Last week I wrote a blog post on my Top 3 Tips for Franchisees for 2019 and it had great feedback so I thought this week, why not do my Top 3 Tips for FRANCHISORS for 2019? So here they are…..
- Focus on Profitability
It is very easy to focus on revenue with franchisees as a franchisor. As your brand builds and grows to watch the sales go up and watch as franchisees are growing their business year on year (well hopefully yours are!)
But sometimes this is not actually the best thing for franchisees. Sure, many franchisors focus on revenue because their franchise fee is directly taken from the revenue of a franchisee, but this may bit a little awkward, but you need to kind of stop focussing on your business (the franchisor) and focus on the franchisees. There is more to your business than just the money.
I’m always saying to Franchisees that it is cheaper to keep an existing customers than to get a new one so get really good at keeping customers coming back. Your customers are your franchisees – so keep them coming back, keep them renewing, keep them happy (profitable franchisees are always more happy and less trouble!!) and they will also be bigger raving fans of the franchise system to potential franchisees.
Sometimes more revenue is not the solution for a franchisee – especially longer term franchisees. They could be doing the same revenue, but if they were more organised, more organised, more intentionally looking at their profit margin, they would be more profitable, making more money, with less work!
Sure, if you are thinking short term in your business, then ignore this tip and keep out there just banging the drum on more revenue, but if you are looking at your franchise business long term, then put a larger emphasis on making more profit.
- Re-evaluate your training and support
This kind of goes with the above point, because maybe your support team (eg. Field Managers) need some help understanding how to work on profitability, how to get the best out of a franchisee. Maybe you need to look at your initial franchise training and even your conference topics or if you have regional trainings, what are you discussing at those prime opportunities to train and educate your franchisees.
When was the last time you looked at your support systems and more importantly, your coaching techniques to get the best from a franchisee – for the franchisee!
I make no secret that I hate tick and flick type of checklists for franchisees. Now, don’t get me wrong, they are great for compliance and ensuring that things are being done correctly and to brand standards so therefore are necessary, but a tick and flick checklist compliance meeting is NOT a business coaching session for a franchisee. It is compliance, not coaching! If you are still using a tick and flick method to ‘coach’ your franchisees – and it isn’t coaching – then you need to re-evaluate what you are doing.
Get your team together and just simply ask ‘How could we be doing this better? What is going to add more value to the franchisees … for the franchisees?’
This is a question that I saw some of the top franchise groups ask in 2018 and they called me in to help them with this – I got to witness it first-hand. They were already excelling and doing a fantastic job at supporting their franchisees, but they didn’t relax and let this keep just ticking along. No, they asked for more. What extra training do our field support need – even if it is just to confirm what they are already doing? What else do the franchisees need from us? What can we eliminate from our system? What can we simplify? What information do we get that we need from the franchisees, but how can we make that process super valuable information for the franchisee as well?
Even if you are excellent, you can always be better, right?
- Ask for help
This was in my top 3 tips for franchisees last week, but I think it deserves to be here for franchisors too. You can go back and see last weeks blog about asking for help with solutions, but I want to turn this tip into something a little different for franchisors.
Now, if you are a good franchisor, you would know the value in promoting peer to peer support between your franchisees and the benefits of that to your franchisees. So where is your peer to peer support?
Being a Franchisor is actually quite a unique thing. I don’t say that lightly because every business owner believes that their business is unique, when really it isn’t, but being a franchisor is because your customers are actually your franchisees, not the end user of the business (they are the franchisees customers). Not only are the franchisees your customers, but they are also on your team. So it is kind of like making the franchisees feel part of the team, but the franchisor never forgetting that they are your customers.
Because of this, there are some very specific things that are unique to a franchise business model that people in the ‘general business world’ simply don’t understand. I hear people say all the time that they ‘get franchising’, but until you are in it, you don’t see or realise all these finer unique points.
