With Valentine’s Day on the 14th, this month could rightly be called the month of love. Indeed my sister got married several years ago on this romantic day. This year I fly out for my first holiday of the year on this day too.
Therefore a number of new relationships will have been or will be about to commence – in an old fashioned English term, courting. Franchisors will be providing background information on themselves and franchisees will similarly be providing information that makes them an ideal prospect. However as we all know with relationships not everything is revealed during the early days but over months or years, by which time the two parties could even be ‘married’ or in franchise terms in a relationship or partnership governed by the agreement and manual.
Of course as with relationships not all go well, so be prepared for disagreements along the way. However a really positive statistic from industry surveys is that most franchisees are happy with their relationship. This means to me that whilst they may not always be of the same opinion they work on it for the benefit of the brand, etc., much like many marriages.
So what can both parties do to reduce the friction. For the franchisor I would recommend the following:
- Be honest in all the interactions you have
- Ensure you follow up in writing anything that’s agreed but do not agree different things for different franchisees which could lead to a general unrest if discovered.
- Be consistent
- Provide comprehensive training – initial and ongoing
- Provide comprehensive support
- Have a system for absolutely everything and put it in the manual – after all that is effectively what the franchisee is looking for or they will do it their own way
- Digitize everything so that franchisees can only operate the way you want. If you’ve ordered anything online there is usually a tracker for it
- Ensure your Intellectual Property is protected
And for franchisees I would suggest:
- Be honest in all the interactions you have
- Accept that there is a way of doing things under a franchise. However that does not mean you don’t have ideas to share, after all the Big Mac was invented by a franchisee
- Attend all training and conferences and contribute, especially to help new franchisees learn
- Ask for support as soon as you see the need
- Take on board the advice from the franchisor
- Keep your business plan up to date
- If you identify a process for which there is not a system ask the franchisor to put one in place and added to the manual
There is no doubt new relationships will be forged this month, some will last for a long time and others not, perhaps because one of the parties is not following the above recommendations. I hope that the short ones are not before an agreement is signed and there is an understanding that they were not just right for each other.