Franchise Development

We start our relationship by learning all about you and collaborating with you via our preliminary consulting. After a full business model analysis, gathering financials, marketing materials, and existing data, protocols, strategies, and methods while in the consulting phase with you and your team, it is now time for action! Successful franchise development is all about focused execution of each phase and task, while collaborating with amazing people experienced in each relevant category.

We provide newly-emerging franchisors with full support in the entire franchise development process. We will collaborate with you every step of the way from Strategic Planning, Operations and Training, Value Engineering and Automation, Legal and I.P., and Unit and Franchise-Level Marketing.

All of the righteous planning, business modelling, and understanding of markets and strategies  is completely meaningless without the active, focused execution of each phase of your franchise development.  Which portion of your unique franchise model’s development will be the most challenging?  Which managerial tasks will be completed by your top talent, and which will the founders or owners focus on?  How do we time our investment in each franchise development phase to achieve the proper “burn rate” applicable to our budget and timetable as it pertains to Labor, Advertising, Training and Operations, and the myriad of associated tasks to prepare to responsibly award new franchisees?  And how do I build my ideal team….and how soon?

Many of our franchise clients started their franchise journey with a substantial amount of existing capital available to create an “ideal” franchisor company and team up-front, choosing to have a larger initial burn rate for early and thorough preparation in-advance of future franchise sales and revenue.   Multiple other smaller franchise newcos have to go at a much more careful pace due to more limited capital in proportion to their ideal requirements.  Every model that is seeking to scale should and must build out a thorough execution plan and budget based on their individual  economics and its existing “talent pool.”  We are often asked the question, “Which position do I fill first in my new franchise company?  Is it a marketing guru to create tons of franchise leads to launch our enterprise? Or is it an expert franchise sales professional to start connecting with potential franchisees right away?  How about administrative responsibilities, legal compliance, and  arguably the most important task of franchisee training and support?  Should I hire our support people first, or borrow my own from my corporate model until we scale?”  Every new franchise company has incredibly unique needs, and solutions need to be contoured for those realities.  The best answer for the question above as to what talent to add to the new franchise company first, is to hire the expert(s) in the categories in which the owners are least-prepared and weakest.  If you are brilliant in operations and employee management but are weaker in relationship-building and sales, you may want to hire a great salesperson early in your process.  The same applies to administrative or other time-consuming needs.

We are reviewing the acquisition of talent as the top topic in describing franchise development, because your franchise future is going to be all about the people.  Everyone matters in the new or expanding franchise organization, from the quality of the franchisees you award to your model, to the lowest administrator in your parent company or franchisor office.  In spite of Artificial Intelligence taking over the world, at the end of the day it is still about the people you include in your life and your development.  It is never too early in your franchise development conversation to talk about the ideal culture and team.

As you begin actual execution of your franchise model, you could take the approach of hiring a highly-experienced franchise manager as an employee on “Day-1” of your franchise development journey.  However, what you will soon learn is that even the best professionals are very proficient in just a handful of franchise categories.  They may have had a lot of success in franchise sales, but are weaker in training and support functions, or other mechanics of your business.  Franchise Science’s approach to franchise development is to have your overall development cost be very comparable to what a highly-skilled franchise director would be paid over the course of a year……but instead of having one person with a few primary “skill sets” for that investment, rather provide our clients with the best talent-in-category for each phase of the franchise journey.  If you are building your Strategic Plan at the beginning of the process, you are going to want A) Leading Franchise Consulting, and B) Financial Planning and Pro Forma Building talent, along with the fundamentals of a solid, comprehensive plan.  For the same annual cost of a good manager on year #1, FSI gives you a manager for each phase, whether crunching the data and the numbers, strategy and aligned goal planning, Operations and Training materials, or customizing the ideal marketing plan.  Optimal Talent in Each Category of Development from Point-to-Point.  That is the Franchise Science method to true-out the best execution and consulting in each category.  Your budget may or may-not allow for high-priced talent in the beginning stages of your development, and this will be determined by your individual needs, goals, and strategy.  But even the best individual is not a replacement for a dedicated team during the initial stages of your franchise journey.

Make your franchise development journey and related challenges an Enjoyable Experience as each phase is completed with a fully-focused small team sharing the journey with you!

Excellence in franchise model development is accomplished best by small, fully-focused expertise in each phase of your project.  Small teams in which each consultant combines their excellence and experience in each phase will propel your development by making smarter, data-driven decisions while simultaneously experiencing the full service of our boutique approach.  Every piece of your franchise puzzle needs to work with and properly merge with every other.  Empower yourself with the UX of working at this level with a team that loves to work together and wants to coach you with the highest level of service and attention.