Creating a Franchise Development Budget for Post-COVID-19 Growth

Even though the  COVID-19 crisis is ongoing, it’s not too early for franchise brands to begin creating a development budget for continued growth after the pandemic is over. 

In May, 1851 publisher Nick Powills and franchise legal expert Charles Internicola of the Internicola Law* Firm gathered a range of industry leaders for a summit called #TheGreatReturn to discuss how franchising has navigated COVID-19 and how franchisors should strategize their return.

Powills and Internicola noted there are several steps to build a budget for post-coronavirus growth. For one, franchise brands should do a thorough evaluation of their development websites and ensure those websites are primed to accomplish two major goals: convert leads and guide due diligence. 

Here are just a few questions that should be answered: 

• Can the buyer easily find the cost to open a unit of your franchise? 
• What kind of content do you have posted on social media? 
• Do you disclose your earnings claim anywhere? 
• Do you clearly outline where you want to grow? 
• Have you built content that tells your ghost leads (prospects who are looking at your brand but have yet to inquire) stories about why your brand wants to expand in a specific city and/or state? 
• Who are the top franchisee validators? Are their stories on your website? 
• Have you set up drip campaigns? 
• Have you moved your discovery day to a virtual setting? 

Integrity Franchise Group President Lisa Welko and Franchise Fastlane CEO Ryan Zink were two of the franchise experts who shared their insights with Powills and Internicola on how brands should plan for post-COVID-19 growth. 

Welko recommends that franchise brands consider working with franchise brokers to help maximize their budgets. 

“I think that’s my biggest takeaway and my biggest encouragement — if you haven’t been working a lot with brokers — is to consider working with brokers because we can help you stretch that development dollar, because you’re really paying on the back end instead of the front end,” Welko said. 

Zink recommends that brands start budgeting for growth as early as possible as opposed to waiting for the third or fourth quarter. 

“We’re all hearing that franchise development specifically should increase come third or fourth quarter,” he said. “We don’t want to wait until the water’s running to put our cup under. We have to go and start to get prepared for what’s going to happen because if we wait until then to put the marketing budget in place or have the people on the team ready it’s going to be too late and others are going to be ahead.”

Franchise brands will also have a more difficult time getting the attention of franchise consultants moving forward owing to conferences going virtual, Zink said. There is no time over dinner or in hallways to make those handshakes. 

“We really have to make an impact in a very short amount of time and if you’re a brand that doesn’t already have those relationships, how do you get attention in a sea of brands that are trying to get attention?” Zink said. 

In order to combat this, brands can attract the attention of prospective franchisees by getting creative with virtual discovery days in a way that will entice franchise consultants to attend and more, Zink said. He noted that travel budgets, for example, may be cut, but some of those resources can be redirected towards attracting the attention of franchise consultants. 

Welko noted that franchise brokers are currently being bombarded with various virtual requests from different franchise brands that want to tout their benefits. For this reason, franchise brands should have an internal person dedicated to making sure the brand stays top-of-mind with franchise brokers in a valuable way. 

“Dedicating someone to the broker networks and dropping your name in is going to be huge,” Welko said. “I think the brands that maybe weren’t doing that, hopefully this is an opportunity to learn that we are also your customers. Stay in front of us. Let us know what’s happening. Share your successes. Tell us your story so we can share it.”