If you are a franchise business owner you will be used to leading both staff and franchisees. You will find yourself constantly re-evaluating processes, changing procedures and learning from others. You can use those franchise management skills to demonstrate your expertise within your network, and attract new prospects to expand your network.

Here are some tips to improve the management of your franchise.

Make It Easy For People To Find Information About Your Business Online- Business-savvy entrepreneurs who are aspiring to buy into the next best franchise opportunity tend to undertake a lot of research, much of this research is done online. It is therefore important that you make their lives easier by creating profiles on franchise opportunity websites, sharing information across your website blog and social media. You could even create a page or download sheet on your website with financial information, franchisee data, statistics and testimonials from current franchisees.

Don’t Shock or Overwhelm Stakeholders With Too Much Information – Communication across your franchisees is super important, however you need to be careful. Too much information can lead to overload. It is advised that you create a weekly or twice weekly newsletter or bulletin with easily digestible information. It’s good practice for franchise management teams to alternate between good and not so good news to allow people to process what they’ve read more easily.

Prepare for Growth and Aspire to Achieve Big Goals – If your business is geared for growth, so too will your franchisees. Make sure you have the resources and systems in place to support multiple-unit operators. Make sure your brand’s business plan, marketing, systems, corporate management and culture are all set up to support franchisee growth.

Recognise Accomplishments And Renew Relationships – Franchising is a business of partnership. Personal relationships inspire mutual loyalty and understanding. Nurture relationships to help you recognise franchisees’ struggles and achievements. Put procedures in place to monitor your network and create a monthly or quarterly rewards system. Add value to these rewards to motivate franchisees. Staying in touch with and working within your network will also allow you to identify achievers first hand.

Balance Enthusiasm and Professionalism – It’s very important for franchise management to show a high level of energy and enthusiasm. Energy can be infectious, furthermore a lack of it can have a damaging effect. You must treat everyone with respect and courtesy, whilst you no doubt already know this, take a moment to analyse the language and tone you use whilst talking to people in your network. Is it the tone you want throughout your business? Your everyday actions and the way you conduct business will also affect this. When making tough decisions consider the effect on the atmosphere and morale throughout your business.

Present Plans To Promote Confidence And Understanding – Present a clear plan with timelines and costs for all new training schemes, marketing schemes and procedures etc. Graphs and visuals make it a lot easier for people to understand changes as well as see the benefits, and this also promotes confidence throughout the implementation stage. Create plans alongside franchisees to make sure you cover any possible questions and concerns. These plans can be published on forums and revisited to show success. They can also be added to and developed, keeping everyone informed as campaigns evolve.

Give Your Franchisees Everything They Need To Successfully Market Their Franchise – It’s very important to remember that not everyone comes from a marketing background. If you have a rock-solid franchise management system in place to follow then you minimise the risk of your brand being weakened. You must avoid giving your franchisees the opportunity to devalue your identity with cheap, poorly produced marketing materials or collateral that does not fit your brand identity.