What do Franchisors Really Want?

Written on the 6 June 2012 by Mark Fernandez, Business Development Alliance

It is a big question to ask, and the answer does not come easily. “What do Franchisor’s want?” The best way to answer this question is to separate two key features of what a franchisor wants - what they want out of business and what they want out of a franchisee. Although the results from each may be considered independent; the franchisor will not get what they want out of business if they do not have what they want from the franchisee and visa versa.

So in determining what a franchisor actually wants, we will look at it from different viewpoints:

What they want out of Business:

Franchisors can be simplified into two different categories. Franchisors who are motivated by the money from selling more franchises and secondly, franchisors that seek to build long term sustainable business and can see the importance of both franchisor and franchisee needing to succeed.

Consequently a franchisor will generally get the franchisee that he/or she deserves! If you adopt a short-term approach to franchising, and you’ll almost inevitably attract a particular type of franchisee.

The message that needs to be sent is, if you have high expectations from what you want from the business, then you need to work hard in providing the hard evidence to prove that your business is a worthy investment for any franchisee. If it is seen that the business is a positive opportunity and not just an unsupportable sales pitch, then the quality of the business should speak for itself.

What they want in a Franchisee:

A franchise system is only as good as its franchisees. A franchisor can not get what they want from the business if they are not getting the things they need from franchisees. It starts at the franchisee profiling and selection criteria.
 
What do Franchisors look for when selecting franchisees?

• Good people skills and being financially qualified
• Previous experience in management or business helps
• Attitude - Someone who really wants to jump in and get directly involved in developing a business
• Team building skills and interpersonal skills is usually a good bet.
• A willingness to learn
• Adaptable
• Can follow instructions

In my history in franchising, I’ve learned that the two predominant reasons for failure are undercapitalisation and people who don’t follow the system.

So in adding together all those factors, we repeat the title question – What do franchisors really want? Well in summary of what has been said above, a franchisor should want their business to be a genuine business opportunity that can be of lasting value. They should want their business to be developed for success over the long term. If these factors are taken care of, then the rest should be a lot easier to obtain.

With strong foundations, this should lead to the achievement of the modest wants and needs of a franchisor, like GREAT franchisees, positive future development and the overall success of their franchise.

It all starts with the foundations!

Mark Fernandez
Director
Business Development Alliance