The coronavirus pandemic
has had a devastating effect on businesses all over the world. Many businesses
have been forced to close their doors, often permanently, but some will emerge
from this crisis stronger than ever.
The coronavirus pandemic is, without doubt, the most serious, economic crisis that we have ever seen in recent times. It has caused complete chaos and disruption to businesses across the globe, regardless of size or business model, leading to the closure of many, large corporations and the loss of thousands of jobs.
All of us were numb for the first ten days or so, but, as the true entrepreneurs we are, we turned a crisis into an opportunity and came out fighting! The businesses that reacted quickly to the situation and were able to adapt their models to continue to operate, despite being in lockdown, have fared the best, some even thriving during this period.
The franchising sector has been as badly affected as any other, with franchisors and franchisees effectively in the same boat, i.e. unable to continue to run their businesses as normal, so have needed to work together to ensure their businesses continue to exist, once things return to some kind of normal.
Here at the AFA, we knew the key to continuing to provide the best support and guidance to our members was to keep the lines of communication open and tailor our offering to enable us to continue with our activities, taking all of our regional meetings and events online. Even our annual AFA Awards will be held online, this November, which, although not the glittering, gala event we’d all planned, it is one we feel is still extremely important, especially during the current climate. It is crucial for franchisors to recognise and reward their franchisees for their determination to sustain and even grow their businesses during the pandemic. Equally, franchisors need to be rewarded for their ability to support their franchisees during this time. Click here to find out more.
Unsurprisingly, feedback from our members, who are all franchisors, suggests that the ones who were able to take their businesses online immediately, or were already operating online, experienced the least disruption. An example of this is Your Partnerships, a business networking franchise that had already been investigating ways of running their regional networking events online and held their very first online event on 17th March, just before the official lockdown, with 45 participants.
Your Partnerships has since grown at a faster rate than it ever did when running face-to-face meetings! They have learned to utilise new tools and technologies and are now engaging with businesses worldwide. With several new branches and over 30,000 connections, Your Partnerships has experienced rapid growth during the pandemic. As a result, it plans to survey its members to find out what they prefer and tailor permanent offerings accordingly, moving forward.
Many of our members reacted swiftly to adapt their existing products and services to the situation, enabling them to continue to trade during lockdown. Tubz Brands, one of the leading sweets and snacks vending machine franchisors in the UK, swiftly introduced a new, COVID-19 tower that dispenses face masks and hand sanitiser. This not only avoided customers requesting to have their vending machines removed, due to the need to increase space for social distancing, but franchisees were able to increase sales and even open up new sites.
We have also seen several, innovative examples of franchises that usually run sessions involving equipment quickly introducing an equipment hire service, enabling franchisees to continue to earn an income, despite not being able to run face-to-face sessions. Becky Hoare, the founder of Pop Up Play Village, a franchise that provides mobile role play villages for play sessions, parties and schools, says she was devastated at the prospect of not being able to run events for the foreseeable future, as this formed the core part of her business. She decided that adapting her business model was the only way to survive and launched the hire of mini-kits for families to use at home.
This adaptation to the business kept its franchises working, albeit at a reduced capacity. Pop Up Play Village has also offered families free, role play, activity ideas, which have featured daily on their Facebook pages during the pandemic. These activities and ideas will get children role playing at home using everyday resources. Thanks to Becky’s innovative approach, this franchise has not only survived the pandemic but has even grown during this period, with the recruitment of six new franchisees.
Without doubt, an important factor in ensuring franchisors and their franchisees were able to survive the lockdown was to stay positive and focused on the future. Rik Hellewell, Managing Director of Ovenu, the oven cleaning franchise, spent many weeks during lockdown planning and preparing for the time when franchisees would be allowed back into their customers’ homes. He realised the importance of keeping his franchisees engaged and motivated and, to do this, he began hosting regular Zoom meetings. During these meetings, he encouraged franchisees to share knowledge, best practices and any other useful information that would support them during this period of extended inactivity.
As a result of this guidance and support, Ovenu has seen many examples of franchisees using the time to plan their long-term business strategies and improve their day-to-day processes.
Rik also reduced his management fees as much as he could and negotiated reduction in some costs with suppliers, where possible. However, he only dropped the national marketing fees to 75 per cent, ensuring he could continue to invest in Google Ads, improve franchisees’ individual web pages, produce newsletters and increase public relations activities. All of this was designed to keep franchisees engaged, as well as informing clients of the safety procedures they had established, thereby increasing confidence to allow Ovenu into their homes.
Rik believes this has highlighted the importance of communication and reinforces the benefits of the franchise model – in unprecedented times like these, franchisees know they don’t have to face something as monumental as this pandemic alone.
Without doubt, no one can say the last few months have been easy for any franchisor or franchisee. It takes enormous courage to stop doing what used to work and move into uncharted territory. However, we have been remarkably cheered by some of the fantastic stories we are hearing from our members, that all demonstrate their strength and determination to survive during this pandemic.
Do you have a clear plan for how your business can move on from this pandemic? Although we can’t predict the future, whether we will experience another increase in infections, resulting in a further lockdown, it makes sense to be prepared. Not only are you more likely to survive, but you may even discover a way to come out of this stronger than ever.
Next month, I’ll be sharing more of our members’ stories and, in particular, will further analyse how franchisors have had to adapt the way they work in order to keep their franchise networks afloat.
If you’re a franchisor and would like accreditation, support and guidance from the Approved Franchise Association, visit our website https:/www.theafa.org.uk.
