If you’re considering franchising your business and wondering, “What can I do today to prepare my business for franchising?” this is the article for you. To sum it up, take something you’re particularly good at, something that matters to how the business makes money, and teach someone else to do it.
You probably do that already with employees. This time we’re looking for something very specific; what did you have to add in? What was that one explanation you didn’t even think about that you ended up needing? What decisions have you been making, even though somebody else is technically in charge, that you didn’t know you had been making? Discovering these prior to launching the training program will save some painful lessons in the future.
You have a considerable advantage here; you already have a business to learn from. You can try something, see how it works, and improve it while the people involved are still down the hall. I would make good use of that.
Pick something worth finding out
I’m going to actually illustrate this differently than I normally do. I’m going to stick with one hypothetical all the way through; a home-service business that requires estimation. Now, if you’re thinking ‘but I’ve got a boutique retail concept’ that’s okay! This idea is truly universally applicable.
So, again; home-services, estimation required, right? And I’ll bet you’ve gotten pretty good at it. You can walk a property, ask a few questions, and, just like that, an estimate that protects your margins and is competitive. Guess what? I can’t do that.
A franchisee will need that ability too. How long will it take you to teach it?
Before answering, pick someone to train whose background reasonably resembles the person you expect to award a franchise to. Your foreman of twelve years will bring a lot to that exercise that a new owner won’t. If you’re planning to recruit people from outside the industry, find out how your training works for someone from outside the industry. You can keep their practice estimates away from customers until they’re ready.
I’d start with completed jobs. You have the original scope, the estimate, and, assuming you track it, what the work actually took. Include a few things your folks run into on a regular basis, like equipment you hadn’t considered needing to rent, or that customer we all have who ends up adding work in the middle of the job.
Have the trainee prepare an estimate and explain how they arrived at it. You’re looking for the things that will matter when they’re doing this on their own: whether they noticed the conditions that affect the work, allowed for them, and recognized anything they needed to ask about before quoting.
Agree on what an acceptable result looks like before you start. Otherwise, it’s very easy to grade someone generously because you like them and enjoyed teaching them.
Don’t assume your original estimate is the answer key, either. Check it against the completed job. If you allowed eight hours and the crew needed twelve, you have something to work through together. The trainee may have spotted a detail you missed. Good! That improvement can go into the company business immediately.
Let them finish before you help
This part takes some restraint. When you see someone about to miss something obvious to you, you’re going to want to point it out. Let them finish the practice estimate first. Then ask how they handled that part of the job.
Maybe they didn’t know it mattered. Or perhaps the estimating sheet doesn’t give them anywhere to account for it, so they assumed it was included elsewhere. Talk it through with them. Their explanation may point out something you left out when you were teaching them.
Once you’ve explained it, they have the benefit of that conversation. Add what was missing to your training material so the next person gets it from the beginning.
Keep notes on the questions they ask and where you have to step in. You’ll want those when you sit down to develop your franchisee training program.
Use what you learned to build the offer
You may also be wondering, “How do I start building a franchisee training program?” Use what you learned from teaching someone a task in your business to work out what needs explaining, what needs demonstrating, and where a new franchisee will need help. Something you expected to explain in ten minutes might need a demonstration and a few practice examples. And something you’d set aside most of an afternoon to teach might make perfect sense to them after reading a short explanation. That estimating sheet may need another field. Put those things into the program so every franchisee gets the benefit of what you just learned.
The questions that came up while you were teaching will also give you a pretty good preview of the calls you’ll get after a franchisee opens. Plan for that early support. Who will answer an estimating question when you’re busy with something else? What information will they need from the franchisee to help? You can prepare your support people for those calls while you’re building the training.
You may find you need to do this a few times, with a few different parts of your business. No problem. Assuming you’ve already completed a feasibility study, this is a great exercise to do while the lawyers are doing what lawyers do to get your brand ready to go to market.
Your first few franchisees will have an outsized influence on the future of your brand. Steps like these help you get their training and support in place early, so you can give them a strong start. That’s time well spent.