You’ve decided you want to get into business ownership and walk away from Corporate America, congratulations! You’ve taken the step of talking with a franchise consultant to start investigating which of the 3,000 plus franchises might be a good fit for your particular situation. You’ve found some options that fit your financial requirements, are available in your geography and check the boxes for several other key attributes, that’s a great start.
As you go through your evaluation, make sure to get a solid understanding of the support programs the franchisor will provide. Branding, training, product offering, and day-to-day responsibilities are crucial, but when it comes to long term business success, none of them will be more important than the support you get once your business is up and running.
Make sure there is documentation in place. The Operations Manual Table of Contents will be listed in the franchise disclosure document. Check with existing franchisees to see how helpful the Operations Manual is in helping them run their business. The Operations Manual needs to cover all aspects of running the business day-to-day from the time the franchisee opens for business in the morning until they shut down in the evening. Additional support materials should be posted somewhere, such as an internal intranet for easy access.
What type of human resources are available when the franchisee has a question? Ask existing franchisees how quickly they get responses when they need help.
Are there weekly or maybe bi-weekly calls organized between all franchisees and the franchisor? This can be a great way to share ideas between franchisees and develop best practices that the franchisor can then roll into their standard support procedures. An internal message board that all franchisees use to exchange ideas is also a great feature to ask about.
The franchisor doesn’t have to have every single detail figured out, and that will most certainly be the case in a less mature franchise, but the franchisor does need to be ready to roll up their sleeves and get to work solving problems that the franchisee may encounter.
I can remember a franchise I did some work with years ago that never made the transition from running their own business to becoming first and foremost a franchisor. On many occasions, I heard complaints from the franchisor that franchisees were such a pain because they always need help with running their business. As you can imagine, that business is no longer in the franchise world!
– Geoff Batchelder, CFC
Geoff Batchelder has been a franchise consultant and franchise development expert for the last 10 years. He helps launch successful businesses and builds strong franchise systems. Before that, he spent 25 years focusing on business development in the high-tech industry. Contact him at 877-222-3722 or email geoff@compassfranchisegroup.com.