How to Create Your Franchise Search Criteria – Part 2

Transcription: 

Leslie Kuban:
Today, we’re going to talk more about having a strategy for your franchise business search before you actually start searching. In part one of the series we covered the first three filters you want to define in your search strategy. The first is turf. What is the geographic area of preference where you want to start and grow your business? The second is time. What is the level of engagement you foresee having in your franchise? Is it more of a side gig in parallel to your current career or other businesses? Or do you want to be an all in entrepreneur with your franchise? Thirdly is talent. Who’s going to be the captain of this project? Is it going to be you, your spouse, an adult child? These filters start to matter when you are considering what will be best for you in the franchise of your choice. I encourage you to watch part one of this series to come up to speed.

Leslie Kuban:
Today I’m unpacking three more filters you want to think about carefully. The first is customer type. As the owner of a business, you’re going to have some interface with your customers and it’s very different from one kind of industry to the next. If you own a food franchise, you’ll be interacting with the general public, or you may have a niche type of customer base, such as pet owners if you’re in the grooming or boarding industry. There’s a large world of home services franchises out there. So homeowners may be your audience if you’re in the pest control business or the window washing industry. Families might be your customer base. You could be in a business where you’re servicing kids with their educational or enrichment activity needs, or it might be aging parents helping them live more comfortably in place in their own homes.

Leslie Kuban:
There’s also a large world of business services franchises out there. So business owners of different types could be your customers. You’ll find franchises in marketing services, IT services, commercial property maintenance, just to name a few. Oftentimes there’s a combination of customers that you’re going to serve, both consumers and businesses, such as the paint contracting business. Now, yes, you’re going to have staff. You’ll likely have managers as you grow your business, even when you start your business. But at some point in all businesses, there’s going to be some times where all hands are on deck. So you’ll be interacting with your customers as well. So you want to make sure you’re choosing a franchise where you’re comfortable with that customer base and feel like you can be successful.

Leslie Kuban:
The next filter we’re going to look at is closely related to your customer type. It’s very interconnected to your customer acquisition strategy. How does your business get customers? Some franchises that’s a heavily inbound marketing spending type of strategy. The fitness industry is a great example of that. That before you open your doors, you’re going to do a major pre-opening marketing push in pre-sales so that you have customers walking through the doors day one of your business opening. Then every month you’re going to have an ongoing digital marketing spend to stay top of mind for your existing and potential new customers.

Leslie Kuban:
Other types of franchises the strategy is heavily outbound. Business to business is oftentimes using an outbound strategy to acquire customers. They’re not just walking through your doors, you’ve got to go out and court those business customer relationships. So there’s usually joining networking groups or getting involved in industry associations. So there’s some sales activity with some franchises, especially in business to business.

Leslie Kuban:
So I hope you’re starting to see that the skill sets and the budget required for different franchises and their customer acquisition strategies is something you want to think about. I like to say to my clients that you’re either going to use your shoe leather or your wallet to grow your customer base and oftentimes it’s a combination of both. The less you want to use your wallet, the more you have to be comfortable using your shoe leather to grow your customer base.

Leslie Kuban:
Now, the third point we’re going to talk about today is your staff. The size of your staff can vary greatly from one franchised industry to the next. If it’s a home healthcare franchise, for example, you’ll easily have over a hundred part-time employees working in your business. Versus if it’s a sign production franchise, you may have a sizable business but only a staff of about five to 10 people. Some franchises it’s only a couple of people. In a laundromat franchise you may only need one or two part-time attendants helping your customers.

Leslie Kuban:
The skillset is also going to vary greatly from one franchise to the next. There are certain franchises where you’re going to be employing people new in their career, high school students or college students like me. My first job was when I was 15 years old in high school working at Burger King. Other franchises you’re going to need employees who have a certain level of prior experience, or training, or certifications under their belt. Certain franchises might require a nursing degree or a graphic design degree.

Leslie Kuban:
You’re going to find with your staff that they are people coming into your business in different stages of life. They’ll have different goals, and you want to make sure that you’re comfortable leading the staff of your business. The staff is the blood of your business and you want to make sure that you are comfortable, that you can be a good leader to the people that you’re going to be depending on for the success of your business. That wraps it up for today folks. I hope you’ll join me next time for part three in creating your franchise search strategy. I appreciate you tuning in. My name is Leslie Kuban, and I’ll see you next time on Atlanta Franchise Today.