SIGNARAMA sign making franchise is drawing on the wisdom and experience of its most successful store owners to provide advice and tips to its new franchisees.
“Mentoring has proven an ideal way for our franchisees to capitalise on the tremendous combined experience of our existing and successful franchisees,” says SIGNARAMA’s Director of Operations and Administration, Brian Pretorius.
“Existing franchisees are able to seek advice on a wide range of issues from some of their more successful peers while our new store owners kick start their business after doing on-the-job training with a mentor.” The mentoring program is part of the support network that SIGNARAMA, the world’s largest
retail sign-making franchise service, introduced to assistant its franchisees. Established in the United States in 1986, SIGNARAMA has more than 800 franchise stores worldwide including 87 stores across Australia.
“The biggest benefit of the program is that store owners can get advice, business answers, and direction not just from our corporate team but also from their peers who have gained broad experience while building successful businesses,” says Mr Pretorius.
“We’re not concerned with where they go for the answer rather that they get the answer they are looking for. We know that the answers a new owner gets from a mentor would be the same answer they would get from our corporate staff and that’s what being part of our system is all about.”
SIGNARAMA retail franchise began its mentoring program in 1997 in the United States after feedback from store owners about the information that they gained from speaking with their peers during roundtable discussions at the company’s annual franchisee convention.
The mentoring program commenced with 24 owners who were willing to share their experience and knowledge with existing and new SIGNARAMA sign franchise store owners. Today, there are more than 48 active mentors worldwide.
Mentors are accessible through the franchisee bulletin board, which contains a profile of each mentor including information about their area of expertise, background prior to joining the network, their location size, staffing levels, sales volume awards, achievement awards and helpful advice.
Advice is also available in the Mentor’s Message, a newsletter distributed to all stores that features a mentor and contains a question corner where owners can read several mentors’ responses to questions submitted by store owners.
New store owners who have completed their training are given five days on-the-job training with a mentor prior to opening their first store.
“We’ve slowly introduced mentors into our Australia system,“ explains Mr Pretorius. “We’re careful not to always choose the most successful owners but rather those owners who are successful and knowledgeable about the industry and are good communicators.”
Currently there are four mentor stores in NSW and Victoria, two in Queensland and one in South Australia and Western Australia. Currently there are four mentor stores in NSW and Victoria, two in Queensland and one in South Australia and Western Australia.
“Our mentors are very special people. They are people who are willing to pass on what they have learnt to new owners and recognise that by helping the new stores they are helping to grow and strengthen the SIGNARAMA brand,” adds Mr Pretorius.
This article appears courtesy of Business Franchise Magazine.8-May-2008