2023’s Top Franchise Brokers: Heather Rosen

• The Broker: Heather Rosen
• The Company: FranNet

1851 Franchise asked Rosen about her experience as a franchise broker, what makes her successful and some strategies franchisors can use to cast their net wide in the search for great franchisees this year.

1851: What makes you successful as a franchise broker?

Rosen: Experience. I have been in this business since 2009. I have counseled hundreds of would-be business owners and met with hundreds of franchisors. I stay on top of the developments in the industry through meetings with the top franchisors, and through the (positive and negative) information my colleagues and I share with each other. I actually dislike the term "broker" because my approach is much more like a recruiting process than a sales process. To me, the only "win" is when the franchisor gets a great franchisee partner who will stay with them for a long time. As a result, I believe in telling both candidates and franchisors the positives and the negatives so that there are no surprises on either end if the candidate ends up joining the franchise. I am also a franchisee with two franchises myself (FranNet and CruisePlanners). I have seen a lot of franchisees come and go in both businesses. Many times, I am speaking from personal experience. I believe in the franchise model, but I know that it isn’t — and certain types of franchises aren’t — right for everyone.

1851: What advice do you have for people wanting to become franchise owners?

Rosen: Talk to at least six franchisees, including the most successful franchisees and those who are struggling. Make sure that you can most closely relate to some of the most successful franchisees in terms of the experience, time/focus, motivation level, willingness to follow rules and capital they had when they started. Also, be prepared to put the most time into your business, doing mostly business development, in the first two to three years. When I talk to people who say they love their franchise but they hate business development and marketing, I assume they are not doing it. Therefore, they are probably unsuccessful. While you do not need to have employees, you always need to do business development and/or marketing. 

1851: What does winning look like for you?

Rosen: It's always great when a franchisor tells me that my client is winning awards, but just hearing that my client is still with a franchise after many years is a big win.

1851: What advice do you have for franchisors wanting your help on awarding more franchises?

Rosen: Be frank with me right from the start. If a franchisor has major concerns about my client and there is no amount of money or training that would change that, let me know right away so that I can quickly redirect my client. Or, if the concern is that the client is undercapitalized, let my client know how much more money they would need to raise before a franchise can be awarded and do not waiver from that. Put all of the “bad stuff” out there right away.

1851: How can franchisors better communicate with you?

Rosen: I prefer email communications over calls or voicemail messages, and face-to-face meetings are always the best! Sometimes, franchisors will call or email me, asking for a few minutes to tell me more about their business. I hate to admit this, but I never return those calls because my days are pretty tightly scheduled. If they want me to know more about their franchise, they can always meet with me at one of the two FranNet meetings I attend every year. Or, if they want me to really understand their business and who makes a good franchisee, they can always bring me out to a Discovery Day and let me meet their operations team and some of their franchisees!