Growing a Franchise
Sean Fitzgerald says strong franchise development starts with understanding how buyers make decisions and giving them the information they need at the right time.
Franchise Sales Leader: Sean Fitzgerald
Brand: TruBlue Home Service Ally
Sean Fitzgerald’s belief in franchising started with firsthand experience. While still in college, Fitzgerald launched a business that eventually grew beyond a single location.
“No one runs a business like an owner does,” Fitzgerald said. “We knew how to run the businesses. We just needed people with passion to run it.”
That realization led Fitzgerald to franchising, and more than 25 years later, the model continues to shape how he thinks about entrepreneurship, franchise development and the relationship between franchisor and franchisee.
Today, as president of TruBlue, Fitzgerald brings both sides of that experience to the development process. He understands the responsibility of building a system that franchisees can execute, but he also understands the uncertainty facing someone preparing to make the leap into business ownership.
For Fitzgerald, good franchise development is ultimately about helping candidates understand what they are buying, why the opportunity fits their goals and what will be required of them once they become owners.
What first attracted Fitzgerald to franchising was the way the model combines an established business system with the energy and local expertise of an entrepreneur.
“The beauty of franchising is that you’ve got best practices and a system, and then you marry that with a franchisee who is the actual owner and the passion they have,” Fitzgerald said.
From the candidate’s perspective, Fitzgerald believes that structure can remove many of the distractions involved in launching an independent business. A first-time entrepreneur may otherwise spend significant time choosing vendors, technology, branding, marketing strategies and operational processes before ever serving a customer. A franchise system has already answered many of those questions.
“The franchisor has all those things already answered and proven, and all you have to do is focus on execution,” Fitzgerald said. “I think it just sets people up for success to be business owners and really build an asset.”
But experience has also taught Fitzgerald that franchising works best when both sides understand their responsibilities. “We’re not going to run their business for them,” Fitzgerald said. “They still have responsibility for the execution of the business.”
That appreciation for the candidate perspective has also informed Fitzgerald’s approach to franchise development marketing. Rather than thinking of prospective owners simply as leads entering a funnel, Fitzgerald breaks the candidate journey into distinct stages.
At first, someone may be in a discovery phase, casually researching brands and learning about different opportunities without identifying themselves. Eventually, something changes. Fitzgerald calls this the “trigger moment.”
That trigger might be a job change, new access to capital or simply reaching the point where someone is ready to take business ownership seriously. From there, the candidate moves into a more intensive engagement period, where questions become much more specific.
“They’re looking at investment. ‘How much can I make? What are the success rates?’ And they’re looking for franchise validation,” Fitzgerald said.
Only after that research does the buyer typically enter the final selection process, narrowing the field to a small number of brands and beginning formal due diligence.
Understanding those stages, Fitzgerald said, is critical because franchise development teams often focus the majority of their advertising dollars on candidates who are already late in the process.
“The goal here is to educate the people and try to move and create those special trigger moments so they step forward,” he said.
That means developing content for the much larger population of prospective owners who are still researching and educating themselves rather than competing only for candidates who have already narrowed their options.
At TruBlue, Fitzgerald believes that education is particularly important because the brand occupies an unusual position within home services and the senior market. The concept provides handyman services, home maintenance and senior home modifications, with a particular focus on helping people remain safely in their homes as they age.
“We’re [in the] senior industry, but we’re not senior care,” Fitzgerald said. “So many of our owners, when I talk to them, say, ‘We were looking at a senior care business, and then when we found this, we were like, this is it.’”
But Fitzgerald is also clear that TruBlue is not the right fit for someone looking for a passive, spreadsheet-driven investment. The strongest owners, he said, are willing to become visible in their communities, develop relationships and build teams capable of delivering a trusted home service.
“If you feel like you can build a good team, you can tell our story, and you can connect with the community. It’s not hard,” Fitzgerald said. “You’ve got to be a good storyteller and you’ve got to be able to connect. You’ve got to become the face of the brand and you’ve got to be connected with your community.”
After decades in franchising, Fitzgerald still sees development through the same lens that first attracted him to the model: a strong system paired with a motivated local owner. The tactics used to reach those owners may continue changing, but he believes the fundamentals of the candidate journey remain remarkably consistent.
“The overall strategy process stays the same,” Fitzgerald said. “The candidate discovery and how they discover and get information doesn’t change. The only thing that changes may be the tactics and technology.”
Want to learn more about how 1851 helps franchisees find the right franchise opportunity? Visit www.1851growthclub.com and start your journey.
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