How to Attract the Right Franchisees to Your Business
Struggling to find good franchisees for your network?
A practical framework for attracting and choosing franchisees who will build successful businesses in your system.
Julie Clabby, co-founder of Familia, grew her own business into a national franchise network before helping other founders do the same. Here she shares the recruitment approach behind it.
Watch time: 4m 11s
Attracting the right franchisees in brief
Know who you are looking for. Start by building a profile of your ideal candidate: where they live, their age, the experience they have and any qualifications they need. That picture shapes everything that follows.
Tell a story that resonates. Build your messaging around that person and put it where they spend their time, whether that is particular publications, social media, trade shows or the corporate world they may be coming from.
Run a proper recruitment process. Discovery days let candidates meet your team and ask their questions. A prospectus explains how the business works. Regular emails keep leads warm with news of awards and new franchisees joining, and webinars let you reach candidates across the UK at once. The final stage is business planning, where you and the candidate get under the skin of the business together.
Choose the right people. The best candidate isn’t always the most enthusiastic. Look for people who take business planning seriously, turn up on time and respect the process, and trust your instincts. Franchising is a two-way process: you are awarding a territory to the best fit, not simply selling a business.
Be honest about what’s ahead. It is easy to make everything look easy. Building any business takes work and dedication, and franchisees who weren’t told that will come unstuck later. Honesty is the best policy.
