A few years ago, I found myself flying to Melbourne. Why? Because a franchise branch was bleeding money. And I had 90 days to work a miracle before the brand entirely exited the market. This wasn’t a strategy session. It wasn’t a discussion. It was a last-chance real-world intervention that required boots on the ground. Here’s what I did.
My diagnosis: What was actually broken
Before jumping into any immediate fixes, I knew one foundational thing for certain. And I knew that my approach had to be balanced. The key insight from years of experience in franchising that I came with to Melbourne was that a struggling franchise rarely has just one problem. The issues are often interconnected.
Here’s what I discovered that wasn’t working when I arrived: a disengaged corporate team was setting the tone, franchisees were not properly trained, service quality had slipped and complaints were climbing. All of these factors were ultimately affecting profitability.
Because of my Five Fs Framework for franchising, I deeply understood that this was not going to be a case of putting out one fire and going back home. Instead, I was faced with a systemic failure across multiple pillars. What I then set out to do was based on my Five Fs model.
Fix 1: The Focused Team
My very first action was to make the hardest decisions at the outset: letting go of head office staff who were not contributing to the franchise. These were people who would regularly come to work late, leave early and not add much value. This matters beyond mere performance. That’s because corporate headquarters sets the cultural standard for the entire network. If HQ does not care, franchisees will not either. And this ties in with my Focused Team principle: your support office either lifts the network or drags it down. There’s no neutral.
Fix 2: The Franchisee Network
Next came my diagnostic step: closely watching what was happening on the ground by getting on the road. I’d accompany franchisees and inspect jobs in person, ride alongside them, observe how they performed, whether they arrived on time and what the service quality looked like.
This was not a feather from the cap of micromanagement. It was a strategic diagnostic step. I know that you cannot fix what you have not seen firsthand. And this tied in very closely with my Franchisee Network principle.
It means understanding what’s happening at the operator level as the only way to know where the real gaps are. Contrary to first impressions, this action also rebuilt trust. Franchisees saw that someone from leadership actually showed up and cared.
Fix 3: Fantastic Reputation
My efforts didn’t end there, though. It was time for more detailed actions to raise the bar. And my next step was retraining. I set up a dedicated training area in HQ and brought everyone back through proper onboarding.
It’s because I knew that the complaint rate was not a customer problem but rather a training problem. Franchisees and their staff simply hadn’t been equipped to deliver the service properly.
And this ties in to my Fantastic Reputation approach, which is when your brand’s reputation is only as strong as the worst job your weakest operator delivers. Retraining directly improved completion rates and reduced complaints, which is the foundation for sustainable growth.
The result and the bigger lesson
Within 90 days, the branch broke even and started generating profit. But the real takeaway is not the timeline. It’s that no single fix would have worked alone.
Cutting the team without retraining would not have helped. Retraining without diagnosing the on-the-ground problems would have missed the mark.
But when we bring the Five Fs together, that’s when wonders begin to happen. My advice? When multiple pillars are broken, you have to address them simultaneously. Growth is not about one big move. It’s about aligning your team, your network and your reputation in the same direction.
Wrapping up
If you are a franchisor watching a territory underperform, the temptation is to blame the market or pull out. Before you do, ask yourself: have you actually been there? Have you ridden alongside your franchisees, looked at your corporate team with honest eyes and checked whether your training is fit for purpose? Sometimes the franchise is not dying. It’s simply been neglected. And neglect, unlike a bad market, is fixable. Want professional franchise advice or assistance? The team and I at Franchise Fame are right here and ready to be of service.
