Franchises are not as easy to manage as they sound. People consider them a shortcut to growth, and in many ways they are that; but that doesn’t mean the road is easy or completely risk-free. In fact, maintaining a successful franchise business requires considerable amount of effort, time, and patience.At The Franchise Institute, we believe that business owners should be completely aware of what they’re getting into before they franchise their business. You need to possess certain traits and attributes to ensure you’re a good franchisor, such as the following:
A good franchisor should always be open to communication and establish clear lines of communication in their business. Internal communication is one of the key elements of a successful franchise. The business owner and the franchisee must exchange ideas, work on problems together, and ensure the reputation and quality of the brand is uniformly maintained.
This can only happen if you communicate clearly and are always approachable. If you can’t handle communications yourself, make sure that someone in your company handles it for you and don’t leave your franchisees high and dry.
Franchisors need to be organised, especially if they have a large network of branches. You need to keep an eye on the performance of all branches and ensure they’re in line with your company policy and standards. Before you start selling franchises of your business, you should have a solid system in place that would ensure everything can be monitored easily and you don’t fall into the trap of missing or neglected less visible branches.
Your company brand and intellectual property is your most available asset so you need to use them carefully. You can only do that if you have business acumen and experience. You want to choose the right franchisees, set up a good business model, develop a good troubleshooting system, and ensure you have an excellent marketing campaign in place. All of this requires skill and dedication because you won’t just be watching over one store or business, but multiple branches.
Customers like franchises because they know what to expect from them. For example, a Subway store in Sydney would offer the same options and flavours as a Subway store in Melbourne. That’s the primary appeal of franchises, so you need to maintain that. You need to make sure all of your franchise branches follow the same system and deliver the same experience. You need to have a good training and guidance system in place to ensure the branches are run according to customer expectations and requirements.
You shouldn’t be careless about your selection process because one wrong franchisee can leave a black mark on your reputation; and reputation is very valuable in this industry. For example, when a potential franchisee is researching a franchise business, they look at online reviews and comments left behind by customers.
If a particular branch doesn’t deliver good service, customers will have something to say about it, and that can impact your business. That’s why you need to choose a franchisee carefully and have a good application, assessment, and selection process in place. Many people simply hand over the franchise to people who can afford it, and that can be a very costly mistake.
If you want to know more about franchising or want some advice, feel free to get in touch with us at The Franchise Institute. You can call us on 1300 855 435or fill in this contact us form and we’ll reply as soon as we can.
Thanks for reading,
The Franchise Institute Team
1300 855 435
