Franchise Model, The Ideal Solution For Expansion of Businesses

Previously, when companies wanted to expand into new areas or territories, they had to open branches in those places. But, unfortunately, the management could not have uniform control over all the branches. They could not also get managerial personnel who could bestow the same care and attention in the branches as the owner of the businesses did. In this context, the perfect solution they could find was the franchise model because in the franchise model, the person who will run the business will pay a lump-sum amount called the franchise fee and "buy the area" to do the business there. This person is called the franchisee and the original company that "sells the area" is the franchiser.

The franchisee gets a complete training on the products and services and apart from the product training, there will be training in the systems, procedures and other processes that should be followed.

The main advantage in a franchise business is that the franchisee gets a readily-running business and he or she need not go through the ordeals and hassles that are involved in starting a business. Even the systems and procedures will have been made ready and hence, the franchisee must just follow them and do the business.

Further, these systems and procedures will be proven techniques because they have been tested by the franchiser time and again. The franchisee can get complete training in them. The franchiser will also take care of the advertisement and publicity that should be done for selling the products and services.

There are a few steps the franchisee should also take. The first point is apart from paying the franchisee fee, the franchisee should keep enough money for running the business in the initial stages because initially, he or she will not be generating enough revenues for the operations involved in the business. There should also be sufficient money for meeting contingencies that may arise.

Apart from the marketing and publicity that are done by the franchiser, the franchisee should also do all that is possible for popularizing the products and services so that he or she will be able to increase their sales.

The franchisee should also focus on customer satisfaction and only if the customers are retained and new customers are added, the business will grow to the expected levels.

The franchisee should be interacting with the franchiser and other franchisees frequently to know about the new innovations, new products and services, etc. so that they can be included into their line of activity.

Training should be imparted to the employees also so that they will be able to take care of the franchise business when the franchisee is not available.

The franchisee should also focus on motivating the employees suitably so that they will put forth their sincerest efforts for taking the business to great heights.