So, if you know peer to peer support is great for your franchisees, then you need it too!
How do you get help from other Franchisors?
Ask……
Yes, just ask! You would be surprised at just how willing other Franchisors are to share what they do, what they wish they’d done earlier or better. Many will even hand over parts of their IP to help you.
This is because when you teach or share, you learn. I’ve spoken to many a franchisor who willingly shares information with other franchisors and they always say they get so much from sharing, they learn again or it boosts their energy and realising what they have created in their business. They know that these Franchisors they share with are not in competition with them – someone that would buy into their brand, would not buy into the other franchisors brand.
Actually, I want to take a moment and share a really important story on just how powerful sharing can be and how it can lift everyone to be sharing rather than competition. A little off track, but I think really valuable to share as we discuss asking for help.
It was at the Melbourne Franchising Expo last year. Two well-known brands were in booths basically next to each other (there was one brand in between them). All weekend, these two brands chatted, shared – and they have been doing this for quite some time outside of the expo. They are willing to share and help each other.
A couple came along and they came specifically to look at these two brands. Although they do different work, they had some commonalities – working outside, mobile business, long established franchises – so in reality, they were in competition for this couple to become a franchisee.
The couple spent time with each brand on their stand, chatting and discussing and it was obvious because they were only a stand apart! The couple even said to both the brand they were looking at both of them. There was a lot of joking involved between the two brands – even a little ‘pretend’ push and shove that got laughter from all involved – including the prospective franchisees.
What was amazing was that both brands and the people involved, edified the other brand. They both said ‘Hey, if we are not right for you and you go with [insert other brand name here], then that is a really good choice. We know that brand and it is a fantastic choice. They will really look after you.’
WOW !!
I actually spoke to the couple in question and they said to me just how much that meant to them and how impressive it was. They couldn’t believe that the franchise teams just wanted the best for them and it was obvious that we all knew each other well and obviously shared.
At one point, Franchisors and executives from both brands were talking to the couple together – at the same time!
Now this didn’t happen magically, although I think all the people involved are naturally just these kinds of people. Over the years, at conferences, at meetings, via the Franchise Council of Australia, the fact that their head offices are in the same city – in fact only 20 minutes apart, these two brands have been willing to share, and it all stems from the two men that started each of these brands because they have both been in the game for a long time and both are really open to helping and making the INDUSTRY better for all.
How abundant are you being with other franchisors?
Indulge me… I have another story from that expo to show this!
One of the above franchisors had a little trouble with the iPad to capture a really hot prospects details… he actually lost the details. Later in the day he was speaking with another Franchisor exhibiting, who really could be considered direct competition, and told him that he was so frustrated that he had lost this prospect’s details, not because he was a hot prospect, but because the Franchisor had promised to send him some specific information and now he felt like he was not being a man of his word. The other Franchisor asked some questions and they kink of worked out who the prospect was (the first Franchisor knew his story and could remember his first name, but that was it). The second Franchisor said ‘Give me a minute’. He went back to his stand and then return a few minutes later. On a piece of paper, he had all of that prospect’s details and GAVE THEM to the first Franchisor……. WOW WOW WOW!
This all happened because the Franchisors involved were willing to help each other – peer to peer support.
How did it start…. By asking for help and by giving help when needed.
As I said, franchising is a unique industry and something all of the Franchisors and their teams in the above stories demonstrated is that they all have the value of doing the right thing for the franchisees (or potential franchisees) and they know that if they do that, then their business will be just fine and in fact thrive.
Should I name the franchise systems above…. I think they deserve it because they are shining examples of good franchising, don’t you agree? They were Gutter-Vac, Poolwerx and Graffiti Eaters!
Sorry for the long blog post this week, got a little passionate there, but if you have got to here, I hope this has helped you !
Tracey
PS. Maybe when re-evaluating your support and training, my Supporting Franchisees course could be of value to you and your team. Check it out at www.SupportingFranchisees.com
