Finding the Right Franchisee for Business

A franchise system heavily depends on potential franchisees, and recruitment of right franchisees is a necessity to ensure the successful expansion of the franchising business.

A good franchisee is the one, whom a franchisor can appoint as a business manager or appoint to take care of his/ her assets. Therefore, it is crucial for a franchisor to make use of the available resources (financial, human or technical) to recruit well-qualified franchisees.

In order to make sure that only deserving franchisees enter the franchise network, a franchisor has to carefully plan the recruitment process As such it not only confirms the entry of right franchisees but also is economical in terms of time and money.

This article will help the franchisor in structuring the recruitment plan and provide an idea regarding qualities one has to look for in the prospective franchisees.

Below mentioned are few ways through which you can search for your prospective franchisees:

Advertising the opportunity

Once a successful entrepreneur has decided to take the franchise route to expand his business, the next step will be to advertise regarding the recruitment of franchisees. Advertising is the best way to recruit eligible franchisees. This is the reason why advertising is considered as the lifeblood of recruitment process. There are numerous ways to advertise for recruiting suitable franchisees. For instance, TV, radio, newspaper, magazines, internet are the best mediums to disseminate the information.

A franchisor can also take into consideration a renowned public relation agency or franchise consultant for recruiting franchisees. The franchise consultants help the franchisor by providing him a list of prospective franchisees as per his requisites.

To wear a franchisor’s hat, one has to work extensively to build a franchise system. One has to do a lot of market research to find out the most accessible and available medium to advertise.

Selection of the franchisees

The next step is to focus on planning the recruitment strategies and executing them accordingly to introduce right franchisees in the franchise system.  The qualities are as follows: 

Characters of an ideal franchisee

It is often seen that out of many aspirants, very few turn to be a franchisee. Thus, Rod Young says, “The decision of a franchisee to take up a franchise should be both financially and emotionally driven. Only then, one can succeed in running the franchise business efficiently.” A good franchisee is the one who has the following qualities:

• One must have the aptitude of working hard to get the desired results.
• One must have the required skills and knowledge to run the franchise business successfully. The franchisee must also know how to manage the workforce.
• A franchisee can succeed only if one is hopeful of generating a return over investment. Along with expectations, one must have patience and persistence as a new business usually takes time in positioning and creating visibility of the brand at the local level. 
• A good franchisee should always be desirous to grow from unit to multi-unit franchise ownership.
• Besides this, one must have the capability to maintain the standards of the franchising business.

Prior to selection of franchisees, a franchisor must take into consideration the following aspects-

Financial stability

Before selecting a prospective franchisee, a franchisor has to ensure that the aspirant is financially sound. Apart from franchise fees and royalties, a franchisee is required to invest a good proportion of funds at the initial stages. Apart from general funding, a franchisee must be capable enough of building the brand at the local level. This would be possible only if one has a general idea of advertising and how one can customise a marketing plan to bring value to one’s franchise business at the local level.

Location

Location is another important factor that plays a great role in driving the customers into the franchised outlet. Locations hold great value in the selection process of the prospective franchisees. However, there are many franchisors that help their franchisees in finding the apt location for opening the franchised.

Though recruitment of franchisee is a bit complicated process but being a franchisor you have to make sure that you introduce only potential franchisees to run the franchise business successfully.