Franchising is a way for business owners to expand their business by allowing others to purchase the rights to use their branding, trademarks, operations strategies, and business practices. To franchise a business, it must be successful, scalable, and have a business model that can be easily replicated. Some key steps to franchising a business include preparing detailed operations manuals, hiring legal and financial experts, carefully selecting franchisees, protecting the brand name, choosing appropriate locations, consulting others with franchising experience, and providing ongoing support to franchisees. Consulting with franchising experts can help entrepreneurs analyze their business model and determine if and how to franchise.
1. How to Expand my Business in India
Are you an entrepreneur looking for opportunities to expand your business? Franchising
your brand can be an ideal expansion opportunity for you. Franchising allows business
owners to expand the reach of their business to new locations without having to cover the
new locations themselves. Instead, they turn their business into a franchise, which allows
others to purchase the rights to that company's Branding, Trademarks, Operational
Strategies, and Business Practices.
Franchising will not only help you to take your business locally without much involvement but
also reduce the monetary investment. “Should I franchise my business?" is one question that
most entrepreneurs ask themselves
Before you start franchising your business, you must analyse if your business model is fit for
franchising. If the answer is a No, then you should make the necessary changes.
IS YOUR BUSINESS FRANCHISABLE?
This question has a set of questions contained within it that need to be answered. If the
answer to those is in affirmation, then you can surely franchise your business.
2. Is Your Business Successful?
Franchising is only meant for businesses that have been able to attain success as an
individual unit. It is important because the same systems and know-how have allowed you to
make your business a success and you will be duplicating these systems for your franchisee
partners. Your business must be successful and must have a positive track record of results.
Is Your Business Scalable?
It is necessary to ensure that your business model is successfully duplicated by franchisee
partners. If it can, then your business is Franchi sable. Scalability questions to be considered
include:
Will you be able to train franchisees to successfully deliver the same products or services
that have helped you make your business a success?
Can you develop able systems to support the franchisees and ensure that they maintain
uniform levels of quality and customer service?
Can you support franchisees by delivering the necessary products and support systems for
everyday operations?
Are you willing to devote the requisite time and, build a team to support your franchisees and
improve your business systems as your business grows?
Are you ready to commit to a 1-, 2- and 5-year plan focused on consistently building out a
franchise system that will grow over time and not overnight?
Are you of the mindset that franchise success has much more to do with consistent
execution and focus, rather than just really big ideas?
Are you approaching franchising as a natural outgrowth of the success of your business and
your desire to expand and grow your brand?
Do you have the capital?
Although franchising is a low-cost process of expansion, it is not a 'no-cost policy. A new
franchisor will need some capital to develop the required legal documents, manuals, training
programs, and marketing materials, and a marketing budget for franchise lead generation.
If your brand can easily go about answering all these questions in a Yes, then it is the right
time to franchise your business.
3. How to Franchise your business?
Get prepared- Think precisely about the process of how your business currently works.
Franchisees will need specific and accurate details and guidelines to get their businesses
working in the same manner. This process might take some time, but it is an inevitable and
necessary one. From marketing and operational strategies, signage to business cards to
staff training, it all has to be administered in a similar manner. Develop an operation manual
to present to the franchisees which will be a quick way to reference policies and best
practices and create an approval process.
Hire an expert - Getting expert advice is extremely crucial during the franchising process to
avoid any major blunders. A Franchise Disclosure Document needs to be prepared and it
has a very distinct format you need to follow. It is important to have a lawyer walk you
through this process. You’ll need to set the pricing, create a franchise agreement and
determine intellectual property protection.
Be selective in choosing your franchisees - You should be extremely selective when it
comes to choosing your franchisees. It is easy to find people with the requisite capital, but
you need to ensure if they are the right people and do they have the right background in
order to run a business. This is someone who will be representing your brand, so it needs to
be a good fit. You need to remember that you are in this to protect and grow your brand. Set
up a proper interviewing process and know what your deal-breakers are.
Build and protect your brand's name - As a franchisor, your most valuable asset is your
brand name so you need to protect it at all costs. Your brand represents your culture, your
beliefs, and your attitude toward your customers which has to be right. When you franchise,
you are giving new people the strength to represent your brand.
4. Thus, to avoid any havoc, clear guidelines should be established for the use of all of the
brand assets. You would want to be sure that you are sending a very precise message from
one clear reference, and that message is consistent throughout the business.
Never let anyone use your brand assets in any way, no matter how small, without your
former approval. Monitor everything, pay close attention to videos and pictures being used to
represent and market your brand and monitor all social media outlets in a regular and
detailed form.
Choose the right location - Which locations make the most conducive for your business to
flourish and where do you have brand recognition already are important questions that need
to be answered when deciding the location. You need to keep the initial locations close but
far enough to not affect your initial stores so that you can manage logistics easily. Keep in
mind that you will want to visit these locations in person from time to time, so be sure to
choose locations with easy access to an airport.
Find someone to guide - It is necessary to seek consultation from experts or people who
have already ventured into franchising their business. They can provide you a thorough
knowledge of the market and also help you to formulate proper market conducive
operational and marketing strategies that can catalyse your growth.
Support and assist your franchisees - Initially, you will need some face time with your
franchisees, as well as lots of time online and via phone. Do all you can to encourage and
promote them. Search through articles that you find helpful and share them so that they can
use similar ideas to operate their franchise unit. Set up a way for franchisees to
communicate with one another so as to discuss any sort of market thrifts and how can they
deal with the same.
You can always consult a team of experts who can help you to find out when to franchise
your business and how to do the same. We, at sparkleminds, help you to analyze your
business model and turn it into one fit for franchising.
https://www.sparkleminds.com/business/franchise-advertising/