Franchising is a fantastic way to be your own boss and learn the ropes of running a successful business. The freedom to invest in an existing brand and enjoy the additional resources of a parent company (that handles things like marketing and brand loyalty), makes franchising an increasingly attractive prospect for many entrepreneurial spirits across the country.
But contrary to popular belief, setting up a franchise does still require plenty of due diligence and preliminary research. For instance, when planning for your new business, it’s important to cover all eventualities, and this includes accidents that might occur. This is what makes public liability insurance a vital investment for all franchise owners. It’s also important to understand both the company you’re franchising and your market in order to decide whether franchising a particular brand and opening up your new store in a particular location is a good idea.
Want to know more? If you’re looking for some tips on building a healthy, long-lasting franchise, you’ve come to the right place: in this article, we’ll go through some tips on how to do just that.
Maintain Brand Consistency
By starting a franchise, you’ll be opening a branch of an existing company. While you’ll have a certain level of business freedom, you’ll also need to operate within certain guidelines, and one of the most crucial of these is making sure that your store maintains consistent brand identity. Often, your franchise contract will even include provisions on maintaining the franchisor’s brand.
Branding consistency covers things as basic as the font you use in signs and menus, colours, taglines, etc. It also includes more intangible elements like dealing with your customers in a certain way and using certain a particular tone in advertisements.
Maintaining brand consistency benefits both you and the franchisor. The company as a whole keeps its image consistent across all its branches, strengthening its overall brand, while the franchisee gets the financial benefit of a brand that’s been built over a long time.
Research Your Market
Anyone who’s ever been in business will tell you that one of the keys to success is to understand your market. Some of the questions you’ll need to ask yourself include: Who are you selling to? What are they like? How can you best reach out to them? How much are they willing to pay?
It’s important to understand that you can’t please everyone. Divide the general population by the factors that are most relevant to your business, choose the segment or segments that make the most sense, and figure out how to target them.
If your marketing’s a little rusty, take some time to refresh yourself on the four P’s of marketing, these being:
- Product
- Price
- Place
- Promotion
Familiarising yourself with this and other marketing methodologies that are relevant to your industry will help ensure that you have the know-how you need to develop and implement local promotions for your business.
Get Insured
No matter what business you’re in, you’re going to need to prepare for unforeseen circumstances. This is exactly what insurance is for. While it might be tempting to view it as an unnecessary expense when you’re just starting out, a good insurance plan can be a lifesaver down the line.
As you might expect, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to what sort of insurance plan you need. This will depend on a number of factors, including the industry you’re in, the size of your business, your ownership structure, and many more.
One kind of insurance you’ll almost certainly need, especially if you’re in the food and drink industry, is public liability insurance. This innovative business insurance product is designed to cover you against costs incurred from injuries or accidents that may occur on your worksite or due to acts of negligence by your staff.
Read Your Franchise Agreement
Before you open a branch of an existing business, one of the first things you’ll have to do is sign a contract with your franchisor. This is called a ‘franchise agreement’, and it’s one of multiple vitally important franchise documents that you may receive from your franchisor upon commencing the process of opening up your own store. Your franchise agreement is where your duties and privileges as a franchisee will be stated. With this in mind, it’s crucial to go over the terms thoroughly before entering into any sort of agreement.
If you’re not a lawyer, we recommend getting legal counsel before you sign the contract. A trained and experienced attorney can help you understand what you’re getting into, and even point out parts of the agreement that might be unreasonable.
It’s also important to remember that the franchisor and their legal team will be figures drafting the contract, and that they’ll want it to benefit themselves as much as possible. Sometimes, it will be possible to negotiate parts of the contract. If there are any clauses that you’re dissatisfied with, it’s well worth voicing it. After all, you’re looking to build your own personal wealth here, not to continue working for somebody else. Franchisees have the right to make sure that the agreement is mutually beneficial for both themselves as well as their franchisor.
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Starting a franchise is an exciting journey, and while many general business principles apply, there are also some guidelines that are specific to this line of work, which mostly stem from the fact that you’ll have to take your franchisor into account. However, there are also plenty of perks, including not having to build everything from scratch.
In this article, we’ve outlined some tips and tricks that will be relevant to almost anyone. Follow these steps, and you’ll be giving yourself the highest possible chance of succeeding in what is both a competitive and a lucrative industry.