3 Pieces of Advice for Becoming a Multi-Unit Franchisee

When you begin to franchise your company, it’s likely you’re already thinking about opening multiple units. But the jump from one unit to multiple can throw a wrench in processes and planning. From automated systems, to hiring, to having the right infrastructure, 1851 Franchise spoke with the VP of Franchise Recruitment & Development at Best in Class Education and Smoothie Kings’ Franchise Development Manager to learn what systems have made their franchises so successful.

1. Grow at Your Own Pace

There is nothing more dangerous than growing too rapidly. Overextending your brand can impact the product and you won’t have the right infrastructure to support your franchisees. It’s important to first look at your business model and understand how growing will impact you and your franchisees. You need to anticipate any issues that may arise and have systems in place to alleviate any of these growing pains.

That is why Best in Class Education requires franchisees to open one location at a time to make sure they’re a good fit. Sharon Peterson, VP of Franchise Recruitment & Development at Best in Class Education shared, “We have franchisees open one and grow from there. We want to make sure that Best in Class Education is the perfect fit for our franchisee and a good partner for us. As a franchisor we want the focus on the profitability of their center first.”

However, for Smoothie King, opening one to three franchises at one time is very reasonable. Steve Shields, Franchise Development Manager at Smoothie King, shared, “We encourage our franchisees to open one to three stores right from the start. Once you understand the brand and have a team in place there’s no reason to not do multiple stores with our brand.”

2. Hire the Right People

Once your franchisee is in a place to begin opening multiple units, they need to begin hiring store managers to alleviate some of the day-to-day responsibilities. Their focus needs to switch to focusing on managing the business itself. Smoothie King uses their corporate stores as examples of what works and helps their franchisees through the hiring process. Shields shared, “We own and operate a number of Smoothie Kings, and we have a model that works. When the time comes, we leverage our expertise to help our franchisees hire the right people. If the franchisees focus on having good store managers, that will free them up to bring in that person that can handle multiple stores as the general manager. The foundation is the critical part -- having a system in place that ensures our store managers are trained properly because they are the front line.”

Peterson couldn’t agree more, “It’s important to have the right management team once you’re at that point of scaling. You can’t replicate yourself, but you do want to make sure you're picking people that are going to do a fantastic job. We especially like to promote within because they already understand our system.”

But even if you hire the right people, the process is not without its challenges, according to Peterson. “The challenging aspect is having some owners that have a difficult time letting go. You have to let go once you have that third location.” That emotional connection is what draws franchisees to a franchise in the first place, so it’s no surprise that giving up some everyday control can be difficult, but it’s integral to the growing process.

3. Provide Ongoing Support to Your Franchisees

There are many ways for franchises to support their franchisees. It’s, again, important to focus on your specific business model, your brand and review what problems may arise for your franchisees. At Best in Class Education, they understand that their franchisees may have never owned a business before, so the support they provide is tailored to that demographic. “There are a lot of ways we support our franchisor owners. One is reviewing their profit and loss monthly. Some of our new franchisees have never seen a profit and loss sheet before. We want to make sure they’re growing the right way and are successful in one location before they open another. It really helps our new franchisee fully understand the business itself.”

The support does not stop there, “We also have a strong support group in place and have launched Accountability Groups where are franchisees can talk through a variety of topics, but specifically focus on attainable goals that the corporate team can support them in achieving.”

Smoothie King has a similar model where they have cooperatives in larger metropolitan areas where their franchisees can meet and discuss marketing campaigns, but also leverage one another’s’ expertise. “Great ideas come from these multi-unit operators at these cooperatives. For example, at a store level we utilize a checklist. One multi-unit owner began using a tablet-based checklist system, and we took that success to other multi-unit operators so they could leverage the efficiency at their own stores.”

Smoothie King also is committed to utilizing their intranet for training in order to free up the franchisee and general managers’ time which has been very successful. “Our intranet tool helps multi-unit franchisees roll out new protocol and not have to personally be there to roll out new systems. The system allows for everybody in store to go through the course and pass a small test at the end for certification. Franchisees can go into the system and pull up all team members of a particular store and can track who have and have not completed the course and passed the course.”

Although every franchise model is different, growing at your own pace, hiring the right people and ongoing support is universally important. Franchisors can take Shield’s and Peterson’s expert advice and turn it into a program that works best for their franchisees so they can see continued growth.