Franchising Best Practice 500

Experienced franchisors know the difference between a Good and Great franchisee. More than 20 years ago, in my own research, a multi award- winning franchisor commented on the sometimes stark performance differential – even when controlling for other relevant factors: The new owners took it from $660,000 to $1,890,000 in less than three years. We’ve …

Franchise systems need to have a franchisee communication and support plan that details what will happen and when. The franchisee support and communication plan should cover the multitude of elements relating to the franchise, like: Franchise conferences and regional meetings Field visits, ongoing training and business reviews Business and marketing planning and approval dates Audits, …

Garbage in, garbage out or GIGO is the phrase and acronym originating in Computer Science to explain the only too-common phenomena of outputs or arguments being flawed if their original premise or data was wrong. Best practice franchisors will ensure data collected for use is valid. Franchise systems and other chain organisations can benefit hugely …

Franchisors operate in a range of industries, and even those within the same sector can pursue a different strategic approach. That legitimately means the exact Franchise Support Office structure for one organisation may well differ from that of a direct competitor (of a similar size) – and for good reason. Notwithstanding, we know from our …

Field managers need to wear many hats and fulfil multiple roles. We have for many years been helping franchisors transition their field visit purpose and field manager capability toward adding a ‘Business Consultants’ role, capable of engaging with, and positively influencing, franchisees at a ‘business’ level. It is a generalisation but also a fact, based …

Field visits need to have clear objectives to maximise their potential and drive impactful outcomes. With multiple field managers, clear objectives are also important in order to deliver consistent, coordinated support and harness efficiencies (e.g., in preparation and approach). Because on field visits, like many other aspects of the business, where there are almost infinite …

Customer satisfaction is critical for business and franchise networks. The importance and logic could not be more clearly stated than by the late Sam Walton, founder of Walmart: There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else. …

Today technology is such a vital and important area with the power to inform, innovate, improve, power or even disrupt a business – the latter for which those previously involved in video rental, book retail and photo development businesses would attest. Consider the following technology areas as examples: Accounting, E-Commerce, POS, Analytics, CRM, Apps, Benchmarking, …

Great franchisors need to demonstrate a number of important characteristics as part of their leadership. We believe sound strategic thinking is one such critical leadership characteristic – and that franchisors should strive to provide franchisees with confidence in this area. While one could argue strategy and change (given today’s dynamic environment) have never been more …

A periodic review of a franchise system’s economic model is important – to ensure it is optimal, for both franchisor and franchisees alike, for the future. Examples of key fee areas or sources of revenue under consideration should include: Decisions on fees and how they are calculated are important as they impact franchisor and franchisee …

This best practice speaks to the importance of establishing and managing a regular performance monitoring and review cycle. Management thinker Peter Druker famously said “If You Can’t Measure It, You Can’t Improve It.” What he was understood to mean is that you can’t know whether or not you are successful unless success is defined and …