Young Ones to Watch: Scott Mellon

A Certified Franchise Executive with the International Franchise Association (IFA), Scott Mellon has a proven track record of developing teams, innovating systems, and implementing processes that achieve a franchisor’s growth objectives. Mellon has worked for both private equity and publicly held companies including The Dwyer Group, Dunkin’ Brands, and Papa Murphy’s, among others. Mellon’s areas of expertise are franchise systems development, candidate profiling, lead acquisition, improving conversion rates, leveraging technology for growth, finance structure for growth, and building and motivating teams for high level performance. He earned a double major from Baylor University in entrepreneurship and international business. Mellon has been a Certified Franchise Executive with the IFA since 2010 and has been a panelist and speaker at many industry events, including the IFA National Convention, Multi-Unit Franchise Conference, Restaurant Leadership Development Conference, Franchise Finance & Growth Conference, Franchise Expo South, and others. Mellon created and manages a 7,500+ member Franchise Sales Group on LinkedIn and has been at the forefront of developing new lead acquisition tools. He is interested in the people, technology, and innovations that are driving the future of franchise growth.

Why do you love franchising?

As a business model, franchising's capital light growth structure is a fascinating approach to building brands, allowing companies to leverage their expertise in business systems and training while working with franchisees capital and resources to expand the brand. When the model is working well, both the franchisee and franchisor are able to achieve results that they otherwise couldn't achieve independent of one another. It is really a model that is build on mutual trust and respect between the franchisee and franchisor. I'm committed to the franchise space because I don't believe their is a better model for growth for the local business owner and corporate team.

What is the top challenge facing young people in franchising?

I recently had some interesting conversations during the IFA Convention around this topic. Young people have the passion and energy that franchisors are looking for. They are also current on the latest uses of technology, which many brands are leveraging in their franchise systems. That said, it is typically the capital requirements that keep young people from becoming franchisees. The average age of a new franchisee is over 45. I'm working with some people on a system to bring that average age down through connect investors with younger entrepreneurs to solve for both the capital hurdle for young entrepreneurs and the operational involvement that investors are required to have in many systems.

Additionally, for young people on the franchisor side, I think it's about taking risk and plugging in where you can make yourself indispensable. One of the things I love about the development side of franchising is that you are on the front line of the company's success. If you are able to grow a concept, you feed the training, operations, marketing, legal, and financial functions in the organization. I had a mentor once tell me, "don't look to where you can earn the most initially, look to where you can be an instrumental influencer in an organization and apply your energies and talents in that direction." I think that's good advice for younger people looking to make their mark in franchising.

What is your dream position/goal?

My passion is in growing brands. The work around analyzing and improving the growth trajectory for a brand is most exciting for me. Of all the levers (marketing, operations, training, etc) brands use to see a meaningful return for stakeholders, unit growth is the single most significant. I'm always looking for tools that help brands accelerate growth. I am currently working on a lead-sharing tool, www.franchisefield.com that is just one of multiple ways brands can take what they do well and multiply it. If I'm on the front end of building, I'm doing what I love.