Franchise Development Leaders: Bobby Brennan of Franchise FastLane

Bobby Brennan is the Vice President of Franchise Development at Franchise FastLane, a company that acts as an agent of growth for a lot of emerging franchise brands. Since joining the company in early 2018, Brennan’s work with Franchise FastLane centers on helping three of the 14 brands the young company represents find and qualify leads organically in consultant networks. 

1851: How did you first get into franchising? 

Brennan: In 2009, I began working for a franchise called Complete Nutrition as a sales manager. I helped launch 20 locations in the western U.S. and out of the brand’s 200-plus locations, I managed 30. It was crazy to see how fast the brand was growing at such a young age, which got me interested in the franchising as a whole. When I ended up leaving corporate America, one of my colleagues that I worked with at Complete Nutrition, Ryan Zink, called me and asked if I wanted to join this company, Franchise FastLane, and everything just fell into place. 

1851: What do you love about the industry? 

Brennan: It’s something fast-paced. The industry gives a streamlined blueprint to franchisors. I love seeing people be successful, make a good living for themselves and make an impact on their community through the opportunities presented in the franchise industry. Being a franchisee gives people the chance to be their own bosses. 

Franchising isn’t for everyone, but a lot of people have that entrepreneurial spirit—I love seeing people take that leap of faith and invest in themselves. It’s scary, but there’s a reason so many people do it and take those risks.

1851: What do you wish that you could change about the industry?  

Brennan: There can always be better education, both from candidates and franchisors. I think some franchise development organizations are known for selling it all at any cost. Also, when you’re working with these candidates, it’s important to be mindful and help them determine if this is the right fit for them—you can’t just look at the commission check. The last thing we want to do is have a franchisee that signs up and all of a sudden, they’re not the right fit. For the industry as a whole, we need to make sure we’re doing our due diligence and being more selective in terms of who’s being approved.

1851: What is the biggest challenge franchisors are currently facing in franchise development and what are you doing to overcome it? 

Brennan: A lot of companies struggle with the franchise development process. When a company starts franchising with less than 100 units open, managing the development process and having an organized structure is difficult. You need to have someone dedicated to returning people’s calls. With a lot of brands, it’s usually someone wearing the franchise development hat and also wearing the president hat and they get stretched too thin, resulting in more than half of franchise inquiries left unanswered. There’s a lot of candidates out there looking to learn more about the business, but a lot of people don’t have a streamlined process or the bandwidth to be able to do that because of the cost.

I think the biggest challenge is the development process as a whole and executing that streamlined process––that’s where Franchise FastLane steps in and serves that need. We want our franchisors to support and focus on their franchisees.

1851: What do you think the biggest trend in franchise development in 2020?

Brennan: I think we’re going to start seeing more niche and boutique brands. A lot of the brands that I focus on in the fitness space are more of a niche market compared to the larger, big-name gyms. We’re also seeing it in the education sector, too—these very hyper-focused and niche concepts are going to continue to do really well because they have that differentiator that serves a specific need for a group of people.  

1851: What's the No. 1 thing that sells franchises?

Brennan: I think having a very organized and concise discovery process because it’s going to weed out people who aren’t a good fit and help people who are a good fit realize what the brand is all about. Having a successful discovery process is paramount to a brand. People will be able to figure out if this is a good opportunity for them.