Time saving tips from Australian franchisors

1. Suggest that your franchisor provides franchisees with a campaign template to work from, so that you don't spend hours organising images, wording or advertising or sourcing quotes from various agencies. The Contours intranet allows me to go online and choose my campaign at the touch of a button – which means I have more time to spend on other crucial areas of my business. If I do need to alter or re-size anything, Contours has a graphic designer on board to provide custom artwork requests. This way, I'm also confident that everything I choose/produce complies with HQ requirements – I don't have to go through a lengthy approval process.
2. Rather than spend valuable hours training your staff personally, your franchisor should provide an online training platform that teaches them the basics. You can then spend time with each one of them to further enhance these areas. Having an online training platform, such as Contours' 'e-learning', helps keep brand messages consistent across all franchises and develop staff skills.
3. Employ a media buyer to source the best value advertising for you and do the ground work on which medium will most effectively reach your demographic. This will save you time and money trying to source the best value for your advertising dollar. Co-operative marketing has just been introduced among Contours' franchises in Victoria which is fundamental in the expansion of my business.
4. Source statistics and surveys from your franchisor to gather base demographic information and member attitudes. Ideally, your franchisor should be conducting annual surveys to collect these results, so that you can break the information down in to what your customers want.
5. A good one but an old one, says Chris Hanlon, general manager, Muzz Buzz Franchising, is to only handle a piece of paper once; the same would apply for emails – open the email, read it then act on it, don't go back to it later. Franchisee of the Year, Tom Davis, owner of Clark Rubber Cannington, heads up one of two Clark Rubber stores in the $2m club. He is expected to reach $2.5m this financial year and has three suggestions for keeping on track time-wise:
6. Keep a 'to do' list and review this daily.
7. Spend all the time a customer wants from you, be complete and thorough and you'll only do it once. The customer will appreciate your input and most likely buy. Plus, you'll get better at providing information or an explanation while building trust at the same time.
8. A small job done often doesn't become a big job too hard to do.
   Dianne Williams, Lenards has three snappy ideas:
9. Prioritise
10. Plan, plan, plan
11. Delegate: don't try and do everything yourself. Time management is easy to understand, but very challenging (difficult) to implement, says Sergio Alderuccio. "One of the biggest challenges is trying to prevent urgent matters from taking over from the important matters."
12. The use of a daily to do list is helpful, but I get greater efficiency from planning a week ahead. Within the weekly plan, I aim to prioritise important tasks, assemble information such as phone numbers, addresses and names, seek to delegate where possible and make a note for follow ups.
13. I aim to sensitively delegate tasks, meetings, emails and calls where possible. For effective delegation, ensure you give: clear and concise instructions; appropriate information i.e. email address or telephone number; expected outcomes; time line diarise personal follow up and monitor.
14. A couple of years ago I was confined to bed after a serious cycling accident. I noticed that you can easily spend your day on the telephone and attending to smalls. I also noticed that many of the meetings we agree to are unnecessary. I now aim to group my calls and emails for specific times, so that most of my day is not consumed by just one more email.
15. As a tip, try having your calendar open on your computer screen, rather than the incoming emails screen. Likewise, I evaluate the value of all my meetings, often with the objective input of someone else.
16. Work hard to ensure that meetings are not conducted routinely but determined by need. Some handy tips: ensure all attendees are available; don't invite too many attendees; make the purpose of the meeting clear to all attendees; set a meeting duration conclude with an outcome; and finally - follow up.
17. The most demanding challenge I set myself is tackling first things first. The tendency is to attend to the easier or more enjoyable tasks first and the more difficult and time consuming jobs are continually pushed back. Prioritising will prevent this from happening.
18. "Beacon Lighting's Automated Stock Replenishment System has saved an extraordinary amount of time for us," says Chris Turner, Beacon Lighting franchisee in Moonah, Tasmania. "Where once we manually managed stock levels and orders, now everything we sell in a day is automatically ordered from Beacon's distribution centre and delivered to our store via the Stock Replenishment System. This system has saved at least 50 per cent of my time so that I can better focus on managing my business. Additionally we don't have to carry as much stock and we always have the products our customers are looking for so our sales have improved significantly."
19. Richard Turner, Dymocks retail franchise Hunter Street, Sydney reveals "I was always told never to allow an employee/colleague to present a problem without providing a possible solution as well. This has real benefits in that it makes the person really think about the problem before raising it! It also helps formulate your own solution because you are given an option to consider."
20. Don't assume that because you have always done a job one way it is the best, or quickest way to achieve results. One man who spends his own time looking at more effective ways for sales people to conduct their business is the founder of Prosell , Peter Fullbrook. Not surprisingly his big tip for shaving unnecessary hours from a work routine is time efficient selling: "the processes and skills you use to qualify opportunities and shorten the sales cycle". Listen to the voice of experience; Peter Vergotis from Just Cuts has been a part of the network for 11 years, owned a total of 18 Just Cuts salons and currently owns 12. His first salon was in Orange and the newest salon opened in Pacific Fair Maroubra.
21. Team leaders have to write down anything thatalowners need to know – in point form. If it's not written down then they 'haven't heard it'. Writing in point form saves time.
22. Don't over manage – micro-manage staff instead
23. Observe the effective things that people do naturally – don't change them if it's not necessary
24. Make automatic payments wherever possible
25. Allow team leaders to do their own ordering, rostering and hiring. Peter Hartman owns three Pack & Send franchises. His time saving tips are:
26. Build a network of franchisees and share stories and tips to help build your knowledge bank and ultimately save time.
27. Know your capabilities and limitations – don't spend hours on something you know either won't work or isn't cost effective; be clear to customers on what you can offer.
28. Know your market and specialise where you can, really try to maximise on your core strengths. Kelvin Wong is the Gloria Jeans coffee franchise franchisee for Borders Carlton:
29. Using my personal organizer: I spend half an hour at the beginning of the week planning, looking at what has to be done, what needs to be ordered, rosters and so on. It helps to have everything in one spot and for me that's really helpful.
30. Maintain a good relationship with your staff. I have catch-up session of three to five minutes once a week or a fortnight with each staff member and this keeps me up to date with their progress. It's very important must to see where they are at and helps in the review process – I'm less reliant on major quarterly reviews which take a lot of planning and work. It can nip problems in the bud too.

This article appears courtesy of Franchising Magazine.

The Franchise Council of Australia is a not for profit membership organisation that is the peak body representing the franchising sector in Australia.