Chris Conner

Chris Conner has been a franchise consultant working with business owners and brands to support growth through franchising since 2001. His experience in the franchise development industry started with a Chicago-based franchise consulting firm where Chris had the opportunity to work with a variety of successful franchise systems including Jimmy John’s, European Wax Center, 911 Restoration, Smash Burger, Marco’s Pizza, Mad Science Group and other franchise systems where he was able to learn the franchise development process and see firsthand the success that could be had in franchising when the right business model and right systems were put into place.

In 2009, Chris founded Franchise Marketing Systems (FMS), a company that provides strategic planning, development and sales for emerging franchise brands. FMS was developed in order to provide a full-service franchise development solution to new and existing franchisors. FMS provides strategic planning, FDD and Franchise Agreement development, Operations and Training Program development and Marketing Development to bring new brands to market as a franchise, then supports the franchise sales and marketing of the franchise. Chris oversees the FMS team and works directly with clients to execute the franchise development process, supporting planning, development work, franchise sales and franchise operations implementation work.

Since 2009, FMS has developed over 700 franchise brands globally and has a team of over 38 franchise consultants. FMS has developed successful franchise brands including Anytime Fitness, Baxter Healthcare, Blimpie, Hungry Howie’s Pizza, Restoration 1, Smash My Trash, Two Men and a Truck, Medifast Weight Loss, Matco Tools along with others. The FMS Team has been able to align with brands and franchise systems with a unified, consistent approach focused on growth, systems and transitioning from company-owned businesses to a scalable franchise system. Chris holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and Management Information Systems from Miami of Ohio University and an MBA in Finance from DePaul University in Chicago. He is married to Dr. Alaina Conner and has two children, Ashton and Jameson who make every day exciting, full of adventure and sometimes stress.