Growing a Franchise
One franchisor is using coaching roles, incentive credits and leadership training to give successful franchisees another way to contribute without stepping away from ownership.
The franchisees who make the strongest leadership candidates often have the least time to take on another role. They are already busy running successful businesses, and coaching other franchisees can take time away from their own growth.
JP Hamel, CEO of The N2 Company, a media and franchise platform that operates franchised local publications across the country, has spent years developing leadership roles within the system. "The key is identifying the right people," he said. "Often, those are the highest-performing franchisees, but they're also the people you least want to pull away from the field."
Hamel said the franchisees who make the best leadership candidates are usually the ones already running the most successful locations. The challenge is that coaching takes time away from the franchisee's own business.
"The key is identifying the right people," Hamel said. “Often, those are the highest-performing franchisees, but they're also the people you least want to pull away from the field.”
Compensation can make the decision harder. A high-performing franchisee may be able to generate more income by putting that time back into the business.
Hamel said [The N2 Company](LinkedIn placeholder) looks past raw sales numbers when scouting leadership candidates. Some high performers operate as what he called mavericks, building results through their own methods rather than the company’s playbook. Those franchisees can produce strong numbers, Hamel said. But someone who has built a business outside the system's methods may have a harder time teaching those methods to someone else.
Hamel said the strongest leaders are franchisees who work within the system's methodology while still looking for ways to improve it. Once the company identifies someone, it uses what Hamel calls a "crawl, walk, run" approach. New coaches start with a small group of franchisees, attend a multi-day in-person leadership training and return each year for a leadership summit lasting two to three days. Coaches also join weekly leadership development sessions covering management, coaching technique and business planning, and each is paired one-on-one with an experienced leader for ongoing mentorship.
Franchisees also need a reason to take on coaching responsibilities without feeling like they are stepping away from their own businesses. Hamel said his company built its Founders' Club incentive trip so franchisees can earn qualification credits through both business performance and the number of franchisees they coach.
Hamel also pointed to a mistake his own company made early on: positioning internal leadership roles as the top of the career ladder inside the franchise system. He said that framing pulled some franchisees away from growing their own business in pursuit of a leadership title, which was never the intent.
"The franchisee should always be at the center of the franchise model," Hamel said, "and leadership opportunities should exist to elevate and support franchisees, not to compete with the value of franchise ownership itself."
For more information on franchise coaching and leadership development, check out these related articles on 1851 Franchise:
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