According to new research by the Franchise Relationships Institute (FRI), 53% of Australian franchisees have now reached a mature stage in their business lifecycle, after operating their businesses for more than 6 years.
Psychologist and Founder of FRI, Greg Nathan, will release the findings with recommendations on how franchisors can add value to mature franchisees, at a Franchise Operations Conference organised by FRI on May 12 in Melbourne.
“There is a myth that most franchisees are inexperienced business people who just need basic help and guidance from their franchisor”, he says.
“However our latest research clearly shows the franchising sector in Australia is now mainly comprised of experienced franchisees, with over 25% operating multiple units, and these people expect a more intelligent type of business support from their franchisor.”
Part of FRI’s research involved asking 1,000 franchisees with tenure over six years, what they want from franchisor support staff.
“These people primarily want to be consulted and listened to when important strategic decisions are being taken by the franchisor, and to have their experience respected” he says.
Nathan, who also trains franchisor executives in relationship management, believes these executives often lack the commercial and negotiation skills to have meaningful business conversations that add value in the eyes of mature franchisees.
“A franchisee often has more business experience than the franchisor person advising them”, he says.
According to Nathan, when franchisees reach this maturation stage, complacency can become a threat to their viability. He believes many of these people need to reinvent themselves and their businesses or make a decision to do something different.
“Rather than the stress and burnout we see in business people during the earlier stages of their development, longer tenure franchisees can get bored and suffer from rust-out.”
“Mature franchisees need to be challenged, but this needs to be done in a respectful way, and with a commercial perspective on how the franchisor can help them achieve better results and more satisfaction from their business”.
Other speakers at the Franchise Operations Conference include senior executives from some of Australia’s best performing franchise networks including Bakers Delight, Priceline, Harcourts, Pandora, Poolwerx and Boost Juice.
One of the USA’s most experience franchise operations executives, Geoff Goodman, will also address the conference on tips for supporting franchisees at various levels of their business lifecycle.
Details of the National Franchise Operations Conference can be found at www.franchiserelationships.com