← Unemployable with Jeff Dudan
Unemployable with Jeff Dudan
How To Succeed In a Franchise System | Franchise Fridays with Jeff Dudan #178
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Jeff Duden
Hey everybody, Jeff Duden here and welcome back to Franchise Fridays. Let me give you a stat that says everything about franchise owner success. Owners who receive consistent support are 2.6 times more likely to still be in business after five years. But that's not just a number, it's a difference maker. Because when you invest in a franchise, you're not just buying a business, you're buying into a system and a team. And, and that system is the single biggest predictor of your outcome. Today, I'm breaking down the eight support pillars every smart franchise system should deliver. From training and tech to financing, community and even exit strategy. If you're serious about franchising, this is what you need to know before you sign the agreement. And if you want to explore what that kind of support looks like firsthand, visit homefrontbrands.com or grab a free copy of my book the Discernment using the link below. Let's get started. Pillar number one, Onboarding and training. Start strong, win early. We like to say at home front brands, start well and it'll go well. What relationship have you ever been in that didn't start well, that went well? Everything begins with how well you're onboarded. Great franchise systems offer in person and virtual training, pre launch checklists and coaching shadowing opportunities with other successful franchisees and team member onboarding support. You might want to ask these questions. What does the first 90 days look like? Will somebody come out to my location? What will in person training look like? What will my cadence be of support calls and will I have direct support all the way through the launch? Because when you launch with clarity and confidence and you start with the right habits and behaviors, you start stacking up wins from day one that you can build on. Pillar number two, ongoing coaching and field support. Look what's left when the honeymoon's over. The journey doesn't stop at opening day. You should have a dedicated coach. And not only that, as you grow your business, your needs will change. It's different penetrating a market and starting a business as it is at the mid range revenue level. And then if you achieve the top status in the network, there's different things that you're going to need. And you should have specialized coaching at every step in your journey that's customized to where you are. You should have monthly check ins or reviews, site visits, operational reviews, and access to specialists, whether that be hr, operations, finance, sometimes vendors that have specialized products that you use will provide support. All of these things are important. And on the home front we treat coaching like performance Leadership, not just troubleshooting. So you need to know who's walking the journey with you, how often will I speak with them, what are those engagements look like and can I count on them after the honeymoon's over? Pillar number three Marketing and lead generation. This is a big thing for franchise or to be very, very good at. Look, there's something called affiliation benefit. How much of my work in my revenue is resulting from things that the franchise owner does on my behalf or I collaborate with the franchise partner on no leads equals no growth. Leads are the gasoline. They go in the top of the funnel and they fuel your franchise engine. So your franchisor should support you in paid ad campaigns, whether that's them providing that or through qualified vendors that have been vetted. Search engine optimization, all kinds of search in Google, on chat, on AI systems, your local listing management and all of the things around all of the avenues where people can search to learn about your business and possibly try your products and services. Social media $50 billion spent in social media ads by 2030. It's one of the largest growing places where people are spending time and grabbing attention. So you've got to be capable and consistent on social media and of course CRM systems that track lead flow and give you the actionable data that you lead. All leads are not created equal and all leads don't convert equal and all leads are not valued equal. So you need to understand what types of leads are making, what type of impact in your business. And it takes a pretty sophisticated CRM to give you just what you need when you need it to make those decisions. So questions you should ask will the system help me drive demand? Are there templates, vendors or even centralized support? And a strong marketing engine that helps franchise owners focus on what matters, getting to that front door, converting customers and building great relationships as the face of your business and your community. Pillar number four Technology and systems. A great franchise system has built a robust platform that's going to grow with you and help you scale smarter. So what is the CRM? Is it customized to that industry? Is it something that they created themselves? What about a learning management system? This is a huge gap on a big hole in a lot of franchise systems, especially emerging ones, because quite frankly, they're expensive to build, they're expensive to update, and they take constant management to make sure that all of the latest and greatest learnings are incorporated into the franchise learning management system so that everybody starts from the very best possible place when they join the systems. Data visualization is critical again, there is lots of data out there, but you need to understand what it means, what it means to your business and more importantly what actions you need to take based upon that data. So how is the data collected and then how is it visualized and then how are you coached to take action on what the data indicates that you should do? And of course all the table stakes like scheduling and billing platforms and KPI tracking tools. So most importantly training and ongoing support to help you actually be proficient and effective in using these tools. So when you're looking at a franchise, ask a few questions about the technology stack. Is it customized to the industry? Is it sufficient? Is it easy to use and does it deliver what you need is. And also how do they onboard you into using these platforms? Pillar number five Community and Peer support look, it's the vibe that builds the tribe and you will find your people within your franchise community so that you are not doing this alone. Franchise systems provide national events like a national conference, like our homecoming event that we have here at Homefront Brands. Regular regional meetings that include peer groups and breakouts, ongoing best practices, exchanges, zoom calls, team calls sometimes focused around sales, sometimes around operations, sometimes around financial management, sometimes around optimizing your profit and loss to get this extra few points out of the P L and into your pocket. And also digital communities, sharepoints, masterminds where you can log in from your phone at any time, ask a question and get real time feedback from other franchise owners who or the support team at the home office so that you can get what you need when you need it. And at home front brands. Our tribe is incredibly important and we spend a lot of time getting an ROI return on intention from the way that we manage these interactions and make sure that everybody's getting just what they need when they need it. And you're exposed to the people you can lean on when things get tough or you have a tough question and you need it right now everybody needs to be cheered