Three Things Some Franchisors Overlook

Invention of internet and its expansion to make the distance between people closer and closer followed by the advent of social media, tremendously has changed the way companies should see the marketing world. When you search on specific topic, millions of pages appear on Google that are somehow related to the searched phrase but still finding the right information, in the right time, in the shortest time is the target of everybody when they search internet.  Companies need to see the world through the eyes of their audience and feel the business with their hearts if they want to break the lock and open the doors to the more and more customers.

Nowadays, franchise business more than any other time are faced with huge amount of competition from their rivals and experience the challenge of getting the right customer to the door. When you take a look at the market, you can find many franchises in the same industry who are serving similar service or product to customers of the same pool.  provide them the information they want to have

 

Content Strategy

Content strategy is related to telling people what they want and need to know in ways that are credible, trustworthy and transparent. The goal of content strategy is to focus on prioritized strategic topics that help a target audience be better informed and become smarter. However, content strategy is different from content marketing that is explicitly crafted to drive “profitable customer action”.

Time pressure on the targeted audience that your company wants to reach is increasing everyday and, believe or not, they give your content smallest amount of time and attention unless you can engage them into your content. Creating a lot of contents and putting them out there doesn’t necessarily mean that would really engage them.  The competition over that precious commodity, their time is voracious. That’s why you need to focus on your organization’s top goals and priorities and to avoid sending out too many non-strategic messages and information. Your message should be strategic and smart. Know your company’s most important, prioritized strategic goals and focus on them.

 

Nicely Designed Responsive Website

Nowadays, websites are the virtual face of the business. Before people get to know your business in a face to face meeting or through gathering your performance records, they find your website on the internet and delve into it to see how you are presenting your business. The impression your audience get about your business is very comparable to the first impression you get when you meet a person for the first time. The first impression might not be true but can affect the way your relation develops with that person over time. Using high definition images, attractively colored themes and well designed lay-out have a tremendous effect in catching eyes of the visitors. Providing information in an easy to access format helps your audience to find what they want in the shortest time and this is valuable to them.

Furthermore, 20 years ago no one could imagine to have access to the information just in the palm of the hand. With the advent of internet and mobile devices, nowadays we can access information when and where we want it and in a speed that is becoming faster everyday. The challenge in this new situation is to adapt our content format in a way that is comfortably accessible and readable on mobile devices. The websites designed to rearrange their contents to fit into mobile devices are called “Responsive Designed” websites. If your website is responsive, no matter your target audience is looking for you while on the train using their cell phones or while they are laying down on the pool side chairs searching about you using their tablets. Your website looks good, readable and accessible everywhere and on every devices.

 

Social Media Presence

Social media has changed the way people interact and share information with one another. It takes no time for people to create their own content and share it with millions of other people on the internet. People can share their experiences with others using social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube, Yelp and others. As a franchise business it is much more important to spend time and money on having a strong presence on social media through developing real time and engaging contents using social media.

Visual interactions play a stronger role in today’s world of communications. Instead of spending their time reading your content, people tend to watch videos on the Youtube or a series of pictures to become familiar with your business model. Story telling techniques play an important role in evoking emotions in your customers. If you want to create a community of current or potential customers as well as enthusiastic prospect franchisees, you need to spend time on presenting your frnachise in a way that is appealing to them not to you. So spend time on creating social media content and engage your audience with messages that is related to your strategic goals. Help your audience to access to the information they need quickly and efficiently using social media platforms.

 

Conclusion

Technology has changed every aspect of our life including the way businesses expand and grow. It is very difficult and almost impossible to think of having a national or international business without surfing on top of the technology wave including the demand for strategically presented content with nicely and properly designed environment called “website”. If you have a website, focus on sending strategic messages and keep in mind that your materials should be easily accessible in any time of the day and on any devices (smart phones, tablets, desktops). So it is very important that you have a so called “responsive” website in place.

Also your content should give them the information they need quickly and efficiently. Use of social media platform such as youtube and presenting your content in video format is vital for your business marketing. Nowadays, even mom and pop businesses use social media such as Facebook, Yelp and others to engage more audiences and to draw more customers to their doors.

It is very hard to keep the business up and running and compete against other if you don’t use technological advancement. Please send us an email or call us at (949) 228-6639 if you need help to make a difference in your online presence.

 

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How to Validate a Franchise?

There are many critical stages to researching a franchise and determining if it’s truly the right opportunity for you, but few are as valuable as a stage called validation. This article will explain what validation is and what questions to ask, but also how to really read between the lines, filter your responses and truly determine if a particular franchise is a model you can not only be successful with, but happy as well.

What is Validation?

