GoodSpark

Every franchise brand starts with one person doing everything. But as&nbsp;<a href="https://gopreservan.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=the-shift-from-founder-to-franchisor-building-a-team-culture-and-system-that-scale-2730517" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Preservan</a> founder&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tymcbrideokc/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=the-shift-from-founder-to-franchisor-building-a-team-culture-and-system-that-scale-2730517" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Ty McBride</a> explains, there’s a crucial shift that separates a passionate founder from a&nbsp;<a href="https://1851franchise.com/goodspark/how-to-franchise-your-business-2730395#featured">capable franchisor</a> — the ability to establish systems and create a culture that supports franchisees long after the founder steps back from day-to-day operations.“Building a team and framing that up, there’s so much there,” McBride told&nbsp;<a href="https://www.goodsparkfranchise.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=the-shift-from-founder-to-franchisor-building-a-team-culture-and-system-that-scale-2730517" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">GoodSpark Franchise Growth Accelerator</a> CEO&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-internicola/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=the-shift-from-founder-to-franchisor-building-a-team-culture-and-system-that-scale-2730517" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Charles Internicola</a> on a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq2rgy7aUiU&utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=the-shift-from-founder-to-franchisor-building-a-team-culture-and-system-that-scale-2730517" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">recent “Building a Franchise Brand” podcast</a>. “Things move very fast, and it's hard to keep up with what the right team structure is — how you're going to do that, how you're going to afford that and all of those pieces. But having the right people — both as employees or partners in the business, or just people I can talk to — that is what helps us support our franchisees and what is allowing us to grow.”<h2>Hiring Around Your Weaknesses</h2>The first step, McBride says, is to evaluate yourself honestly. “When you’re an early-stage brand, you have to understand what your superpower is—the thing that you bring to the business—and then start looking to hire where you’re weak,” he said.McBride loves being the face of the brand, speaking about the mission and building relationships. So his first hires filled in where he lacked energy: office operations, technical support and compliance. “I’m always trying to fill the gaps of my weaknesses with people who bring a lot of strength to that space,” he said.<h2>Staying Founder-Led for the Right Reasons</h2>While some founders rush to remove themselves from the sales process, McBride believes being founder-led is an advantage. “There’s so much bad advice out there about ‘don’t be founder-led’ — like taking your face off the website,” he said. “We realized we want to stay founder-led.”<a href="https://1851franchise.com/preservan/info">Preservan</a> partners with brokers who align with the brand’s values and rely on personal relationships to connect with franchise candidates. McBride is still involved in most franchise sales calls. This frees him up to cast a vision for Preservan, not just as a business, but as a movement.&nbsp;<h2>Building Systems That Support Franchisees</h2>McBride says the heart of a franchisor’s job isn’t just awarding new locations — it’s ensuring the success of existing ones. “Revenue has to come at the franchise level because all this trickles down to us,” he said. “So we have to be focused on driving revenue for our franchisees.”&nbsp;Preservan maintains constant communication with its owners through weekly cohorts, technical training sessions and monthly check-ins. Given the age of the franchise and how new most franchisees are, McBride says they try to stay close to everybody.&nbsp;This closeness not only drives performance but shapes the brand’s culture. “We have as a value part of our culture that we are going to be very close in relationship with our franchisees,” he said. “I want to know everything I can about their business.”<h2>Protecting Culture Through Communication</h2>Strong communication within the franchise system is a safeguard for culture. Preservan’s open chats and peer-to-peer relationships have helped build a supportive network where franchisees learn from one another.“They’re helping one another out,” McBride said. “It lightens the load on us at the franchisor level, because they ask each other a lot of questions, and they ask top performers. It really starts to establish a culture for the long term.”<h2>Learning the Industry and Building Franchise IQ</h2>McBride admits that building “franchise intelligence” is an ongoing process. Early on, he learned by reading franchising textbooks, attending conferences — even the wrong ones — and surrounding himself with people who had done it before.“I’m always happy to be the dumbest person in the room,” he said. “That’s how I built my understanding of the franchise industry.”Being around leaders in the franchise industry, or even others who are roughly at the same stage as you are, can offer a wealth of valuable perspectives.<h2>Leading With Purpose and Perspective</h2>Franchising is not like selling cars. You're asking people to leave their lives and follow you and your business.&nbsp;“You should take it very seriously and fully accept that some will not make it," McBride said.&nbsp; "It’s both the most rewarding and most scary thing I have ever done."Becoming a franchisor isn’t just about handing off work; it’s about changing how you lead. It means building a team you can trust, creating systems that help franchisees succeed and building a culture that lasts.&nbsp;Watch the full podcast above or on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq2rgy7aUiU&utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=the-shift-from-founder-to-franchisor-building-a-team-culture-and-system-that-scale-2730517" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">YouTube</a>.Learn more at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.goodsparkfranchise.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=the-shift-from-founder-to-franchisor-building-a-team-culture-and-system-that-scale-2730517" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">goodsparkfranchise.com</a>.

The Shift from Founder to Franchisor: How to Scale Smart

1851 Franchise

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qq2rgy7aUiU

Preservan founder Ty McBride explains how emerging franchisors can grow from doing it all to leading a system that thrives by hiring around weaknesses and staying close to franchisees. 

