Eyes On The Prize Winning is just the beginning for Crown Trophy.

The Mohawks were dismal. We knew our town had never witnessed aworse little league hockey team. We tried, but our pathetic skatingnonetheless produced a spotless record (no wins), and thus the teambanquet was peppered with despair. Fortunately, our coach was anexperienced loser and saved the season when he surprised us all byproducing a few boxes of gleaming trophies from under the table.Until that point, we felt like failures, but as each of us receivedour trophies with such inscriptions as "Most Improved,""Hustle Award" and "Team Leader," each boyfound redemption. Now that had a value that far exceeded the costof a plastic trophy.

Crown Trophy Inc., a franchisor based in Yonkers, New York, hascapitalized on people's need to be recognized since 1985, whenit began franchising Crown Trophy stores. The company was also thetop-ranked Sports Memorabilia/Recognition Products franchise inEntrepreneur's 1998 Franchise 500®. Besides trophies ofall kinds, Crown Trophy stores offer engraving, signs, plaques,medals and desk accessories. The chain now has 54 stores inoperation, and according to Crown management, there hasn't beena franchise failure, license cancellation or franchisee lawsuit inthe chain's history.

That's pretty remarkable for a 13-year-old franchise, and itappears to be due to the company's attitude toward itsfranchisees. For example, according to Charles Weisenfeld, co-ownerof this privately held company, the franchisor isn't interestedin making a profit from the sale of supplies to franchisees.Rather, the company is content to see to it that its franchiseesmaintain the lowest prices in the business. In fact, selling"deep and cheap" ($4 to $6 per unit) is a primary companystrategy that permits various organizations to afford participationawards, like those presented to my fellow Mohawks.