having to rely on gut instinct with many questions and no actual data, which can prevent a franchise network from attaining its true potential.

In 2002, Jeff founded the Franchise Research Institute (FRI) to confidentially survey franchisees for network optimization. FRI’s mission is to provide their franchise clients with high-quality, franchisee opinion research using scientific, yet easily understood data to be used in system-wide benchmarking, strategic planning, and validation.