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Do You Have the Right Stuff to be a Franchise Owner

Written by: William Bradley

Article Overview: In the early 1980’s, there was an outpouring of magazine and newspaper articles that were titled “Do you have the right stuff to be a franchise owner?” The articles described the most important personality traits of entrepreneurs and franchise owners and offered a self-evaluation exercise to enable readers to determine if they had the right stuff.

Do You Have the Right Stuff to be a Franchise Owner

In the early 1980’s, there was an outpouring of magazine and newspaper articles that were titled “Do you have the right stuff to be a franchise owner?” The articles described the most important personality traits of entrepreneurs and franchise owners and offered a self-evaluation
exercise to enable readers to determine if they had the right stuff.

Today, more than 20 years later and after extensive research, we know there is no unique set of behavioral attributes that is distinctive to all successful franchise owners. It does appear, however, that successful franchise owners have a higher desire to be in control of their own fate. This has been confirmed by many surveys that indicate that franchise owners say that INDEPENDENCE is their main reason for becoming franchise owners.

What are the characteristics found in most successful franchise owners?

Franchise Owners, from the outset, have a very clear picture of their industry, their customer and their competitors.

Industry: How fast is the market growing? How big is the market and what’s the market potential? Do franchise owners enjoy high gross margins? (revenues minus cost of goods sold)

Customer: Who is my customer? When you understand who your customer is, you can assess what compels them to buy, how your franchise can sell to them, and how much it’s going to cost to acquire and retain that customer.
Competitor Analysis: Successful franchise owners know their market segment; know what their customer looks like and, what the customer wants. Knowing that is the key factor to knowing their competitive advantages and the basis for their franchise strategy.

Once franchise owners have this picture, they know what it’s going to take to look like that.

What’s the target market strategy? Why is the customer going to switch to your product or your service?

Advertising promotion and sales strategy.

How to maintain excellent customer service.

Hiring employees and retaining employees. Setting the standards for success. How does my franchise look to the customer?

Once they decide on a course of action, successful franchisees focus on
achieving the desired result.

Successful franchisees learn the franchisors system. They trust in the franchise model and implement the strategies.

They are totally dedicated to their franchise. Franchisees work tirelessly.
Twelve hour days and seven day weeks are not uncommon when a franchise is getting off the ground.

Franchisees have a passion for succeeding in their work.

Successful franchisees pay close attention to detail. The franchisee must
be on top of the critical details.

Franchise owners want to be in charge of their own destiny.

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  FAQs about Franchises
  What is a Franchise?
  Benefits of Franchising
  Is Buying into a Franchise right for you

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Related Forum Posts
Job titles - [quote:3shpwvxj]In fact, I've had friends tell me that "Founder" is better than "Owner" since it's less possessive.[/quote:3shpwvxj] For myself, I don't care for the term "Founder" [i:3shpwvxj]because [/i:3shpwvxj]it's not possessive. You can be the founder of a company and have sold it - so it no longer belongs to you. However, if you call yourself "Owner" - people know the company is still in your hands. But I don't like Owner, either. I'd prefer President or Director, because one can be an absentee owner, whereas if one is a President or Director, people assume you're involved in the day to day activities. Manager, on the other hand, wouldn't work if its your business, because (to me, anyway) that implies that you "manage" for someone else - like at a restaurant.
Re: Enticing Franchises - Top 9 List - All Franchise listed above are in millions of dollars. Do you have the list of Franchise in thousands
Re: Info for would be franchisers... - [quote="Sebastien":1d29sdv1]Like Franchise Times, Franchise Update is a very practical magazine. There is no blah blah, just straight facts that anyone in the franchise community can relate to. I just want to mention that all these magazines are NOT franchisee oriented. I mean these magazines are for franchise professionals. If you're looking to buy a franchise, you won't find much information in there. To answer your question, getting published in Franchise Times was fairly easy. I don't want to brag too much but I think I am known in the franchise industry. I was the marketing guy at Franchise.com for a few years before joining my new company, the World Franchising Network. So people know me and I have a very good relationship with Nancy Weingartner, the Managing Editor at Franchise Times. I was talking with her at the last Franchise Expo South in Miami and she mentioned she'd like me to be profiled. I was like "ok, sure!". I like this franchise executive profile thing in Franchise Times as it is rarely BS. People are usually really natural in there.[/quote:1d29sdv1] Thanks for the follow up Sebastien! And I can't say that I'm surprised that networking with the right people and managing your relationships with them properly are the keys to being published. I guess the old adage holds true of "it's not who you know, but who knows you" that's important.
how much for a franchise fee? - Dear Colleague There is no easy answer to this question. Things to consider: [list=] The sizeof the Franchise Clent base Expected Turnover Intellectual Property costs (recoup) Number of Franchises Number of employees Original Set up costs Franchise admin costs An example: A franchise that I was involved in setting was to a simple "lawn mowing/home repair" franchise. The Franchise included national/local advertising - preparation of client lists - general admin - central accounting etc The Franchise involved 300-500 clients - and an annual turnover of about $300,000 . The annual franchise fee was $30,000. Hope that this gives you some idea Take care Ian[/list]
Re: Franchise Surveys - Another good tool to researching a franchise is to speak with their existing franchisees. This contact information is included in most Franchise Disclosure Documents. In order to get a Franchise Disclosure Document or FDD as it is often referred to, you will have to complete a basic franchise application. The franchisor will then usually provide you with the FDD at that time. Included in that book of information is a list of the existing franchisees, the contract, the investment information etc... This information is required by Federal Law to be disclosed to your prior to making a purchase. So be sure to do your research and start with the Franchise Documents to get the initial information.


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