The size of the franchisor’s management team will vary greatly from business to business, related not only to the number of operating franchisees but also to matters such as the complexities of the businesses that franchisees operate, and what the franchisor can afford. What doesn’t change much are the roles that have to be filled and the tasks that have to be carried out.

The franchisor’s job is to recruit, train, monitor and motivate people who want to run their own business. Those people may or may not have had previous experience of selling or providing the product or service which is the subject of the franchise; they may or may not have had previous experience of administering and accounting for such a business; they may or may not have had previous experience of managing staff; they may or may not have had previous experience of running their own business.

The roles that need to be filled are pretty much those that are covered by the chapters in Section 2 of this book. There is no need to list them here, but it is important to realise that all those support functions have to be available to the very first franchisees. If not, they will probably fail and the whole project will go nowhere.

In the early days it will be neither necessary nor possible to have one support person for every role or task – indeed, sometimes the principal of the original business may find themselves doing it all, or various people will be seconded from that business, on a full- or part-time basis, to help with the franchising activity.

An alternative to part-time secondment from within, which inevitably means that the job will not be done as well as it could, or as often as it should, is to outsource the various activities to organisations such as the Franchise Support Centre, until the role has grown to a sufficient size to be worth employing an experienced executive from another franchised network. When that time comes, there are once again specialist franchise executive recruiters at the Franchise Careers Centre who can search for and identify people who will be suitable to join the team in question.

THE TEAM ROLES

Head of franchising

They may be called a director, they may be called a manager, but there needs to be one person who is clearly in overall charge of the franchising project and who is clearly responsible for the implementation and achievement of the Franchised Network Development Plan. This ought to be a full-time, totally dedicated role.

This person needs to understand the original business, and they need to understand franchising. Typically they will come from inside the original business and will therefore need to learn about franchising. Much of this learning will come from working with the franchise consultant who helped with structuring the plan, and who is now involved in assisting with its implementation. On-the-job learning will be supplemented by a formal training programme such as that offered in the UK by the Franchise Training Centre. Indeed all franchise support staff will benefit from taking the modules specific to their roles, and those with longer-term ambitions may choose to enrol on the Diploma in Franchise Management programme. See Appendix E.

Franchise marketing and franchisee recruitment

Until such time as a full-time employee can be justified to fulfil this role it is not unusual to outsource the marketing of the franchise opportunity and the recruitment of franchisees to specialists such as the Franchise Support Centre. Franchisee recruitment is a skilled and demanding role which is not easily learned, but those skills transfer across almost any franchised business. An outsourced executive, even if they are working on behalf of six different clients, will probably do a better job than an inexperienced, part-time employee from within the original business.

Note, however, that such services should only be used to screen applicants down to a short list, which means they meet all the defined criteria in the franchisee profile. The final decision on whether they are accepted as a franchisee should always rest with the Head of Franchising.

Franchisee training

Most franchisors are very good at training their franchisees, both before they start their businesses and continually thereafter, in ‘how to run the store’. They are less good at teaching someone ‘how to run the business’, although the latter is equally important.

The technical ‘how to run the store’ training is mostly provided by staff from within the franchisor’s business as they usually have someone already doing this for the company-owned units. All these staff have to do is to learn the specifics of dealing with franchisees, compared to the way they probably deal with employed staff.

Unless the franchisor has many franchisees he is unlikely to have anyone on the staff who can teach a franchisee ‘how to run a business’, which includes things like preparing and reviewing business plans and understanding financial information. In addition to training support staff in how to deal with franchisees, the Franchise Training Centre runs generic courses on these subjects which can either be delivered in-house, if a franchisor has enough delegates at one time, or on mixed sessions where a number of franchisors send one or two delegates each.

Franchisee monitoring

Franchisees are subject to varying degrees of qualitative and quantitative monitoring – often just plugging into systems which are used in the original business, although sometimes being enrolled onto outsourced generic franchise management systems, particularly for bookkeeping and accounting.

The outcome of the monitoring needs to be fed back to the franchisees, both individually and as a group, and is best done by someone from within the original business who has had the appropriate franchisee-management training.

Franchisee motivation

Apart from the ubiquitous rah-rah sessions at the annual conference, franchisee motivation comes best from inside the business and can be delivered either by individuals who have been recruited from other franchisors and who have learned the original business; or by those from the original business who have been trained how to deal with franchisees.

Field support and business development

This is the crucial role in franchisee development and support, and the number of staff involved in its supply grows with the number of franchisees – typically one field support manager to between 15 and 20 franchisees, although the ratio varies greatly from system to system.

This role is best compared to that of a GP – the doctor to whom you go to get advice or check-ups across a range of potential ailments. He has the experience to deal with the majority of cases, but if something comes up which needs specialist advice he can refer back to a specialist elsewhere within the organisation.

The common factor for all directors, managers and staff dealing with potential or practising franchisees, whether those staff are outsourced or employed, whether they came from the original business and were trained in franchising, or whether they were head-hunted from franchising and learned about the original business, is a thorough understanding of what makes the franchisor–franchisee relationship work, and what makes franchisees tick.

RECRUITING AND TRAINING THE MANAGEMENT TEAM

Everyone in the franchisor’s business who deals with franchisees needs to understand both the business of the franchisor, i.e. what products and services the business delivers to its final consumers; and the business of franchising, i.e. how the organisation supports its franchisees. New members of the team from inside the business will need to learn the principles of franchising; new members joining the company from within the franchising community will need to learn how the franchisor’s business works.

Most businesses will have induction programmes in place for new employees, but new franchisors won’t know how to teach people about franchising. Similarly, recruiting people from within is relatively easy, but how does a new franchisor find suitable employees with franchising experience?

Fortunately, there are two organisations which can help. The Franchise Careers Centre provides a unique service for matching franchisors seeking to strengthen their management teams with experienced executives looking to further their careers in the franchising community, domestically or internationally; and the Franchise Training Centre provides practical development and coaching for franchisors’ management teams, including a series of interactive workshops which can lead to the award of the Diploma in Franchise Management.

A description of the Diploma in Franchise Management programme, and an outline of each of its courses, is shown in Appendices E and F on pages 262 and 264.