You’ll be working with your chosen franchisor for many years to come so you’ll want to be sure you can develop a successful relationship. Here are a few things to look for when selecting your franchise opportunity.
Trust and transparency
Ultimately, for any business relationship to work to its full potential, there needs to be trust and openness. When you meet with prospective Franchisors, do you feel integrity, honesty and sincerity? Do you feel that the Franchisor will work with you in an open and genuine way with sincere and impartial advice?
Support
One of the main reasons for investing in a franchise is due to the number of experts at hand to help you build and grow your business. The support team needs to include experts in various fields such as Marketing, Business Development and Operations, as well as a large support structure for day-to-day guidance, support and advice. Ask your potential Franchisors their ratio of support staff to franchise owners to gain an understanding of how much time the team will have for your individual needs.
Do they run multiple events throughout the calendar year for Franchise Owners to network with each other? Do they offer a Training Academy that runs multiple events throughout the year on timely and relevant subjects? What other training is put on for continual development of you and your team?
The support provided by a franchisor plays a vital role in the success of franchisees. It helps them navigate the challenges of starting a business, accelerates growth, and minimises risks by leveraging the franchisor’s expertise, resources, and established brand presence.
Experience
The most low-risk opportunities come from those Franchisors that have been around a long time. They have survived recessions, pandemics, experienced highs and lows and are now stronger for it. With years under their belt, they have fine-tuned their processes and can impart best practices onto new Franchise Owners that are the result of years and years of business experience. These Franchisors would typically also have a large network. With large networks comes more experience so these Franchisors have excellent knowledge of what works and what doesn’t.
Financial Stability
With age and experience should come financial stability. You wouldn’t want to invest in a Franchise where the Franchisor hadn’t been trading for a long period of time and therefore has no real historical and stable accounts. In addition to the Franchisor being financially stable, how do they showcase your potential financial rewards? Do they offer potential turnover figures or profitability? If so what is their data based on? You should look for data that is based on an average of their current network, not just their top performers. Also check that the data is based on offices operating the UK and not overseas where the marketplace will differ. And, finally, are they projecting figures or are they factual figures based on historical data.
Personal Opportunity
A good and reputable Franchisor will see you as a person and not just another office in another territory. When you meet with potential Franchisors, do they ask about your personal aims as well as your business goals? Do they take time to understand you, your personal values and motives in order to ensure the business opportunity is right for you? Moreover, how do they develop you as a person once you’re settled in the network?
This article comes courtesy of Caremark: Caremark, launched in 2005 enjoys 120 UK offices, approximately 6,000 customers and care staff and provides 110,000 hours of home care each week.
