{"id":11894,"date":"2025-05-29T09:39:38","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T14:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/?p=11894"},"modified":"2025-05-29T09:47:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T14:47:00","slug":"franchise-competition-winner-to-be-named-may-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/2025\/05\/29\/franchise-competition-winner-to-be-named-may-30\/","title":{"rendered":"Franchise competition winner to be named May 30\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_11598\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11598\" class=\"wp-image-11598 size-fusion-400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2024\/05\/unnamed-400x266.jpeg\" alt=\"winner Caleb Keling, surrounded by family, MWSU President and staff, and others. staff\" width=\"400\" height=\"266\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2024\/05\/unnamed-200x133.jpeg 200w, https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2024\/05\/unnamed-310x206.jpeg 310w, https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2024\/05\/unnamed-400x266.jpeg 400w, https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2024\/05\/unnamed.jpeg 512w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-11598\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Caleb Keling (center) won the franchise competition in 2024.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">May 29, 2025&#8211;A recent Missouri Western State University graduate will earn the opportunity to own and operate a franchise business. The Center for Franchise Development in the Craig School of Business will announce the winner of the 2025 franchise competition at 1 p.m. Friday, May 30 in the Walter Cronkite Memorial inside the Spratt Hall Atrium. The public is invited to the announcement. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Each year, the Center for Franchise Development offers business ownership opportunities to Craig School of Business alumni through a competitive process. Graduating seniors or alumni take an Applied Business Ownership class and prepare a business plan for a franchise opportunity. Students who wish to compete for the opportunity present their business plan to a panel of judges including Steven L. Craig, creator of the franchise competition, other business leaders and past winners.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Center for Franchise Development provides initial capital for the stores, which the alumni pay back over five years. The entrepreneurs also receive ongoing support from faculty members, the Craig School of Business Advisory Council, Craig and each other. Additionally, the owners are expected to donate a portion of their store\u2019s proceeds back to the University.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The store awarded this year will be the 36th store awarded since the program\u2019s founding in 2009. Many of the alumni have expanded on their initial business: they currently own a total of more than 50 stores in 11 states, with annual sales of more than $34 million and annual payroll of more than $10 million.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Missouri Western State University is a student-centered learning community preparing individuals for lives of excellence through applied learning. Missouri Western is located in St. Joseph, Mo., and is committed to the educational, economic, cultural and social development of the region it serves. Visit <\/span><\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">missouriwestern.edu<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>May 29, 2025&#8211;A recent Missouri Western State University graduate will earn the opportunity to own and operate a franchise business. The Center for Franchise Development in the Craig School of Business will announce the winner of the 2025 franchise competition at 1 p.m. Friday, May 30 in the Walter Cronkite Memorial inside the Spratt Hall [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":11598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,27,48],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11894"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11894"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11897,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11894\/revisions\/11897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}