Taking Franchising Seriously
Both prospective and established franchisors must approach franchising with diligence, while taking franchising seriously. Especially if they aim to grow value and manage the expanding range of risks that affect both themselves and their franchisees.
Taking franchising seriously builds strong foundations
While franchising can be an excellent vehicle for business expansion, the complexity involved in managing a franchise system is often underestimated. There is no single, easy formula for franchising or licensing that simplifies the process.
Building Strong Franchising Foundations
At the core of any successful franchise program are solid foundations that create a strong partnership between franchisors and franchisees. These foundations are essential for providing direction, knowledge, and support throughout the franchise system. For franchisors, developing or enhancing these foundations should be seen as an investment in quality rather than as a cost-cutting measure.
The process should begin with a thorough franchising strategy and financial assessment and culminate in a well-drafted franchise agreement, comprehensive franchise manuals for both franchisees and franchisors, and a range of essential tools and resources. Effective management of a franchise system covers governance, planning, recruitment, onboarding, operations, marketing, and performance management. Together, these elements provide a robust platform to drive growth and manage risks within the franchise system.
Optimizing Franchisee Performance and Market Penetration
Although franchisees are driven by owning their businesses, this motivation alone often isn’t enough to achieve optimal performance for either the franchisee or the franchisor. To ensure franchisees maximize the value of their investment and territories, franchisors must select franchisees who are well-suited to the concept and provide them with the necessary tools, such as comprehensive manuals, training, and ongoing support.
Continued support includes business management systems, performance metrics, benchmarking key performance indicators (KPIs), business planning, group marketing, field visits, and coaching. Developing and managing these systems requires significant upfront and ongoing effort, but it is essential to fostering franchisee success and system-wide growth.
Brand and Legal Compliance: Essential to Franchise Success
A franchise system’s brand is one of its most valuable assets, encompassing not only customer-facing elements but the entire customer experience within the network. When a franchisee compromises on service, product quality, or any aspect of the customer experience, it can negatively impact the entire brand and all franchisees within the network.
Legal compliance, though distinct from branding, is closely related. Non-compliance can lead to serious consequences that damage both the brand’s reputation and customer trust. Recent examples include employment law violations that have tarnished entire franchise brands, not just individual franchisees.
To safeguard the value of their franchise system, franchisors must invest in the necessary foundations: thorough manuals, reliable systems, assessment tools, ongoing training, field visits, and quality control measures like mystery shopping. While these measures require substantial investment and effort, they are crucial for long-term success.
Sustainability and Change in Franchising
In today’s business environment, franchising requires a dedicated strategy and a commitment to high-quality system management. Ensuring positive, long-term outcomes for both franchisors and franchisees requires adapting to constant and accelerating changes. Since 1989, Franchize Consultants has helped small, medium, and large companies take franchising seriously, supporting them in building strong, sustainable franchise systems.
Contact Franchize Consultants if you’re contemplating franchising a business or would like help with an established franchise network. We’d be very happy to sit down with you to understand your situation and objectives and explain the supporting services we provide. You can also follow us via LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Google.
Client Testimonials
We are proud of the work we have undertaken with many leading local,
international and emerging franchise companies in New Zealand.
We engaged Callum Floyd and his team on a number of important and impactful projects over many years. Franchize Consultants’ unique mix of real world experience and practical, pragmatic solutions has meant that they continue to be a valued source of independent advice on outsource arrangements, network forms, business models and analysis.
Our journey in franchising started with franchising introductory courses provided by Franchize Consultants. They assisted us in putting together personalised Field Support and Mentoring solutions for our franchise business Pukeko Rental Managers and our unique franchise model. We are now putting all our field managers through their courses.
The JAE Group has worked closely with Franchize Consultants since 2015 on various initiatives. The knowledge and experience Callum, Graham and the team bring, have strengthened our network, tightened up our standards and challenged our thinking and processes. We would definitely recommend the services Franchize Consultants provide.
We worked with Callum and the Franchize Consultants team to develop a comprehensive business planning tool for our franchise network. It was great to work together and combine their deep franchising knowledge with our business specific understanding. Highly recommend.
Super Liquor has worked with Franchize Consultants to assist with the implementation of a number of key initiatives focussed on delivering value to our franchisees. Amongst these were a complete upgrade of our Operating Manuals, and a franchisee financial benchmarking project. The professionalism and expertise of the Franchize Consultants team has been best in class. Callum and the team have absolutely delivered for SLH and will continue to be actively involved in our business supporting our franchise operations.
On every occasion we have found Callum and his Franchize Consultants team, to be exactly what we have needed. They have always been professional, hard-working, and helpful. Delivering exactly what was promised and have been willing to help as much as they possibly could. Streetwise Coffee
Nurturing New Zealand Franchising Podcast