2 Lakewood Franchises Among Best In North America: Entrepreneur

LAKEWOOD, CO — The business and management magazine Entrepreneur has released its 41st annual rankings of the top 500 franchises in North America.

Dunkin’ was ranked No.1 on the list, with Taco Bell and McDonald’s rounding out the top three.

Lakewood serves as home to the headquarters of two of the best franchises in North America, and both are owned by MBE Worldwide and led by CEO Paolo Fiorelli, according to the report.

AlphaGraphics

• Rank: No. 226
• Headquarters: 143 Union Blvd., #650

AlphaGraphics was founded in 1970, and has been franchising since 1980, according to Entrepreneur Magazine. AlphaGraphics has more than 250 full-service print shops.

PostNet Neighborhood Business Centers

• Rank: No. 293
• Headquarters: 143 Union Blvd., #600

PostNet was founded in 1985, and has been franchising since 1993, according to Entrepreneur Magazine. The franchise provides graphic design, printing and packing services for businesses and consumers. The franchise now has more than 650 locations.

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Both AlphaGraphics and PostNet have "relationships with third-party sources which offer financing to cover the following: franchise fee, startup costs, equipment, inventory, accounts receivable [and] payroll," the Entrepreneur post read.

Understanding what a franchise is

In a business format, a franchiser provides a franchisee its trade name, products, services and generally an entire operating system for the business. In most cases, the franchisee pays a royalty and an initial fee for the rights to do business under the franchiser’s name.

A possibly easier way to think about it is that a franchise is a company that allows individual people not associated with the organization to open and manage a location under the company’s name and backing.

You can read more about the process of franchising on franchise.org.