Top Franchise Lawyers Offer Tips on Franchise Growth

Every franchisor wants the secret: “How can I grow my franchise brand?” Unfortunately, the secret is, well, secret — if it exists at all. 

In the end, successful franchise growth most often comes down to fundamentals: What’s your vision? Is it clear? How is your product different? How much does it cost to open your franchise and how much can I make? Where are you growing? Who are your franchisee validators (when asked if they would buy again, they scream yes)?

Still, there are some effective strategies that not every franchisor may be aware of. To that end, we asked five of the industries top legal players for the best piece of advice they give to franchisors looking to grow. 

Here are their answers.

Expect the unexpected

Michael Daigle of Cheng Cohen

Expect the unexpected. Things rarely go as planned. Franchisors looking to grow their brands absolutely have to have a plan, but their ability to adapt the plan and to be smartly opportunistic are critical to growth.

Say no to questionable prospects

Tom Spadea of Spadea Lignana

Say no to questionable prospects. The number one thing that will determine the success of a system is the quality of the franchisees. Strong unit economics are of course a must, but without the right folks running the franchised units those unit economics will be lost on poor performers.  

Be relentless

Fredric Cohen of Cheng Cohen

It has to bring value every day to the franchisee who pays you to use it and to the consumer who is attracted to it. The ‘every day’ part means it must continue to evolve, grow, change, adapt — for five years, ten years, decades. That requires relentless effort and unending investment and reinvestment of resources. Look at a few recently (and remarkably) resurgent brands — KFC, Domino’s, Arby’s. That didn’t just happen. Someone(s) willed it and committed the resources to enable it.  

Ask other franchisors how they did it

Chuck Modell of Larkin Hoffman

Seek advice from as many people as possible who have grown franchised businesses, or helped those businesses grow, and then learn to walk before you run. Too many would-be franchisors want to start franchising, and sell franchises, before they even understand what it means to be a franchisor, let alone have in place training programs, operating procedures, and supply chains necessary to assure the success of franchisees who follow the system.  

Franchisees sell franchises

Andrew Beilfuss of Quarles & Brady

This is a difficult question or answer without more facts related to the unique challenges they are facing at their current stage of development. That said, I think virtually every brand would be well-advised to focus on the franchisor/franchisee relationship. So many issues that we see could be avoided with improved communication and an early discussion and understanding of the roles that each party plays in the franchise relationship. Once that understanding is established, brands generally get much better buy into business advancement objectives, have fewer issues, and advance their development initiatives, as happy franchisees are powerful validators. We believe this issue is so important that we provide free training to our franchisor clients at the onset of every new relationship to go over their current practices and suggest process improvements, where needed.