Happy franchisee’s equals happy franchisor

Ask anyone involved in franchise recruitment and I am sure they would say, “Recruiting franchisees is just half the battle, recruiting long lasting happy franchisees is where the war is won.” And I wouldn’t disagree, it’s the key that that unlocks your franchise success.

Recruiting and retaining franchisees when building the network can be a tiresome, labour intensive, expensive mess, that you wish you could just kick under the carpet, but you can’t. Recruiting the right people will only have a long-term positive impact on the brand, the reputation and financially.

What are some of the easy pit falls you can avoid when recruiting franchisees?

The first one will seem obvious but its very important and often disregarded entirely. Identifying the target franchisee. If you haven’t established who your ideal franchisee would be then your likely to waste a huge amount of energy, time and money on the wrong type of person. Remember this isn’t a job, this is running and operating a business. The ideal candidate shouldn’t just be able to afford the opportunity or have experience in your sector. They need to be successful; they need to have the qualities you are looking for and the ambition and motivation.

Tip: If you are looking at the positives, why not set the boundaries of who are not looking for. This will certainly help you cut time down on the wrong person early in the process.

The next one is the probably one of the more common. Rushed recruitment. 

There are several reasons why this happens:

• You are in the early stages and keen to grow the network
• You spent a lot of your money getting to this point and want to recoup some of the cost 
• The territory is free

It can seem strange that you would refuse money from someone who wants to buy your business especially when you are in the early stages, but this is vital. Very little point having 10 wrong franchisees bring down your network, costing you more time and energy, and potential behaviour that damages the brand. This can happen and should be avoided.

Tip: Refer to identifying the target franchisee above, this is important.

Learn from your mistakes and develop. Its rare, very rare, that you will always select the right person every time in the recruitment process. Learn from those mistakes and listen to feedback from your team and adapt. Every franchisor will have their own selection process, some more demanding than others. McDonald’s franchisee selection process involves a 9-month interview and training, and even then you can fail to meet their standards – when your one of the biggest and instantly recognisable brands in the world you can set your own rules on the selection process. You need to identify your errors or where you can tighten up the process.

Tip: In the interview stages, remember to find out more about the prospect. It’s easy to get caught up telling them how wonderful your business is that you forget that you also need to know about them.

You’re welcome. There is your three great tips to remember when expanding your franchise network. And don’t think this is exclusive to new and emerging franchises, this is relevant to all, no matter the size.