How To Build A Network In Your Franchise Business

What makes a successful franchise is not just the brand or the service or product you are selling, but the strategy of how you are going to keep the customers coming back to you. This genuinely requires setting up a good and reliable network in your franchise model, which primarily includes working with your franchisee and employees.

Sarah Stowe, Expert and Writer on Franchise models and structures, says “Bringing in younger franchisees can boost the business too – enthusiasm, energy, fresh ideas, willingness to learn, ambition – all these attributes add to the strength of the franchise system.”

Here are tips to ensure you have a robust network strategy in place:

Make it Local:

When you are out to sell your services/product/ brand through a franchise model, the need for local branding and marketing strategies can’t be overlooked. This is important because you are going to get maximum business and traction from your local buyer and community. This is also where you will attract more franchisee attention and insight into whether your business is going to go to the next level.

Be a Good Host:

This simply means that you should be approachable to your stakeholders- your franchisee partners, buyers, traders and others involved in making your business work. Remember, word travels and a good word creates a reputation and is free marketing. Be there to provide the necessary tools and training support for your franchisee. Once you build trust, they other automatically respond in action and business grows on this initial momentum.

Set Joyful Benchmarks:

Everyone needs a goal to achieve.  It is the greatest motivator. Now, that you have franchisees roped in, don’t leave them to fend for themselves. Involve yourself with their growth and set happy benchmarks of performance, goals and achievable targets. These could be quarterly, half yearly and not yearly.

Regular site visits:

Without looking intrusive, once you have established a rapport with your franchisee, you should not let them be on their own at this stage. Engage in regular site visits in order to guide them and be aware of what is going on really on site. Remember, this will have to be done, without them feeling under-confident or threatened, but with a feeling of wishing to be mentored and move ahead.

Mark Siebert,Franchise consultant for start-ups and established franchisors, opines  “Franchisors, who might otherwise have to do it alone, can use the collective knowledge of a franchise community as a whole to improve their operations and otherwise increase their productivity.”