Who is successful in a franchise business?
In approaching the magical 50 franchises milestone, Jonathan Payne at Xpresso Mobile Café should know a thing or two about what success looks like in a potential franchisee. In an open chat, he gave us his views on what he sees in successful people entering his or any business…
“Of course I am no ‘Nostradamus’ when it comes to franchise recruitment /sales (whatever you like to term it), but what I do reckon I’m pretty crystal clear on now is that the primary attribute of importance in success or otherwise, is the attitude to make the business work.”
In practical terms according to Jonathan this means that “If somebody is a negative person, a glass half empty type, then as soon as things get a little tough, or don’t go how all planned on occasion, as they always do at times in business, then you are going to have problems.” “There is an old saying you hear mentioned in stories at times, that really applied to old school franchising 15 years ago, ‘if they had a pulse, they’d get them signed up.’ “That mentality could not be any further from the truth in the modern day hyper competitive market place.“
Franchisors do tread a fine line in that they are chasing business growth in new sites / territories sold. This keeps the brand growing, and in-turn gives better brand presence, buying power and value to the entire brand and existing franchisees, amongst other things. Franchisors are working to grow these locations to achieve those aforementioned benefits, AND to potentially lock out a competing brand vying for the same market. All this is a fine balance indeed when considering turning down people ready and ‘cashed up’ to buy a franchise.
“But the right person in the right business is so important.” explains Jonathan. “If we don’t get it right, just one or two ‘bad apples’ can be toxic to your entire business as it can bring other existing owners down who were not feeling that way at all prior. It also disproportionally sucks resources from other franchisees and distracts the franchisor from other positive actions.”
“Very careful selection processes are important that plug directly into your growth strategy as a franchisor. It’s also a franchisees brand so they should be just as keen on a franchisor being ‘choosy’.” adds Jonathan. “To help this we’ve added a further emphasis in our application and assessment process on identifying that positive attitude we know we need in the business for success. It makes sure we know up-front if we are best suited for each other and vice versa.”
Xpresso Mobile Cafes approach to making sure they get the best possible fit for new franchisees is built around making sure they are happy AND the potential / incoming franchisee is equally happy. “We ALL have to be happy and comfortable to work very closely together for a lengthy period of time in order to maximise the business opportunity. Total transparency is our mantra. We encourage people looking at our business to spend time on the road in a van with a franchisee early on in the process to get a taste for what it’s about.“
Jonathan also believes that Xpresso Mobile Café’s status as a private company, where the founder and owner are involved on a daily basis in the business, gives them an advantage. “In our view, our competitors are running their companies to give returns to shareholders. Whereas our passion is in creating awesome businesses with like-minded people.” “Xpresso Mobile Café is run to drive that business to help, support and grow franchisee businesses.”