Validation is simply the process of speaking with current (and even past) franchisees in a particular system to determine overall franchisee satisfaction and financial performance of a franchise. In a nutshell it’s a method used to check up on a franchise to determine if they are delivering on their promises, supporting their franchisees properly and are offering a truly viable and successful opportunity. In all franchisors’ disclosure documents are the contact information for all other franchisees in their system, both current as well as franchisees who have gotten out of the business within the last 3 years. Most franchisors require that you spend a good bit of time speaking with other franchisees but even if they don’t require it – DO IT! These franchisees have nothing to gain or lose by your decision to purchase that franchise therefore have no reason to give you anything but honest answers about their experience owning that franchise. Many franchisors will give you a “suggested validation list” of franchisees to contact but keep in mind this is commonly a cherry picked list of satisfied, top producing franchisees. Use the contact list in the disclosure document and make it a point to speak with a range of franchisees including top producers, struggling franchisees, those that have owned their business for many years and those that are fairly new to the system. You want to get feedback from those in all phases of owning their business as you too will experience these different phases as well.

All franchisees have gone through the validation process themselves so they will understand why you are calling and for the most part be happy to speak with you and share their experience. That being said, understand they are most likely busy running their business so be respectful of their time. Be willing to speak with them at their convenience outside of business hours or at least during slower times of their day. If there are franchisees within driving distance of you, it’s also a good idea to offer to make the trip and take the franchisee to lunch or dinner for a face to face meeting. I would advise you to make a point to speak with 10 – 20 franchisees during your validation when possible.

General Questions to Ask When You Validate

When speaking with other franchisees you of course want to get feedback about their experience owning the business but remember, your ultimate goal is to determine if this is the right opportunity FOR YOU, not for them. No business is right for everyone so never forget that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Below are some good questions to ask other franchisees during your validation process:

  • What did you do before you invested in this franchise?
  • What other franchises did you explore before making your decision to go with this one?
  • What were your key reasons for choosing this franchise over the others you were exploring?
  • How long have you been in business?
  • Do you feel your initial training adequately prepared you to launch your business?
  • Did the franchisor provide adequate support during your grand opening and launch phases?
  • How often are you in contact with the franchisor?
  • Are you pleased with their efforts to continue to support you as a franchisee?
  • How often are you in contact with other franchisees?
  • Do you find the other franchisees in the system to be of value to you in achieving success with your business?
  • Do you feel the franchisor is doing a good job of recruiting top quality franchisees?
  • What more could the franchisor be doing to help you be more successful with your business?
  • What have been your biggest headaches and challenges to running this business?
  • What do you feel it takes to be a top producer with this franchise?
  • What advice would you give me as a new franchisee just starting out?

Financial Questions to Ask When You Validate

Remember, if you are validating properly you will be speaking with franchisees in all phases of their business ranging from those who are wildly successful to those that are new and still grinding it out to break even. Also keep in mind when talking numbers that people structure their businesses in different ways. Some pay themselves salaries, drive company owned cars, take frequent business trips and work out of posh office space, while others take only dividends or distribution and operate the business on as lean of a budget as possible. Be prepared for a wide range of methods and responses when discussing the financial picture of a particular franchise. These questions will also vary depending on which phase of the business a particular franchisee is in.

  • What can a typical franchisee expect to produce in gross revenues in year one, year two and year three of this business?
  • What are the top producers doing in gross sales?
  • What are the lower producing franchisees doing in gross sales?
  • Currently what is your gross revenue and how much of that is going into your pocket?
  • How long did it take to break even for you?
  • How accurate were the franchisors operating capital projections? Did you spend it all? Did you need to go into pocket for more?
  • What are the typical cost percentages of sales? Labor? Occupancy and other overhead?
  • Assuming a franchisee is running a fairly streamlined operation what should I expect typical margins to be before taxes, debt service, etc?

And Of Course the Big Question…

  • If you had it to do all over again, would you?

Filtering Your Responses

When you validate keep in mind you will not receive 100% satisfaction from every franchisee you speak with. No franchisor has a 100% satisfaction rate and all business owners have bad days at the office. You will too! While it is easy to do, resist getting too hung up on negative or less than satisfactory responses. Negative feedback will resonate more with you than positive, that’s just human nature. Focus on the overall percentages of your feedback from everyone you speak with and rate the franchisor accordingly. Look for trends more than specific experiences to get a sense of overall franchisee satisfaction.

Reading Between The Lines

Probably the most over-looked concept in validating is striving to identify with the different people with whom you speak. As you speak with franchisees, constantly ask yourself, “am I like this person”, “do we share similar values”, “do we have similar strengths or weaknesses”. The bottom line is this… if you are cut from the same fabric that the majority of the super satisfied, top producing franchisees, there may be a great chance this is the right opportunity for you. On the other hand, if you find you are more like the less than satisfied franchisees who are the under achievers of the group, then there’s a chance that particular franchise may not be the right opportunity for you. We all have strengths and weaknesses and finding the franchise that best leverages your strengths while compensating for your weaknesses is critical.

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