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FRANCHISE NETWORKING SESSIONS : LEARN AND INTERACT WITH SUCCESSFUL FRANCHISERS.

Guest post by: Amit Nahar

Article Overview: We had a very interesting franchise networking meet last evening at the Catholic Club organized by the Franchising Association of India. Having reached out to over 200 franchisers from Bangalore for this Evening, i think that these meets are a great way for companies exploring franchising / young franchisors on the one hand and for mature franchisors on the other. We had industry leaders speaking from their own experiences, and how they dealt with their business challenges in general and franchising in particular. We will have many such Franchise Meets over the next couple of months across the country and build up a discussion on how we can strengthen franchising for every business owner / company who are exploring franchising or want to franchise or are already franchising and need some solutions or the other.

FRANCHISE NETWORKING SESSIONS : LEARN AND INTERACT WITH SUCCESSFUL FRANCHISERS.

INDIA FRANCHISE NETWORKING SESSIONS FOR YOUNG AND MATURE FRANCHISE BUSINESS.

Featured: Bangalore Meet @ Catholic Club on 21 Dec 2011. Bangalore 22 Dec 2011: We had a very interesting franchise networking meet last evening at the Catholic Club organized by the Franchising Association of India. Having reached out to over 200 franchisers from Bangalore for this Evening, i think that these franchise events are a great way for companies exploring franchising / young franchisors on the one hand and for mature franchisors on the other. We had industry leaders speaking from their experiences, and how they dealt with their business challenges in general and franchising in particular. We will have many such Franchise events over the next couple of months across the country and build up a discussion on how we can strengthen franchising for every business owner / company who are exploring franchising or want to franchise or are already franchising and need some solutions or the other. Since it's a growing system, we believe there will be new challenges every day and there will be solutions through other people experiences. So let's make the journey easier for all. Why re-invent the wheel, when somebody else has already figured the best way to do it. Follow it and Improvise.

I set off the evening welcoming the select invitees and requested Mr C.Y. Pal, President, Franchising Association of India (FAI) to address the gathering. He introduced the association to the audience, elaborating the advantages of being its member and how the association is the franchise industries voice. Being members of the World Franchise Council, and the only accredited organization representing the Indian Franchise Fraternity, he welcomed all members present to become a part of this growing association. A note on the Certified Franchise Executive (CFE) Program and how it could empower franchise professionals, to propel franchising for their organizations met with positive response. He further emphasized on bringing active franchisors in South India and to build a Core Team of Members who could join me in strengthening FAI activity in South India. Amit Agarwal, Senior Manager, FAI, then presented the various activities the association had been involved in and what is in store for the coming months. The house was then left open for discussion and began with a short introduction of all the members present. Thereafter, a few thoughts followed with the experiences of existing and new franchisors being discussed. I have tried capturing the essence of these exchanges for the advantage of people who were not able to make it to the event.

To Begin, Chaitanya Manohar, who is the COO LJ Hooker India, did bring out interesting observations about how they have evolved as a Franchisor over the last 5 Years and what has been their franchising in India experience. He firstly began with their initial franchise sales strategy and how they were signing up franchises during the initial phases of their franchising based on the investment capabilities, and how people were ready to sign the dotted lines and give them Cheques at the booths of the franchise exhibitions in which they were participating. They had the franchising documents from the Australian parent company including the franchise manuals, franchise agreements and a whole set of training material provided by the franchisor and felt that they were ready to go.

But now, they follow a strict profiling process, only take in existing real estate brokers/agents, have stopped participating in franchise exhibitions and have evolved their own franchise marketing strategy to reach out to their prospective franchises. The entire process, documentation and business has been completely adapted to Indian Conditions and they have come to terms with the India ‘Cash' Business, unlike the international concept where the franchisor initially told them that collect the cash and deposit it into the accounts. Here the franchisees were collecting cash and there was no depositing into the account or even for that matter reporting the transaction. So they figured a solution around this problem and today work on an entirely different franchise model, adapted to the Indian conditions. He also emphasized on a strong water tight franchise agreement, irrespective of whether you plan to use those privileges, you must have the same into your agreement. He also bought out the importance of having a very strong Pilot or a Prototype, not only to share the visual model, but also to get the functional model in place. Today they have over 25 Sales person ell working directly within one office and all of them follow a uniform system and management process. The franchises also go through the same process.

Rakesh N Rao, from Telematics4u shared their experiences of how they were engaging all kinds of franchisees for their business and how their franchise development plan was structured around training franchises properly. Having people with diverse backgrounds as varied as retired GM's or technical employees to business men to transport operators, they were all trained, oriented and then supported according to their level of expertise. Having a very unique business model and an even more unique subscription based revenue model from the franchises, they devised a franchise plan which ensured that there were no loose ends on any side. They were now exploring the next challenge of reaching out to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and towns of India and were trying to understand the different franchise marketing options that their company could explore.

Angad Menon from Jyothi Fabricare Services Ltd, who was exploring the options of franchising out Fabricare Laundry Franchise, was trying to understand, the criticalities of rolling out the franchise. As they were very concerned of putting in the right franchise model, the organization was currently studying various franchise systems and were on their way to reaching a model, which could deliver their services, as per their plan.He was very keen to understand how to franchise, and had a mandate from his organization to learn from the experts and industry leaders, as to how they can franchise their business professionally.

Balachandra A Yadalam, India Master Franchise of Howards Storage World, Australia, emphasized on how they were absolutely focused on Tier 1 cities of India, having a catchment of affluent consumers and how they have been doing tremendous sales at Mantri Mall in Bangalore. He bought out the relevance of having international best practices and having the right components of everything whilst designing, laying out and commissioning the retail outlets. He did bring out the importance of having at least 3500 Sft of space to give consumers the relevant experience, along with which it was very important to have a storage area within the store to stock additional items and make it available for the customer, instantly. Since India was very new to the concept, they were excited about the response that the consumers had been giving to their products, store and the overall concept and was very confident of building their India presence through a robust franchise model and by engaging the right retail franchise partners.

Viswapal K.J. Director of LE DAUPHINZ a budding Pre-School brought out his experience of the ever-growing Pre-School Franchise market of India. Despite the Big Brands present in the Industry, they were extremely happy with the quality of response they were receiving from wannabe franchisees. He said 'i did take an initial 4 years to franchise my business and set up the entire systems and processes only after which we began franchising.' He also bought out the relevance of choosing the right partners and said that they were extremely focused on meeting the franchisees several times, before they actually took them on board.

The participants had a good time over High Tea, exchanging notes with each other and learning from their individual experiences. I am sure; they have already got back to their offices and have begun working with several changes that they will initiate, from the franchise seminar.

If you are a business owner and are exploring franchising or are already franchising and want to participate in these meets, please mail me and i will be more than glad to give you the details and help you with any franchise solutions that you may seek.

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Article Tags: Franchise Development, Franchise Events, Franchise Marketing, Franchise Model, Franchise My Business, Franchise Sales, Franchise Seminar, Franchising Association Of India, How To Franchise



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