13. Evaluate Sophia’s past and present marketing strategy. What should she do now? Should she seriously consider joining some franchise chain?

Sophia Manderino, the owner and manager of Sophia’s Ristorante, is reviewing the slow growth of her restaurant. She’s also thinking about the future and wondering if she should change her strategy. In particular, she is wondering if she should join a fast-food or family restaurant franchise chain.
Several are located near her, but there are many franchisors without local restaurants. After doing some research on the Internet, she has learned that with help from the franchisors, some of these places gross $500,000 to $1 million a year. Of course, she would have to follow someone else’s strategy and thereby lose her independence, which she doesn’t like to think about. But those sales figures do sound good, and she has also heard that the return to the owner-manager (including salary)
can be over $100,000 per year. She has also considered putting a web page for Sophia’s Ristorante on the Internet but is not sure how that will help.