for and everybody needs a group that will support them as you're building a great business on the home front. Pillar number six Leadership and vision look, where is this company going? Who is paying attention to the new opportunities in the marketplace? Are they looking to see what makes sense in terms of new products, new services, new offerings, exploiting or expanding, putting more things on your wagon that you can sell to your existing customers. Is the team experienced in building and scaling this type of business? What have they done in the past and what are they likely to do in the future? Do they have a clear mission and long term strategy that is clearly articulated that everybody can align with. And does the brand protect the brand integrity and the franchisees that built it from competitors? From people that want to encroach upon the intellectual property. You have to protect what you've built because other people, when they see you having success, will want to take from it. So a good franchisor always steps to the forefront. And when a franchisee sees somebody encroaching upon their marks or around their intellectual property and steps up assertively and make sure that it protects the brands for everybody. And at home front, we believe the dream should be big enough for other people's dreams to fit inside of it. And if the leadership feels like a great partner and you're aligned with it, then you're probably in the right place. Okay, that's a lot of blocking and tackling. Let's talk about the numbers. Financing support is pillar number seven. A great franchisor should help you understand how to fund your business as it grows and connect you with options for funding. Look, you might have a product, that is if it's a rental model. And the size of your business is determined on the size of the inventory that you can build. There needs to be creative ways for owners, especially who have been business for less than two years, on how to get access to financing to be able to build their toolkit and build their inventory so they can rent more and make more money. Access sometimes to SBA lenders, access to rollover programs, all of these things to help you get into business. But then what are the sources to help you grow your business? It doesn't just start when you get into it. If we want to scale and we want to be outcome focused, then we need to make sure that you have all the tools along the way that you can use to grow your business. And that's also consumer financing. If you can, you can get a bigger ticket for jobs when you can provide financing to customers and end users. Everybody buys everything on a payment. Your customers are going to be no exception. So learning not only how to use that in the sales process, but how to get people enrolled and how to get people signed up and how to get those dollars in your bank for providing the services that you provided. So understand if the franchisor offers any financing support or introductions and to what level and for what need at what time and they helping you make smart decisions about money. Look, you might be getting into this business and you don't have great profit and loss capabilities. You haven't read balance sheets your entire life. There might be Some education around finance that you need to understand. Just because you have $100,000 in the bank after completing a big job doesn't mean you should blow it on a brand new truck, right? There's smart ways to manage your money and to make sure that you have cash, because cash is like oxygen. You don't know how bad you need it until you don't have any. At Homefront Brands, we help owners fund themselves to get into the business. And by making introductions to third parties who can help them achieve their goals. And then along the way, in every way necessary, we make sure that people have access to the things that they need when they need it. To help them scale. And number eight, outcome planning and exit strategy. You've heard me say it once now on this podcast. Homefront Brands is the place for outcomes. I am entirely focused on every franchise owner's outcome. What does that mean? Look, you're building a business. You're creating a life for yourself. You're providing for the people that you're responsible for and the people that you care about. But at the end of the day, if you want to change your life, you've got to build a transactional asset. That's why we select all the brands that we select. That's why they have the characteristics that they have and that's why we put the programs in place to give people the path to build a business that is big enough that somebody will want to pay them for it one day. Because life happens, people have personal challenges, things. We're a population of people. And there may be a reason that somebody needs to get out of a business and that business needs to be sale ready so that if somebody has an emergency with their family or a personal situation or some other reason why they need to sell their business, that they can do it and have a great outcome inside of that. That's what we're here for. That's what I lay down at night thinking about and wake up every day coming to the office thinking, how can we build great outcomes for families on Main street usa? So what happens when you want to sell? Well, hopefully you've been building a business that's ready to sell. What if you want to pass this business on the family or you want to, you do an easy. You want to sell it to your employees so that you can, they can run the business and they can pay you for the business that you buil. And understanding that there is always value in any business that's beyond just the income that it generates is one of the first learnings for first time business owners. A lot of them don't understand how to sell a business and what their business might be worth and if they knew they would be more than motivated to go through the hard times to build that business. So great franchises offer resale support, advice, counseling on how to sell, when to sell, and what they can do to maximize the value of that transaction, including valuation resources, opportunities to merge or expand with partners or other neighbors in the same franchise. So pathways to expand to a multi unit business for those that want to do that and of course, executive ownership models as you scale, whether you're in this for five years or 25, you should be building an asset, not just working to give yourself a job. So that was eight. They were great. Let's recap. Number one Onboarding and training two. Coaching and field support Number three Marketing and lead generation Number four Technology systems five your community and the network of your peers Number six Leadership and vision Number seven. That's great financing what you need when you need it, as you scale. And of course at the end of the day it's about the exit strategy and planning of your outcome. So when you buy a franchise, all of these areas support matter. You ought to have an inventory as you're evaluating a franchise system and ask specific questions so that you understand that all of these eight boxes are checked. The better the system, the better your chance of building something that lasts and something that you will get a great outcome from and it'll be worth your time. And if you're looking for a franchise platform built on this kind of foundation, check us out. Homefrontbrands.com Click the link below to grab your free copy of my book Discernment the Business Athletes Regimen for a Great Life through Better Decisions and get clear on what matters the most. I'm Jeff Duden. I look forward to seeing you here on Franchise Fridays. Stay sharp, stay focused and stay on the home front. Thanks for listening.