An Alternative Top 5 Tips to Franchising Your Business… and what you need to do next!

With over 900 franchise brands now operating in the UK, contributing £15bn to the economy, could your business be the next big player?

Here’s an alternative top 5 tips to franchising your business and what actions you need to take:

1. Start with why

You don’t normally get in your car without an idea of where you’re heading, so why wouldn’t you want to have a clear purpose for your business.

In the franchise sector, it’s so important that you not only continually shout out about your mission and vision statements, but also that they are super simple to explain and clear to understand. You want/need your prospective and current franchisees, and their employees and customers, to be fully engaged and entwined with your brand.

Your mission and vision statements determine the company’s direction, focus the businesses’ future and provide a template for making decisions, by helping to shape strategy.

These statements should be developed by first developing your why:

• why did you start your business?
• why does your business do what it does?
• why have you chosen the franchise model route to grow?
• why should people buy from you?

Telling your story is powerful.

Your why should grab your customers attention (not only your end customers but also your franchisees) and reel them in!

Action

Watch Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why” Ted Talk to help you think about your “Why”:

2. Carve out your USP

Can you pinpoint exactly what makes your business unique compared to your competitors (within your sector) or with other franchises after a similar demographic of franchisee?

Being able to clearly explain to a potential franchisee what makes you different is a must, for them to sit up and think “yes, this could be for me”.

You need to define your target audience, explain the problems you solve, list the biggest distinctive benefits and define your promise.

Think about using a guarantee to make you stand out and show your audience your own, 100% confidence in your offering.

Action

Develop a unique selling proposition for your franchise opportunity (and for your end business):

3. Focus on getting the right technology in place

Some days, it may not seem like it, but actually, technology is here to make life easier!

Companies like Uber and Just Eat only exist because of modern-day technology.

How is your business currently leveraging technology, to:

•  grow quicker
• provide a better customer experience
• streamline processes
• use social media and digital content for marketing
• run training courses
• store and access legal and compliance documentation
• automate customer payments and franchise fees
• monitor franchisee performance
• communicate!

Action

So, what’s your plan?

Develop a plan on how you’ll use technology with your franchisees and their customers.

4. Understand people

What makes people tick?

What are their hopes and dreams?

Why do they decide to do what they do?

Becoming a franchisor, is as much about becoming a leader of others, as it is about being a business owner. You’ll be bringing people from various backgrounds, with varying abilities and pressures, into your business, and helping them to become successful.

Think about how you can use profiling and behavioural or psychometric assessments in order to find the people that will best fit your business and perform successfully.

And think about how you can improve your own emotional intelligence and cognitive empathy, in order to make better judgements on others and open yourself up so they feel they can come to you.

Action

Read The Franchise E-Factor to understand the psychological changes that a franchisee experiences as they move through their franchise journey.

5. Be realistic

Are you really going to sign up 12 franchisees in your 1^st year?

As experienced franchise consultants, we often hear and see these types of projections for Year 1. Yes, perhaps with a dedicated, expert franchise sales team you might, but have you got the resources to set this up and fund it?

Realistically you’re going more Mo Farah, than Usain Bolt. You’ve chosen the franchise model route to future proof your business and so remember it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Your first few franchisees are SO important to you. Take your time in taking on the right candidates and then focus on making them successful. The rest will follow.

Also, once you have a growing network, each franchisee will require different inputs/management, and return different outputs/money. Don’t expect all your franchisees to perform equally and one size doesn’t fit all!

Your business is now managing franchisees and helping them to grow their business.

They win, you win!

Remind yourself (or look up) the 80/20 Pareto Principle. Be prepared to receive 80% of your franchise fees from 20% of your network.

Action

Within your franchise development plan, ensure you financial projections and network growth forecasts contain several scenarios – worst case, good and great!

And a bonus tip

Consult the experts

Expert: “a person with a high level of knowledge or skill relating to a particular subject or activity”

Why struggle through yourself when you can leverage knowledge, experience and advice through a franchise consultant, that has been there, done that, worn the t-shirt. Let them guide you through the process of franchising a business, so you don’t make common mistakes or choose the wrong path which could set you back in time and money.

Action

Contact Ashtons Franchise Consulting for an honest, initial exploratory discussion.