Mark Siebert

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CEO & Sr. Franchise Consultant
iFranchise Group

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Area of Franchise Expertise

Strategic Franchise Development and Business Planning:
Franchise Feasibility, Conversion of Dealers to Franchises, Strategic Planning, and International Development

Author of Franchise Your Business, The Guide to Employing the Greatest Growth Strategy Ever (now in its second edition), The Franchisee Handbook, and The Multiplier Model and a franchise business consultant since 1985, Mr. Siebert founded the iFranchise Group in 1998 as an organization dedicated to developing long-term relationships with successful franchisor clientele. Mr. Siebert has worked with hundreds of franchisors, from start-up operations to corporate giants. He is an expert in evaluating companies for franchisability, structuring franchise offerings, and developing franchise programs. The strategic planning recommendations developed by Mr. Siebert have been instrumental in the growth and success of numerous national franchisors.

During his career as a franchise consultant, Mr. Siebert has personally assisted over 30 Fortune 2000 companies and over 500 start-up franchisors. Some of the more prominent companies he has helped include 1-800-FLOWERS, Ace Hardware, Anheuser-Busch, Athlete’s Foot, Amoco, Armstrong World Industries, Auntie Anne’s Soft Pretzels, ASICS, Berlitz, Bikram Yoga, Blockbuster, BP Oil, Buffalo Wild Wings, Carstar, Checkers/Rally’s, Chem-Dry, Circle K, Claire’s Stores, Coldwell Banker, CompUSA, Comfort Keepers, Cosi, Culligan, Dave & Buster’s Denny’s, Dippin’ Dots, DuPont, Einstein Brothers, El Pollo Loco, FedEx Office, Fidelity Investments, General Electric, Goddard Schools, Godiva, Guinness, Häagen-Dazs, Hallmark, Hard Rock Cafe, IBM, Instant Tax Service, Jackson Hewitt, John Deere, Krispy Kreme, LA Weight Loss, Lenscrafters, Line-X, Little Gym, Manpower, Massage Envy, McAlister’s Deli, Mobil Oil, Nissan (Saudi Arabia), Nestlé, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Oreck, Payless Shoe Source, Perkins, Petco, Philips Van Heusen, Pinkberry, Popeye’s, QC Kinetix, Quizno’s, Rent-A-Center, Rita’s Italian Ice, Ryder Truck Rental, Sears, Senior Helpers, Shell Oil, Sky Zone, Sonic, Subway, Togo’s, Topgolf, T-Mobile, Texaco, UPS Store, U.S. Navy, Walhburgers, and Yankee Candle. He has personally consulted to companies in more than two dozen different countries and provided keynote speeches on franchising in more than a dozen.  He has held “C-Level,” Board, or advisory roles for 11 different companies, six of which have gone through highly successful liquidity events. 

Mr. Siebert serves as a Partner and Member of the Board of Directors of TopFire Media, a franchise and consumer media company that specializes in public relations, search engine optimization, social media posting, pay-per-click marketing, and inbound marketing.  He also serves as a partner in iFranchise Group International, which oversees licensed operations in the Middle East.

Mr. Siebert is a past member of the Board of Directors of the American Association of Franchisees and Dealers (AAFD), was on the Board of Advisors to Connections for Community Ownership, and was on a member of the Board of Directors of i9 Sports (a 140-unit team sports franchisor) during its sale to private equity.

For more than four decades, Mr. Siebert has been actively involved in assisting U.S. franchisors in expanding abroad. He has provided consulting services to franchisors in more than two dozen countries and his efforts have been responsible for the sale of numerous international licenses. Mr. Siebert has also personally supervised the establishment of international consulting practices in Argentina, Chile, Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Peru, the Philippines, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, and Uruguay.

Mr. Siebert has presented hundreds of speeches and seminars on franchising in cities around the globe. He has been a featured speaker for the International Franchise Association, the International Franchise Expo, the International Franchise Association’s Legal Symposium, the American Bar Association, the American Association of Franchisees and Dealers, the Franchise Finance Conference, the National Restaurant Association, the Canadian Franchise Association, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and at major franchise events in Argentina, Chile, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Peru, and Uruguay. He has been a featured guest on business programs airing on CNN, Fox Business Network, and other programs both in the U.S. and abroad.

Mr. Siebert has also published over 400 articles in dozens of business and professional periodicals, including The Franchise Handbook, Success, Venture, Entrepreneur (both in the US and in Japan), Entrepreneurial Edge, Commerce, Franchising World, Successful Franchising, Business Opportunities Journal, California Restaurateur, and Food Industry News. Mr. Siebert is the featured columnist on “How to Franchise a Business” for Entrepreneur.com and has been a regularly featured columnist in Franchise Times magazine, Forbes.com, FranchiseExpo.com, BeTheBoss.com, and The Franchise Handbook.

Mr. Siebert is frequently called upon as an expert witness in franchise-related cases. He holds a B.S. in Advertising and an MBA from Northern Illinois University, and has taught undergraduate and post-graduate courses in business and in franchising at Lewis University, Loop College, and DePaul University.