By Brian Bazely

Franchising your business is an exciting step for the growth of your business, and for you as the founder or owner. Ensuring you know exactly what your role is, and how to transition your own skillset, is paramount to the success of your business.

The role of the founder or business owner

By virtue of acquiring or starting your own business, you have expertise in one or both of the following areas: operations and business development.  You have enjoyed success as an entrepreneur because you understand your business, the margins, the expenses, the sales process, the real estate, and the marketing.

However, your role is about to change, and it will change significantly! As the owner (and perhaps operator) success each day was measured by your daily decisions, presence in the business, and operational management.

The role of the franchisor is not well understood

As a franchisor, you will have three very distinct roles that you likely have limited exposure to or experience in. Your current roles in operations and business development will be foundational for your next step, but they will no longer be your primary roles.

You must embrace and work to master the art of your new roles. For many, this is not an easy transition so seeking a mentor, becoming a student of this next chapter of your professional life, and understanding that you don’t know everything are all critical.

Your three new roles

1. Franchisee leader: As the new leader of your franchisees, you will probably have a different opinion or thought as to what your role is than they do. You will be their support, their teacher, their guide, their motivation, and to some degree, their parent. Many will have led small teams of customer-facing or operational workers. Leading business owners is quite different. You will have to set expectations, create a strong process for how and when you communicate, and ensure that expectations are clear.

As the initial operator or founder, you will be looked to for advice and guidance from your team with respect to many of the operational components. This can become a challenge as your new role is to “teach them to fish” rather than fish for them, yet your core competency may be in years or even decades of high-level operations. Doing for them or being reactive, versus building their skills proactively, will limit your growth potential.

2. Support team leader: As you build your franchise system, you will bring on others to help with operations, legal, marketing, franchise development (more on that later), and administrative work. They will represent you and your brand to the franchisees, the franchise world, and your customers. Knowing who to hire and when, how to coach them, and how to build a strong culture is mission critical.

3. Franchise development executive: Perhaps one of the single most significant issues emerging brands face is the lack of understanding of the strategy and tactics involved in being a franchisor as it relates to franchise development.

Marketing, the customer journey, the messaging, and the work involved in finding the right franchisees will either support your brand growth or become the single largest issue with funding your growth and your support team.

A very high percentage of franchise companies fail to grow beyond 100 units for several reasons. One in particular is the failure to build out a development strategy and understand its importance.

How to tell if you are effective in making the transition

As a leader, you must set the direction of the ship and spend all your time developing others.  You will set up the training material, develop the operations manual, ensure you hire complementary talent to support your franchisees, and communicate effectively with each of them regularly. 

Your day should never be “busy,” but rather your days should be controlled and rich with improvements and meaningful discussions. As you develop your leadership style, the amount of input that you need to deal with (tasks that interrupt your normal workday) versus output (tasks you want to accomplish and strategies you want to employ) should shift. On day one of launching your franchise, you may deal with more input versus output. By day 365, that percentage should shift toward the latter.

If your business is controlling you instead of you controlling it, you need to make some changes.

What resources can you call on?

There are many resources available to a new or emerging franchisor, including the Canadian Franchise Association (CFA). As a CFA member, you can call on the CFA for assistance and guidance, review tutorials and other relevant educational content, attend educational events, and reach out to other franchisors in the CFA community. 

Accessing a marketing firm, business coach, franchise consultant, or mentor is an excellent way to help keep you on the right path. There are many great support service and supplier members of the CFA and they specialize in various fields.  

Summary

The single most important thing to do is recognize your strengths and where you need to improve. Franchising your business is not a natural step in your growth process. It’s an incredible step but not natural. You’re entering a world with legal “partners” (franchisees are a legal partner under franchise law), with government regulations, with real opportunity, and with real consequences. Your old world of operations, marketing, and sales is no longer. You are now a leader, a franchisor, and a mentor to your franchisees.

The future of your brand, your franchisees, and your new support team depends on how effectively you manage this transition. If you’re reading this, you’re on the right path.