Every year, franchisees across the country are asked to set their goals. By the end of the first quarter, many of those goals are sitting untouched in a spreadsheet, a folder or an inbox, quietly disconnected from the day-to-day reality of running the business.
The process is familiar across many brands. Head office circulates a template and franchisees are asked to think about revenue, profit, recruitment, marketing activity, perhaps even their personal ambitions for the year ahead. Some engage properly and produce thoughtful, considered goals. Others make a half-hearted attempt because they know the form needs to be returned. A sizeable number do not respond at all. Then, inevitably, business gets busy. Franchisees return to customers, staff, cash flow and operational pressures, while franchisors return to network performance, growth plans and the stream of problems that always seem more urgent. The goals remain exactly where they were left.
The issue is not that franchisors are wrong to encourage goal setting, quite the opposite. Done well, goal setting can be one of the most effective ways to improve focus, decision-making and accountability across a franchise network. The problem is that too often it is treated as an annual administrative exercise rather than an ongoing support discipline. Once the objective becomes “get every franchisee to submit their goals”, completion itself starts to look like success. A returned document becomes evidence that the exercise has worked, even when nothing meaningful happens afterwards.
But writing down a goal and pursuing one are two very different things. A franchisee might say they want to increase turnover by 20 per cent, employ another member of staff, improve profitability or spend less time working in the business. All of those aspirations may be perfectly valid, but unless someone helps them translate ambition into action, identify the obstacles and revisit progress, they remain little more than good intentions. Effective goal setting needs structure, but it also needs context. The goals should connect the franchisee’s own aspirations with the wider strategic ambitions of the brand, and there needs to be a clear process for keeping the franchisee accountable for the actions they have committed to.
Make the goal mean something
This is where franchisors can make a significant difference. One of the most common assumptions is that a franchisee’s goal should automatically be about growth. In many cases, it will be, but growth is rarely the whole story. A franchisee may want to increase turnover because they want to recruit a manager and step away from day-to-day delivery. They may want stronger profit because the business is supposed to fund more time with their family. They may want a larger team because they are exhausted from carrying too much responsibility themselves. The reason behind the number often matters more than the number itself.
Support teams therefore need to go beyond asking, “What do you want to achieve this year?” and start exploring what success would actually mean to the franchisee. If revenue increased, what would that make possible? If the business became less dependent on the owner, what would they do with the time? What is stopping them from getting there now? These are not softer questions. They are often the questions that reveal whether a goal has enough personal meaning to sustain effort once the initial enthusiasm has worn off. A franchisee is far more likely to remain committed to a target that is connected to something they genuinely care about than one that has been chosen because it looked sensible on a template.
The next challenge is accountability, and this is where many franchisors unintentionally undermine the value of the exercise. If a franchisee is asked to set goals in October foe the following year and those goals are not discussed again, it’s reasonable to ask who the exercise was really for. Accountability should not mean repeatedly chasing a franchisee or asking, “Have you done it yet?” Equally, it should not mean head office taking responsibility for making the goal happen. Good accountability sits between those two extremes. It means returning regularly to what the franchisee said mattered, reviewing progress and helping them think through what needs to happen next.
This can be built naturally into existing support conversations. Instead of starting every meeting with the latest operational issue, support managers can make progress against agreed goals part of the regular rhythm of the relationship. Questions such as, “What did you commit to doing since we last spoke?”, “What progress have you made?” and “What is getting in the way?” sounds simple, but used consistently they create a very different culture. The franchisee learns that goals are not something discussed once a year; they are part of how the business is managed.
Turn accountability into an ongoing conversation
There is an important distinction here, though. The support manager’s role is not to solve every problem that emerges. One of the most valuable skills in franchise support is knowing when to resist the urge to provide the answer. If every obstacle is met with a solution from head office, the franchisee may make progress in the short term but become more dependent over time. A stronger approach is to ask open questions, help them identify what is really blocking progress and encourage them to generate their own options. That turns accountability from policing into coaching, and over time it creates more capable and self-sufficient business owners.
It is also important to make progress visible. Annual goals can feel too large and too distant to influence everyday behaviour. “Increase revenue by £100,000” may be a useful destination, but it gives a franchisee little guidance about what they should do tomorrow morning. The franchisor can add value by helping break the destination into measurable milestones and practical activity. What needs to happen this quarter? What should change this month? Which numbers or behaviours need to be reviewed weekly? When the goal is translated into smaller actions, it becomes easier to spot whether the franchisee is moving forward or simply hoping that the year-end result will take care of itself.
Recognising progress matters too. Franchisees naturally spend a lot of time focusing on what has not yet happened: the sales target still to be reached, the team member still to be recruited or the margin still to improve. A support relationship that notices incremental wins can create momentum and confidence. It also changes the dynamic between franchisee and franchisor. Head office is no longer present only when something is wrong; it becomes part of a process in which progress is noticed, discussed and built upon.
Franchisors understandably want franchisees who take greater ownership of their businesses. But that ownership is unlikely to be created by sending an annual goal-setting document and hoping motivation does the rest. The real opportunity is to create a network culture in which goals remain alive throughout the year: fewer goals, greater meaning, clearer actions, regular review and consistent accountability.
Done well, goal setting stops being a ‘one and done’ exercise and becomes part of the way the network operates. The most useful measure of success is not how many franchisees return the form. It is how many are still talking about, acting on and making progress towards their goals six months later.
This article comes courtesy of Franchise HQ, helping franchisors build stronger networks through effective franchisee support, coaching and performance management.
