Sharing Your Success Through Franchising

As a business owner, it can be hard to know when to bring people into your professional inner circle, and when not to. The truth is, you never really know who you're dealing with in a business relationship until you actually start working with someone. This holds true for employees, vendors, advisors, and certainly with potential business partners. The concept of opening your business, brand, and ideas to someone new (oftentimes at a high rate of speed) can be difficult to comprehend and to feel comfortable with. The trouble is, that when tasks grow beyond your level of expertise you may find yourself with no choice but to trust others and let them in. A partnership is the extreme example of trust in a business relationship. So often you hear about partnerships that have gone terribly wrong for one reason or another. That's why I have chosen to work instead with the franchise model. Over the past fifteen years my work has focused on franchise development. This structure is a derivation of partnerships, as it entails a rapid-paced partnership development with each franchise that is sold. The franchise model is a vehicle that allows a business owner to bring partners into their brand and business without giving up control or opening the brand up to the pitfalls of a bad partnership. Franchising works because you as the franchisor have the ability to disqualify anyone for any reason in the franchise sales process. This process should be a deep, two-part evaluation of the buyer. First, working to understand whether they have the tangible business elements and experience needed to start the franchise successfully. Second, examining the intangible aspects of each buyer's character and personality to see whether the arrangement would make a good partnership. Once a franchisee has purchased your franchise, they agree to operate the business using certain business practices, standards, and minimum performance requirements. Unlike a business partner, who can change the business model and who operates as an equal to you, a franchisee is clearly structured to be subordinate to the franchisor. The Franchise Agreement is a lease of your intellectual property and brand. This means that a franchisee must uphold the original franchise terms or risk being fined or even having the business relationship terminated altogether. Because the franchisee is making an investment into their own success, their business gain or loss is their own. In this way, they are deeply invested and thus don't require the supervision and oversight that an employee might. In the end, if you want to grow your business beyond what you can accomplish on your own, it's going to take trust. The Franchise model is an alternative to a traditional partnership that allows you to expand while still protecting your investment and maintaining consistency throughout.