The tricks to making it work

Jim really hit the nail on the head all those years ago when he set up Jim’s Mowing.

1. Niche it.

Choose one or two elements and deliver to your ideal market. Select the most profitable and easiest part of your business to franchise. Don’t try to franchise the whole lot unless you have very good reason to, and then maybe you have more than one franchise group. Window cleaning and then gutter cleaning is a case

2. Help your franchisees focus on the job and bring in the money.

Work out the characteristics of the person you want to deliver the service to your customer in a way your customer will love. This means they must have the skill and personality to get the job done well and to relate to your customer base.

3. Then take away the tasks they hate and will be distracted by or which they will ignore.

Today’s digital business environment makes this part of the job for a franchisor easier – provided you have the skills. And if you don’t, bring in staff with the skills to handle the tech. None of us with growth aspirations can handle a business today without a good technical base.

Marketing, lead generation, sales, POS systems tied into a central accounting system, stock control, customer service, central call service – the list goes on.

4. And provide support to your franchisees

Build the relationship, provide training, and make sure your franchisees are doing everything correctly – your way.

Your main job as franchisor is to train and support your franchisees to become as happy and profitable as they can possibly be. That way you will be happy and profitable too. ❖