Guide To Franchising Your Business: Q&A With Max Emma, BooXkeeping

Franchising a business is a complex process that requires careful planning and decision making. To help demystify the process, 1851 Franchise spoke with Max Emma, CEO of BooXkeeping, about his journey to franchising and advice for others looking to follow a similar path.

A transcript of Emma’s interview with 1851 has been provided below. It has been edited for clarity, brevity and style.

1851 Franchise: Why did you decide to franchise your business?

Max Emma: Because bookkeeping was, and still is, a very fragmented industry. My co-founder, Elena Emma, and I felt that there is a need to consolidate that and to be able to use existing knowledge and experience that we had, and also provide extensive training. Last I heard, there are 120,000 bookkeeping companies, mostly solopreneurs, in the United States — and it’s all over the place in terms of service, quality, prices, deliverables and everything else. So we just saw the opportunity and the need to provide one good product.

1851: What advice would you give to someone thinking about franchising their business?

Emma: Definitely have a proof of concept. Run a corporate store or several locations. Make all the mistakes that you can possibly make before you offer advice to your franchisees, because somebody will make these mistakes anyway and we would recommend for that person to be you so you can tell your future franchisees what not to do. When we train franchisees, we tell them, “Hey, you’re not only getting from us what to do, but more importantly, getting what not to do,” because it’s been done and tried before.

1851: How many franchise consultants did you look at?

Emma: We looked at probably four or five. And for us, it’s really important when we pick somebody to work with — whether it’s a franchise consultant, an accountant or an attorney — that we have personal rapport with them. And that’s exactly what we got with the franchise consultant we used. We were also looking for somebody who is willing to have a discussion and not necessarily “do it our way.”

1851: What made you pick the consultant that you picked?

Emma: There’s no way we could have done it ourselves. We initially planned to do [the operations manual] ourselves and got about 20-30 pages done, but when they finished, it was over 900 pages. I had no idea we had that much knowledge. You definitely need someone to pull the information out of your head. But looking back, some parts of the process we could have handled internally. It’s important to evaluate what you want to get out of that partnership. For example, if we were to do it all over again, we wouldn’t have the company create a market plan. Things change so fast that much of what was recommended is no longer applicable. I’d say about 70% of the market plan is unusable now because of how quickly things evolve. Instead, we would have invested that money into testing different avenues to see what works and what doesn’t.

1851: What was one thing you wish you’d known about the franchise process when you were getting started?

Emma: We started the business 13 years ago, and franchising wasn’t the growth avenue we initially had in mind. If it were, we would have structured the corporate unit and operations differently, which would have made everyone’s life much easier. So, if you decide you want to franchise in the future, start planning sooner rather than later. There are steps you can take early on that will make the process much smoother for you and your franchisees.

Growing and selling franchises is difficult. No great franchise did it alone. Want to learn more about how 1851 helps franchisors grow their franchises with confidence? Visit www.1851growthclub.com and see what we can do for you.