For many restauranteurs who create successful single-location restaurants, the lure of franchising is strong. It provides an owner with a chance to expand the business rapidly. But deciding to franchise requires lots of time, effort and thought given to translate the success of one location into a scalable and replicable business system that franchisees can implement.
The key to becoming a successful franchise brand is not only understanding the franchise sales process but also your target audience.
Fransmart, the leading franchise development company for emerging brands, helps restaurateurs bring their concepts to the franchise arena. Fransmart is the team responsible for turning Five Guys and The Halal Guys into international franchise success stories.
Selling A Franchise in the U.S.
When you’re selling a franchise in the U.S., you need to remember your audience and what they want. If you’re selling a franchise to an existing business owner, you need to show them the potential of your franchise and how it will fit into their existing operations.
Decide If Your Business Can Be Franchised
The first challenge of franchising is to decide if your business is scalable. You must decide if your franchise offers a product or service that is desirable to potential franchisees and consumers.
Finding out more information about franchising from franchise development companies such as Fransmart can provide you with verified information on all aspects of franchising
Determine Your Franchise Fees and Initial Investment Costs
After your research, you need to start considering how much you’re going to charge for your franchise model. Your fees should be competitive compared to similar franchises. Low startup costs are a crucial determinant of how much interest you will get in your franchise business.
Factor in franchise fees, royalty, advertising costs, and other costs to determine the total initial investment cost franchisees will be making. Low startup costs will attract more franchisees. For example, Fransmart specializes in emerging brands with franchise fees less than $40,000 and $1 million in total investment costs.
Hire A Franchise Consultant
You might also need to hire a franchise consultant. Franchise consultants go beyond the legal basics and will give you practical tips on what it takes to operate a franchise on a day-to-day level. Ideally, consultants should have proven experience in the franchising industry and great results.
Fransmart has proven itself as a versatile franchise business development brand. It has a professional team with over 20 years in the industry, during which they have opened over 5000 franchise stores. The brands that are currently under our portfolio include:
- BROOKLYN DUMPLING SHOP
- RISE SOUTHERN BISCUITS & RIGHTEOUS CHICKEN
- IKE’S LOVE & SANDWICHES
- CURRY UP NOW
- JARS BY FABIO VIVIANI
- SLAPFISH
- PAYMORE
- THE HALAL GUYS
- TAFFER’S TAVERN
- SAVANNAH SEAFOOD SHACK
- DUFFS CAKE MIX
Fulfil Legal Requirements
You can legally sell a franchise in the United States if you’ve registered a franchise disclosure document with the Federal Trade Commission. Within the FDD, you’ll need to provide information such as:
- Audited financial statements
- Operating manual for franchisees
- Proposed management structure
You need to update the FDD annually with the FTC. You should also be aware of federal and state laws to ensure compliance. You need to draw up legal agreements with franchisees to define their rights and responsibilities.
Offer Great Unit Economics for Potential Franchisees
The more money your franchisees make, the more they’ll recommend your business to prospective buyers. If your existing franchisees aren’t making money, attracting new franchisees may prove difficult. Franchisees who aren’t making money may directly impact your brand image. Be quick to address any identified pain points relating to location or support and address them.
Read How Rise has helped Its franchise owner to make more profit.
Only Engage with Qualified Leads
It’s now common practice for prospective franchisees to perform their research online before setting foot in your store.
You must set parameters to qualify each prospect as a lead. This will help you avoid investing time in someone who doesn’t meet your franchising criteria. It is essential that whatever parameters you are setting up cover for both online and offline leads to avoid any segment being left out.
Educate Target Audience
You should invest in high-quality and purposeful content on your website to increase your lead generation results. Your website is the perfect platform for you to share all the benefits of franchising with your prospects. Make sure the content has calls to action to get prospects into an email sales campaign.
A general rule is, “Don’t sell to them-educate them.” Here are some content creation tips for you:
- Educate prospective buyers on your brand history and product value.
- Create a target audience before you create content because that way you will be able to tailor your content creation process to such groups.
- Use buyer personas to further help with your content creation process as they help you get further into the personal business needs of each audience group. You can have one or more buyer personas as the need is evaluated.
Conclusion
Franchising is a great way to expand a business but takes a lot of careful thought and planning. Aligning with a company like Fransmart, which are expert in taking new brands to the franchise market is one way to lower your risk and ensure that your business is set up for franchising success. Contact us today to learn how you can grow your company through franchising.