One of the things you can do to expand your business is to develop it into a franchise. Franchising is one of the quickest and least capital-intensive ways to take your business to the next level.
While there’s no doubt that franchising will help your business grow, it’s not without challenge. Business owners who jump into
franchise development without any preparation could ruin their reputation or cause their business to shut down. Hence, it’s important that you make a plan if you aspire to franchise your business one day.
If you are thinking of franchising your business, keep the following things in mind so that you can grow your enterprise without any issues.
Come up with a Documented Process for Your Business
Creating a written operation manual for your business is important. Written documentation on how you operate your business will greatly help franchisees run a successful franchise. Instead of instructing them verbally on what to do, they can simply refer to the manual.
When you are making a manual for your franchise, you need to be thorough and detailed. Make sure that the manual can answer every possible question a franchisee has regarding your business. Moreover, you must lay out the details of how you run the business on a daily basis, factoring in hiring and training workers, cleaning the facility, and ordering supplies.
Create a Flagship Location Showing How Your Business Model Works
A flagship location lets you create your business model, learn from your mistakes, and fine-tune your processes. Moreover, this location is where you develop your systems, refine your marketing, and determine what your customers want from your product or service.
Having an established flagship location makes it a lot easier to promote your franchise idea to aspiring franchisees. You need only to show them how the business works instead of explaining it to them.
Formulate a Replicable Marketing Plan
Generating customers and obtaining a sale from them are the lifeblood of any business. A business would eventually wither and close down when there’s no repeatable and effective way to generate new customers. Hence, if you plan to franchise your business, you should create a repeatable and scalable marketing plan that any franchisee can execute. When evaluating your marketing plan, test to see if your would-be franchisees will be able to replicate it.
Build a Training System for Franchisees
You’ll need to have a system for conducting initial and ongoing training if you want your franchise locations to perform, act, and look as close to your own business as possible. Fortunately, technology can help deliver most of your training. Video conferencing, email, and webinars are all excellent ways to train and speak with your franchisees remotely.
Creating a documented process, establishing a proven flagship location, coming up with a replicable marketing plan, and building a training system for franchisees are the things you need to do when franchising your business. Take note that while franchising is a fast and economical way to expand your business, you will need to be much better at communication, marketing, and training as your involvement in the operation of each business location is limited.
