The Franchise

In franchising an individual desirous of their own business will sign on with a franchising company and use their brand name, know how and expertise to make a living. The franchisor will generally assign an exclusive territory with limitations. In our franchise company we have mobile service units, which clean cars and we have to have territories to prevent in-fighting from franchisees which might inadvertently end up competing with one another.

A reader of one of my online sessions asked should he franchise his business or not. He had set up a service business and was getting ready to expand and wanted to know if franchising was a good potential strategy for this. How do I franchise my business? There are many criteria for franchising and if you have ever thought you might wish to franchise your business then this advice could be of value to you:

If you intend to franchise your company you will need to design a bullet proof training company for your new franchisees. This is above and beyond the training program you will design for them to administer to their new employees. Remember when training new franchisees it is similar to training new managers for any Corporation’s outlets. The difference of course being that the Franchisee in a Franchised Company has a lot more at stake and will be twice as motivated as an average manager of a corporate Store.

Many businesses offer small business franchise opportunities. There are many things that are needed for a small business of this kind, but the rewards are great. Franchising allows you to take on a proven and marketable brand and logo, without having to go through the time, effort, and money to build a name or a reputation.

Take a note from the movie industry on the value of building a franchise. Franchises usually do a good job about building cross-selling opportunities into everything they do. Two recent franchise movies have taught me that some in Hollywood are very talented in this regard.

If you own a franchise and have company vehicles, be sure you have a flag on it. First let’s discuss the American flag. Franchising is the epitome of the free enterprise system. It’s what makes America great. The entire United States government is a franchise system. The federal government grants powers to states to govern exclusive territories. They have the power to tax. They give royalties to the federal government in the form of tax revenue. Each state consists of counties. Again, counties are assigned geographical territories and have certain rights and powers. Each county has cities with charters and taxing authority (limited). Think of it this way: Franchisor = Federal Government; Master Franchisee = States; Regional Directors & Area Reps = Counties; Individual Franchisees = Cities; Customer = The People

Hand in hand with specialist publications and websites, franchise exhibitions are a useful addition to your franchise research arsenal. After all, when else will you get the chance to meet and compare the head office teams of so many franchise brands in such a short space of time?