What Service Brands Look for in Prospective Franchisees

For any service-oriented business, people are the most essential component of the operation. A pizza parlor may be able to skate by with long waits and surly servers if their pizza is good enough, but service brands don’t have that luxury. In the service industry, people are the product. That means that for service-oriented franchise brands, careful owner selection is crucial.

1851 reached out to development professionals from six service franchise brands to learn more about what makes a strong franchisee in the service industry. Here are the top 10 things they look for in prospective franchisees.

1) People people

In my opinion, you need someone who loves community outreach and interfacing with customers, and who genuinely enjoys working with people. Great service brands drive solid leads to the franchisee, but when push comes to shove, you need to have the desire to be the face of that business and build trust and loyalty with your customer.

–Eric Martin, Vice President of Franchise Development, Lawn Doctor*

2) Communication & honesty

One of my salespeople has a saying that he lives by: “The way it begins is the way it ends.” I don’t know if that quote is an original or not, but it’s true. We find that people who are good prospective franchisees tend to be good at being actual franchisees. If communication is honest, open, and easy during the research process, things tend to go well long term, too.

–Eric Little, Chief Development Officer, Right at Home*

3) Passion for the brand

Aside from a successful brand and a successful team, what makes a franchisee thrive is being someone that really understands the brand and has a passion for it. They want to see the brand grow and are consistently coming up with new ideas on how to do so, working with the franchisor to make the system better by being involved. They realize that it’s not only about growing their own business but also working with other franchisees to help them be successful.

–David Wheeler, Chief Development Officer, Solcioty Fitness

4) Time management skills

Having good time management skills is essential. As a service business owner, you tend to wear a lot of hats in the early stages, and a solid franchisor will provide a great deal of guidance as to where time needs to be spent.

–Eric Martin

5) Clear sense of purpose

They have to have a clearly defined purpose for owning the business. Being bored is not a good reason. You have to tap into a compelling reason for wanting to own a business and use that as motivation to build the business every day. A good franchise development person will help a prospect uncover that reason if they have one.

–Eric Little

6) Grit

There’s a TED talk out there about sticktoitiveness and how kids who have grit are the ones who succeed in school and life. Well, I think the same applies to franchisees. It’s not always about who has the most money or who has the highest I.Q., but if you have the basic skills the franchisor requires, you are willing and able to follow a system, and you’ve got grit—that power of passion and perseverance—I think there is nothing stopping you from being an incredible franchisee.

–Beth Caron, Director of Franchise Development, Great Clips*

7) Big-picture focus

Great franchisees are reasonable people with a big picture focus. In other words, they don’t sweat the small stuff and keep their eye on the prize.

–Eric Little

8) Industry knowledge

It’s important to be business savvy and to have a finger on the pulse of the market.

–David Wheeler

9) Brand compatibility

A great franchisee needs passion for the brand and an understanding of the lifestyle that they’ll have with the brand. The opportunity really has to be something that matches up. That’s something that we’ve got to do well and have the ability to stop and recognize when someone isn’t a good fit for our brand.

In the case of Sport Clips*, we are looking for people that are passionate about working with younger folks and mentoring people. We say you have to facilitate fun in a salon or store, and you have to know how to get along, create a dynamic culture, and have a heck of a lot of fun doing it. With any business, when people are having fun and have good energy, people will come back. We are careful about choosing people that are going to be happy and enjoy that environment. So many people have gone to a job and collected a paycheck, and that’s fine for some people, but franchising, and Sport Clips specifically, offers an opportunity to get into something that you love.

–Pete Lindsey, Vice President of Franchising, Sport Clips

10) Resourcefulness

They have to be resourceful. Franchisors, like humans, are inherently flawed and far from perfect. Franchisees still need a relatively high level of resourcefulness to be able to make daily decisions and run their business. The franchisor isn’t going to run your business for you, and they are not likely to direct your day to day activities either.

–Eric Little