Maintaining Franchising Focus

Maintaining Franchising Focus – Best Practice #29

Relevant questions:

• What actions are you undertaking to ensure you maintain a focus on franchising developments and trends?
• How engaged are you with your franchise association, including attending regular events and conferences, and entering franchise awards?
• Do you regularly seek consulting or legal advice on your franchise structure and management, including how it can be optimised for the future?

Franchisors operate in two business arenas.  First is the business that came first; namely the business associated with finding and satisfying customers – and all that entails from a resource, value proposition, profit formula and process standpoint.  Second, is the business of franchising which, while integrating with, and enabling the first, introduces its own factors that need to be understood, configured, and executed to make the franchise system successful.

This Best Practice recognises the need for an active and consistent focus on franchising.   Both the business and franchise domain aspects are subject to a changing environment.   What once was progressive or forward thinking – may now be the norm or even outdated.

Our experience indicates it is not uncommon for some franchisors, even in large companies, to operate more in a silo of the business.  Their outlook on franchising is purely based on what they already know, and what comes before them.  The outcome of this silo approach, neglecting a franchising focus, can be a franchise system that is outdated and underperforming for all stakeholders. In turn, it is not uncommon, based on our experience, that a franchisor in this situation reaches a point where they have to address franchising – before it is too late.

The silo means they are not actively recognising or looking for improvements to what they can do on the franchising side of their business.  They will likely not be members of their association and, if they were, most likely not attend most events. And they will most likely not attend franchising education opportunities or have sought regular consulting or legal advice – if at all.

Franchisors needs to maintain focus on both the business of the business as well as the business of Franchising – and ensure both parts continue to be progressed and optimised.

About the Franchising Best Practice 500 Series

This is part of a series of franchising best practices. Franchize Consultants is sharing and publishing these best practices weekly for the betterment of franchising. We know that better knowledge and execution of franchising best practices leads to bigger and more valuable franchisor and franchisee businesses.