Brand‘s goodwill is directly impacted by the success/failure achieved by its franchise partners. Hence, the performance of franchisees matters a lot. Needless to say, not all franchisees are same. They are of both kinds: potential ones and lacking ones. Of course, no brand would like to offer franchise to the latter. When the traits of successful franchisors are analyzed in detail, some common qualities can be traced in all of them again and again. Following is the list of fundamental traits and attributes that great franchisors have in common.
PASSIONATE:
Passion is one of the most fundamental attributes of any great entrepreneurs. It’s passion that brings out the best of one’s destiny and creates the life of one’s dreams. Like any other businesses, franchising too involves some challenges. However, when you are passionate about the business, it doesn’t take enough on your part to overcome these challenges and difficulties. Also, when you’re passionate about the business as well as the brand, it affects the customer base as well.
RISK-TAKER:
Though franchising is considered as one of the most secure business opportunities, it doesn’t imply that it guarantees success or it has no risks. A successful franchisee is one who understands and takes up a franchise considering some inherent risks that come with investing in a franchise. Successful franchise partners are up to take the chance on franchise, being able to take calculated risks that will help their business flourish.
GOOD COMMUNICATION SKILLS:
In order to run a franchising business lucratively, making customers and building healthy relationships with franchisor and customers is important. The key to any healthy relationship is communication and the same applies to franchisee too. Effective interactive skills make a strong impact on customers and the outcome is customer loyalty and rise in customer base. When it comes to franchisee- franchisor relationship, effective communication becomes all the more important since franchisor is the one who would address your problems and queries, provides support, and connects with other senior and existing franchise partners as well. To run a business smoothly, treating employees well and communicating with them also becomes equally inevitable. Your attempt should be to make your employees feel comfortable at the workplace. Your employees look to you for guidance, training, recognition and self-esteem. In a nutshell, communication is one of the most significant traits of a successful franchisee.
ADAPTABILITY:
Being adaptable is a key to running franchising business affluently. Trends and circumstances in the business are bound to change with the space of time. Hence, it’s crucial that you’re flexible and adaptable to the changing dynamics of demands, requirements, supply and other trends. It is always difficult to keep down a franchisee who is adaptable and resilient. The trait of adaptability makes franchisee irrepressible in the franchising world. Also, in franchising, franchisee is supposed to abide by the set support system, rules and responsibilities. This fact brings all the more rise in the value of the discussed trait.
FOLLOWS THE SYSTEM:
What distinguishes franchising from any other business and raises its bar beyond other business categories is that franchising provides you with tried and tested, developed, verified, refined and proven system of operation. When the system is followed well by the franchisee, the chance of making a grade intensifies. This doesn’t imply that franchising limits your creativity. If you have any suggestions, franchisors always look forward to it. However, in the name of independence and creativity, if as a franchisee, you don’t abide by the provided system then you’re inviting a big trouble on your part. Also, while signing the agreement, you agree to follow the provided operation system by the brand. The primary reason is that every customer while entering any of the brand’s retail locations expects the product or service to be identical with that of every other location and therefore, franchisors expect their franchisees to deliver the services in the same way every day.
BUSINESS AND MARKETING SKILLS:
When running a business, you need to have a “Business oriented mindset.” To begin with, you should have substantial financial knowledge. Before investing anywhere, it’s important for a franchisee to calculate everything. Keeping count of profit + loss and accounting business regularly to check the progress is important. A big part of business skills would be covered in the initial training, where you’ll learn the basics of running a business. This involves financial knowledge, employee schedules, inventory and supplies, maintaining cleanliness in the shop and learning to help employees grow. Also, you should be marketing savvy. Take advantage of the support provided by the brand in terms of marketing such as support by franchisors in pre-opening and grand opening marketing efforts. Remain active to promote the business and reach mass via social media and other marketing technology tools. When you have a good command on business and marketing skills, you gradually become expansion-minded leading to increased profitability and gain in market penetration + brand awareness.
PATIENCE AND PERSEVERANCE:
A River cuts through a rock not because of its power but its persistence. It may take even years to become overnight success. “Good things take time.” No matter, which so ever brand interests you, it is certain that it’s going to take hard work and time to make it successful.
My name Is Dhinal Baxi and I am from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. I am a founder of franchise Insider . As a founder, we have served hundreds of clients. My experience from the financial sector has helped them to achieve great success in the franchise world. Franchise Insider is one of the leading franchise advisory and consulting company.