CASE STUDY 2: BUSY BEING BUSY

Background
This franchisee is just three years into his franchise. All appeared to be going well but he was in for some surprises.

The situation
The franchisee felt that the franchisor spent a considerable amount of time and money on his recruitment. This was welcomed if a little frustrating due to the time taken. Overall he felt it had all been worth it.

In the first few months, the franchisor had spent time on his training, mainly in the service he was providing. This had been well done and had been useful. In fact he had been allocated an outlet which had been 'let go' by a previous franchisee. The new franchisee felt this advantage and with his enthusiasm and zest for sales, the need to attract old customers back was his target. This was successful particularly as he was located in a big town.

The business grew; new staff were taken on, the premises extended slightly and the customer base expanded significantly. The relationship with the franchisor was excellent.

All of a sudden things changed, but the franchisee did not really appreciate this. He had reached a ceiling or so it seemed. It was only one weekend when reviewing his cash flow forecasts; he looked back and noticed a very even trend of profits. On further investigation he realised that the connections with his franchisor had followed the same pattern. The more he investigated the more he began to realise things were not perhaps so good.

Friends had asked him how business was going. He tended to reply that they were going well. He realised that in fact he was just busy, his time was full but his bank account was no fuller. With all the time he was spending on resolving business issues and in so many directions, his staff had become less motivated. His wife, who worked part time with him, commented that some of them were no longer pulling their weight.

The Future
The questions now for the franchisee were how to turn this around. The franchisor had shown great interest at the start but was not doing so now. Should he ask for help from the franchisor? Should he go to an external source? Did he want to continue or did he need a new challenge?

These questions he pondered with the Franchise Support Network. We don't know his answers at the time of writing but we wish him well. Our belief is that there are many others like this in the same situation.

1. Interview with a franchisee

2. Busy being busy

3. Less haste, more speed

 

 

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