The Shift From Founder to Franchisor: Building a Team, Culture and System That Scale

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Some brands franchise and take off. Others launch, sell a few units and then hit a wall. It can happen three months in or sometimes three years in. Either way, the pattern is the same: deals slow down, franchisees struggle and growth stalls.If a brand is stalling instead of growing after launch, it’s usually due to missed fundamentals, or fundamentals that were never fully built in the first place.&nbsp;Here’s a practical, step-by-step playbook based on what actually drives franchise growth and what stalls it.<h2>1. Fix the Unit Economics First</h2>Most franchise problems trace back to one place: the numbers.“When you look in the mirror and say, ‘Why am I not scaling?’’ You don't scale because two things. The brands that fail are the brands who sell multi-packs to franchisees who never become multi-unit owners. The brands that win, their franchisees are winning 50% of the same-store unit store growth…all that I’m talking about is unit level economics,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/powills/">Nick Powills,&nbsp;</a>chief strategy officer at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.goodsparkfranchise.com/">GoodSpark Franchise Growth Accelerator</a>, said in a recent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/@GoodSparkFranchiseDevelopment/streams">podcast</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;At the end of the day, a franchise has to work financially for the operator. That means:<ul><li>The investment can realistically be paid back</li><li>The business generates meaningful profit</li><li>The path to break-even is clear and achievable</li></ul>A simple way to think about it is that if a unit can’t pay back the initial investment in a reasonable timeframe, the model isn’t really built to scale.Additionally, brands shouldn’t be guessing when it comes to key numbers. Every dollar in&nbsp;<a href="https://1851franchise.com/the-complete-guide-to-buying-a-franchise-in-2026-reading-item-7-the-initial-investment-line-by-line-2731744">Item 7&nbsp;</a>should connect back to customer acquisition cost and value, and how long it will take to stop losing money. This includes marketing.&nbsp;“In your FDD Item 7, it says the grand opening has $10,000. I go, ‘Where did you get that?’…That needs to be calculated back to a rush to break even. If you're break even, where the franchisee stops bleeding cash, to say it's $10,000 a month, well, then the way that you design the grand opening is to drive them to have enough customers to get to $10,000 a month,” Powills said.&nbsp;<h2>2. Choose Franchisees Who Will Actually Drive Growth</h2>Even with strong economics, the wrong operators will stall a system. That means existing owners should purchase additional units instead of relying only on new buyers. But that can only happen when a brand is bringing the right people in in the first place.&nbsp;“Those are the biggest frustrations for franchisors…I sold a franchise, but now the franchisee thinks I'm doing everything for them,” said&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-internicola/">Charles Internicola</a>, CEO of GoodSpark. “I'm gonna make the phone ring. So we have the unit economics, and that's engineered and understood, and it's genuine to alignment with the right franchisees. Understand that if you pick the wrong ones, they're not gonna validate, they're gonna hurt themselves, they're gonna cost you money, and you're not going to grow.”A franchisor relies on a franchisee to be the face in their community. This includes:&nbsp;<ul><li>Local networking</li><li>Community involvement</li><li>Building relationships that drive customers</li></ul>And most of that costs no money at all. If a franchisee isn’t willing to do that, or has a team member who will, they’re not set up to push growth.<h2>3. Build a System That Supports, Not Just Sells</h2>It’s common for brands to invest heavily in franchise sales and celebrate deals. But some may underinvest in what comes next: supporting the franchisee. When support doesn’t match the promise:<ul><li>Franchisees struggle to hit projections</li><li>Unit economics fall apart</li><li>Multi-unit deals never materialize</li></ul>“The franchisor says, ‘We support you like this.’ The reality is, you support them like that, which causes their unit level of economics not to perform, which causes them to fail. And so franchisors under-invest in the support, over-invest in franchise sales, and therefore can get the new blood in, but can't support them, which turns into multi-unit deals that are for single-unit operators,” said Powills.A better approach is to focus on the success of the franchisees you already have. When they open up unit two, that’s when to celebrate.&nbsp;<h2>4. Capitalize the Business the Right Way</h2>Even if the first three pieces are in place, growth still requires capital. Capital is needed not just to market franchises but to:&nbsp;<ul><li>Support franchisees</li><li>Build infrastructure</li><li>Improve performance across the system</li></ul>“When you're talking about spending, we're gonna spend $4,000 a month. You are in a crapshoot zone. You have not spent enough funds to get the engine moving in,” Powills said. “So when you look around the room and blame everything for why you're not growing, it is a capitalization issue. I'm not saying come out of the gates with millions of dollars, but if you want to add four units in the next year, you'd better be prepared to budget $100,000 to build enough momentum.”&nbsp;<h2>Growth Doesn’t Happen by Accident</h2>When brands stall, it’s rarely one issue. It’s usually a combination of economics that don’t work, franchisees who aren’t the right fit, and not enough support or capital.&nbsp;Luckily, those are all fixable issues. But to fix it requires a shift in mindset. Franchisees should focus less on selling franchises and more on building up franchisees.&nbsp;For more information on GoodSpark and its services for developing franchises, visit&nbsp;<a href="https://www.goodsparkfranchise.com/">https://www.goodsparkfranchise.com/</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Scaling a franchise starts with unit economics, the right franchise owners, actually investing in support and being capitalized enough to grow. 

The Shift From Founder to Franchisor: Building a Team, Culture and System That Scale

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