Owner Operators are the Most Successful Franchise Owners

While the majority of successful franchise owners are multi-unit owners they don’t start out that way. They are typically owner/operators of their first location and grow one store at a time. This ensures that they have the necessary industry experience to manage the business and know what is going on in the day to day operations. It also puts a face to the business in the community that has accountability. To encourage this accountability I like put plaques in the stores that clearly identifies who the owner is so the guests can ask for the owner at any time. This also encourages community interaction and helps to establish the owner as a support person the neighbourhood they serve.

The amount of people that approach me every week with money who want to open a franchise as an investor and put a manager in place is countless. The majority of these people are looking for a place to park money, own a business they can visit from time to time and be able to say it’s their business. Most of the people that contact me in this category also don’t have industry experience but have friends in the industry who make the opportunities sound very attractive. Nothing could be a faster way to lose money than going down this rabbit hole.

If all a Franchisor is interested in is growth for growths sake they will accept anyone that shows up to invest in a business. When choosing a brand to invest in you want one that is selective about the quality of operators they take on. Ones that are engaged in the community, are daily operators and then groom those top operators on how to become multi-unit operators. This level of engagement can make a massive difference average store revenue and profitability for stores.

In the franchise world there is a myth that you are buying yourself a job. The truth of that myth lies in brands that aren’t selective about operators. The busting of that myth is with brands that have fully engaged owner operators that work as the CEO’s of their stores. A franchisee should be the brand champion in their community and driving success every day for themselves, their staff and their community.