For those of you who think that franchise fees and royalties are simply useless and waste of money, think again – You will receive what you have paid for.
Many, if not most, business opportunities are using “no franchise fee” and “no royalty” as selling points. The downside that not many business opportunities reveal is their level of support.
Despite some business opportunities offer ongoing training to investors, not many think the partnership as more than supplier-buyer relationship: You purchase products and/or services and resell them in your shop or store – That’s it.
What is it you miss?
Ongoing support
Yes, franchises offer ongoing support, business opportunities don’t.
When you encounter stumbling blocks, the ability to consult with your franchisor for an advice or two, even for an operational help is one of the biggest assets you have as a franchisee.
I have consulted many times, and even ask for an operational support from my franchisor to tackle some business operational problems I haven’t been able to solve on my own. The support team is ready to help, gathering ‘evidences’ and analyse them to determine the best route to solve the problems.
Most of the time, the problems I encounter in my franchise units are nothing out of the ordinary to my franchisors. Some of the business problems are new to all of us, but two heads are better than one – The bottom line is, you should consult to and discuss with your franchisor about your business problems so that every franchisees can benefit from your case, too.
Ongoing support do’s and don’ts
Different franchise opportunities do offer different level of support. As a franchisee, it’s your job to understand what kind of support you will receive (and should expect) from your franchisor. However, there are some common boundaries on how far a franchisor can support the franchisees:
- Your franchisor will give you tips and pointers, but your franchisor won’t fix (and shouldn’t fix) your broken window!
- At times, your franchisor could offer you to ‘intervene’ your franchise unit operation upon your request, helping you optimise your day-to-day operation. However, you are still the one who should make decision, and you can’t make your franchisor liable for any wrong-doings during the ‘intervention’ period.
- Your franchisor will support you according to the standard both of you have agreed in franchise agreement signing. Even though you could ask for something off-agreement, the yes or no rests entirely on the franchisor – You simply can’t say a franchisor is bad because your wish is clearly not their command!
- Fixing broken equipment is not generally your franchisor’s responsibility (unless it’s stated in the franchise agreement.) It’s your business, and you should take care yours, well, like yours!
So, franchisees, give your franchisors a break – Don’t buzz bad reputation because you don’t understand what kind of support you are supposedly to receive from your franchisors.
For example, I read in business forums that some franchisees are complaining about how slow their franchisors respond to support requests.
Franchisee – Although there are general rules of thumbs on how long you should expect to receive the support (e.g. 1 month response time is totally unacceptable), you should consult your franchise agreement regarding support response time – If it’s not stated in the agreement, you can’t clearly say that your franchisor don’t care to your problems. You need to speak to your franchisors about your expectations and seek for mutually agreed conditions.
Ivan Widjaya
Franchise ongoing support
Image by Laram777.
