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How to Evaluate a Franchisor Training Program

Written by: Rick Bisio

Article Overview: A robust training program is key to successful franchising. Unfortunately, not all training programs are created equally. This article is designed to help you determine if the training program is up to par.

How to Evaluate a Franchisor Training Program

I have often thought that a small franchise could be the perfect one-size-fits-all college graduation present. Just imagine – if every business person owned, or had owned and sold his/her own franchise business, what a smart and effective work force we would have. Their franchise educations would make them incredible business people.

I’m always impressed when young people have the foresight to investigate franchising. I have seen, thousands of times, what a leg up a franchise can be for people – young or not so young – who want to be at the helm.

Why do I believe franchising is the best route to self-employment? Primarily because of the high success rate franchises have. And why are the success rates so high? Because in franchising you buy a proven business model – and you receive training in that business model – training that should set you up to be a successful franchisee.

Most franchisors build their training programs on the assumption that you – the new franchisee – have never worked in this business before. Franchisors also assume that you have never owned your own business before. Their intention is to design a thorough training program that positions the franchisee for success. Frankly, some franchisors are better at this than others.

The quality of the training is absolutely critical, so ignore intentions, and focus on facts. Here are 7 things to do when evaluating a franchise training program.

1. Talk to existing franchisees about how well they are doing. Read Chapter 11 of my franchise book, The Educated Franchisee, to learn how to approach franchisees. Ask franchisees if the initial training program positioned them for success.
2. Find out how long each franchisee you talk with has been in business, and ask what s/he thought about the training. If they’re new, your training experience will probably be most like theirs. If they’ve been in the franchise for a while, ask if they find the on-going support to be effective.
3. Find out what stood out in training, and what could have been covered more thoroughly. Ask how prepared they felt when they opened the business.
4. Ask about support materials and on-going programs. Is the operations manual updated regularly? How is the intranet used? Are there regular conference calls? Annual meetings? Are they effective?
5. Ask the franchisor and franchisee what is covered besides the product or service. A strong program should also cover business set-up (location, leases, permits, build-outs, equipment, software, etc.), business and accounting procedures, reporting requirements, employee management, marketing, and so on.
6. Is there a company store? While not necessary, this can be an excellent way to get some “hands on” training.
7. Read the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD), provided by the franchisor. Training highlights should be outlined in Item 11.

Adequate training and on-going support will be critical to your success. If you do your homework and don’t hear good things about the franchise training program, walk away. Don’t assume you will be able to overcome poor training. Even if you could, others will not be so lucky, and you’ll find yourself in a failing system.

Do your homework, and ensure you’ll walk out of training ready and able to meet your goals and become a confident and successful franchise business owner!

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Article Tags: assumption, best route, business model, business person, chapter 11, college graduation, educations, foresight, franchise business, franchisee, franchisees, franchises, helm, initial training, model training, own business, program 1, self employment, success rate, success rates



Related Forum Posts
7 words or less for Structogram - Some "7 words or less" (more or less) for Structogram for your comments: Training to get your message across(6) Secrets to get your message across (6) Training so people will listen to you (7) Helping you get your message across (6) Training to learn to get your message across (8) Communications training for yourself and your team (7)
Re: How to develop sales contacts? - Everyone has the right idea here. Depending on your business, there are different techniques that you could use. For consultants and sales heavy businesses, there are three tactics that I have found especially useful in my business: 1. Attend Networking Events 2. Cold Calling 3. Referral Program 4. Affiliate Program (most successful) The affiliate program was successful for me, as I hooked up with a franchise consultant, and he gave multiple unit businesses that needed my credit card processing services. I highly suggest you hook up with a sales partner, and give him a cut of the monthly revenue.
Think like an Association - Hey Sebastian, Maybe you could try thinking like an Association... I would study the structure or formats used by other Associations. What are they doing to add value for their members? The BBB plays a monitoring role for consumers by gathering data about business' that are behaving badly. And they're pretty successful at it too. Maybe you can offer a 'Platinum Program' that franchisors buy into. Accredited members only. Criteria could be strict: 1. Age (stability): 10+ years 2. Satisfied franchisees: 85% + satisfaction 3. Size (stability again): 250 units 4. Strong profits 5. Great management -Maybe a 'Gold Program' for those Franchisors that aren't quite at that level, but can strive to reach it... -Top 100, 500, 1000 Listing for qualified members... maybe a slap at Entrepreneur.com and their biased top 10 lists... -Maybe act as a monitor like BBB? -Maybe team up with FranSurvey OR do something similar for each member (not sure about Fransurvey's rep, but I like the concept) There's so much discontent within the franchising arena that I think if you were part of the solution, then you could create a win/win with your Association. The only downside is that this power can get abused if there aren't good checks and balances within the association.
Budget. - I believe the biggest barrier is related to budget. Training tends to be a normal practice for a big company. But I have to consider it seriously as an entrepreneur.
Setting up Revenue Sharing Program - Hi Martin I know it must be confusing going through the process of setting up an advertisement when you're not actually going to use it, but it's how it seems to work. For anyone else who has problems with this process, simply follow these instructions courtesy of magnify.net and make sure you have created your Adsense Account and it has been approved. To create a [i:1b5dm29n]new channel[/i:1b5dm29n], go the main AdSense web site, login and click "AdSense Setup", then "Channels", then "Add new custom channels". You can call your channel anything e.g. evancarmichael.com To discover the [i:1b5dm29n]channel number[/i:1b5dm29n] (so you can paste it into the Evan Carmichael Revenue Sharing Program) that has been assigned to your new channel, click "Products" and "AdSense for content", then create an ad (Just hit next, next, next until you reach Get Ad Codes) using your new channel and copy the number from the line that says "google_ad_channel = ". Now enter that number into Evan Carmichael Revenue Sharing Program and you'll be setup.


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