The very essence of a franchise is the support given to franchisees to help them build a successful business. The reason they have such a low failure rate, less than 1% according to the last BFA (British Franchise Association) survey, is their reliance on repeating successful business models, but where does that support start and end? What can a franchisee expect from their franchisor once the paperwork is signed and what is down to them? Ryan White, co-franchisor to 118 We Love Pets franchisees, reveals where the line is drawn.
If you are buying a franchise from a reputable, well-established brand, then you should expect to receive all the help and support you need to run a branch of their business, however, you are also in business for yourself and whilst we are always there to support, we can’t and won’t do everything for you.
Obviously, every franchise is run slightly differently, and when you do your research into your chosen brand you can ask about the finer detail, but I think I speak for most of my colleagues in the franchising sector with the following thoughts.
Support, support, support
As ‘bread’ goes with ‘butter’ and ‘fish’ goes with ‘chips’, so ‘support’ goes with ‘franchising’ and is one of the most often used words in the franchise language. However, we don’t do things ‘for’ you, we show you ‘how’ to do them yourself and support you while you get the hang of things. As the saying goes: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
What can you expect from a franchisor?
In a nutshell, you can expect to be given all the tools, help and support you need to run a branch of the franchisor’s business.
This will include full and intensive training, access to marketing and advertising assets, permission to use the logo and to trade in an exclusive territory. Access to an online portal (generally) which will house the manual and any other official documentation you need for health and safety etc. A page on the franchisor’s website advertising your branch. Access to any online booking or CRM system developed by the franchisor. Guidance on how to keep proper accounts and how to employ staff. Regular meetings at a national and local level run by head office; including but not limited to: weekly online meetings, training updates, mental health support and franchisee retreat days.
The franchise manual
When you first join, we will give you a manual that details how to run every single aspect of your business. We’ll go through it with you in detail during training, so you know where to find the answers in future. Should you still need help, we’ll always be there to answer your questions. Frankly if you aren’t blowing up our phone and email in the first few weeks and months after launching your territory then we’ll be worried. We want to hear from you. We want to help and we’d rather you asked than struggled alone.
Your responsibilities
However, there are also a few things we don’t do for you (but we’ll teach you how to do them yourself), which you need to be aware of.
Advertising
We won’t advertise your business locally and we won’t find you clients. This is your business, and you need to do that yourself; we will provide you with access to the marketing and advertising collateral, eg images, adverts, social media templates and teach you how to use social media to grow your business, but we won’t do it for you. That’s down to you.
Recruitment
We won’t get directly involved in recruiting staff for you or dealing with any of your staffing issues. We will teach you how to recruit staff, we’ll give you all the template contracts, we’ll train you how to interview staff and how to deal with issues and we’ll be on call if you have any questions, but we won’t weigh in on your behalf during disputes; your employee’s contracts are with you, not the franchisor.
Accounting
We won’t do your accounting for you. We’ll tell you during training what you should be doing, particularly as we’ll need you to send us your figures monthly, so they need to be in the same format as the rest of the network, but we don’t do your accounting or finances for you.
How to get the most out of your franchisor
My advice to anyone wanting to get the most out of their franchisor is to take advantage of all the extra training they provide, the webinars, the seminars, the conferences, the online forums and the social groups; the best people in most networks are the most engaged with head office. View head office as your business partner, not your boss, work closely with them and watch your business grow. Good luck!
