Franchises: Why You Can’t Have It Your Way

In spite of my last few posts, I still get labeled as not liking franchise businesses. Well, that’s not true. I just dislike businesses (as far as selling them goes) which are not good businesses – franchise or not. In fact, I currently have a franchise business listed for sale. I was very comfortable listing it because the franchisee is making a very good net profit for a fairly relaxed 40 hours a week, Monday to Friday. The franchisor seems very supportive and they have “stringent” operating procedures and a training regime.

One of the challenges I have in selling this business, as with any franchise business, is finding the right kind of person to buy it. Franchises are not for everyone. They are certainly not for anyone who is creative or entrepreneurial. You have to operate a franchise within very strict operating procedures. That’s what a franchise is. A tried and tested set of procedures based around a good product or service which can be replicated over and over again.

A couple of quotes about franchise businesses which I believe sum it up. “With intelligent systems you don’t need intelligent employees.” I have heard that associated with Ray Kroc of McDonalds fame. Not sure about that. The other quote, no idea of the original source, is that the ideal franchisee is a retired airline pilot. Why? Because airline pilots are trained and conditioned to follow procedures – not matter what!

At the end of the day, provided that the product and systems are tried, tested and proven to deliver something useful to the market – then the success lies with choosing the right person to be a franchisee.

For more on this, I recommend you read the latest article from Dr John Hayes (How To Buy A Franchise blog) which is titled

Why You Can’t Have It ‘Your Way’ When You Buy A Franchise. Get This: It’s Not A Democracy!

Just click the title above to read Dr John’s words of wisdom.

P.S. If you are in Perth Western Australia consider registering for my latest half day workshop on “The 7 Key Steps To Developing Your Business Ready For Sale” – just go to the navigation bar at the top of this page and click on “Workshops”.