Franchising is very popular amongst food business owners and with good reason. It’s relatively easy to set up, the upfront investment is low, and there’s great potential for growth and success. This is illustrated by the global success of food business franchises like McDonalds, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, etc.
If you have a great product and are a successful business, you can be a successful franchise as well. Here are some pointers as to how you can successfully franchise your business:
Before you start selling your franchise, make sure your product is of good quality; and one way to maintain quality across all the branches is to standardise the product. For example, if you own a restaurant business, make note of all your recipes and special ingredients and trademark them. Distribute these recipes to your franchisees to ensure all of the products are consistent in every branch of your franchise. Your customers will expect this consistency in all of the branches, whether it’s in Sydney, Melbourne, or New Zealand.
To deliver a consistent experience, you need to develop an operations model that every branch would follow. All of your franchise branches should have the same:
This is a very important aspect of a successful franchise because it creates a uniform identity for you. It would also increase the brand value and help your company grow.
You should also make sure your model is unique and something that sets you apart from your competitors. For example, if you want to open a bakery, why not open a vegan one with organic ingredients? It would set you apart from other bakeries and give you a substantial customer base. A unique model is more sellable and that increases its franchise value; so make sure your business has some quality that sets it apart from the competition. It would be your selling point and something your brand can stand behind.
Franchisors need to provide proper training and guidelines to franchisees to ensure they can deliver a good quality product. They need to be in regular communication with the branches and ensure everything is running smoothly; and for that, they need a proper infrastructure in place.
It’s a good idea to invest in a software system for your company that includes everything from keeping track of inventory, complaints, to invoice generation. This should also be consistent across all the branches of your franchise, to deliver a good experience to both the franchisees and customers. You should set up an ecosystem that allows for spontaneous crisis management and troubleshooting, and instant support and communication.
It’s a good idea to evaluate your franchise branches from the customer’s perspective and come up with ways to improve the experience. Any improvements you make to the system will impact all branches and your reputation of your brand. You should never take the performance of any of your branches for granted; because if even one branch fails a customer, it can adversely affect your overall reputation. You should take feedback from your customers and constantly work on improving the experience. That would help your franchise succeed and surpass competition.
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 855 435 or 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
