If you’re thinking of investing in a business that will give you a stake in the future, the cleaning and maintenance sector is packed with potential.

Here are seven awesome ways you can get the most from a franchise.

1. Commit to the hard work up front

Perhaps the best way to maximise the potential of the business is to work hard, consistently. The well-worn phrase ‘you get out what you put in’ is never truer than as a business owner, where your commitment to do the work, to adopt best practice, and to keep driving the business is the way to success.

Even in business models that encourage franchisees to work on building and managing the business rather than providing the service in person, hard work counts – it’s just a different kind of effort.

2. Tap into your franchisor’s experience

You buy a franchise for a reason, so make the most of it. Investing in an existing, tried and tested system means you can afford to take a few shortcuts – because the franchisor has identified the swiftest, most efficient way to undertake a routine task or build a business network.

In addition to the franchisor team’s expertise there will be valuable lessons to be learned from sharing problems and concerns with other franchisees in the network.

It’s important to turn to these on-the-ground experts when you need to, and not get stuck in facing business challenges alone.

3. Work with the business development manager

In today’s franchising environment a field manager or business development manager (BDM) is expected to work with franchisees to help them achieve their targets, not just ensure compliance.  These key frontline workers in franchising can provide tips and advice, give a fresh perspective, and can help keep a business owner on track with the business plan.

Great BDMs are lauded in their respective networks for the fantastic results they can help their franchisees achieve. Don’t overlook how much they can provide – from information about the sector to business specific advice.

BDMs can also identify opportunities in the marketplace, in your local area, in your skills, and be a useful link to other part of the support team that can help deliver improvements.

4. Utilise benchmarking tools

Many franchise businesses today employ benchmarking tools and strategies to help franchisees identify and share best practice. There’s a natural competitiveness among business owners, and the benefit of a franchise is that you can find out how someone has achieved a greater profit margin, achieved stronger growth, or developed a better lead conversion rate.

There’s a greater level of transparency of financial data in many franchises today than there has been previously, and franchisees can turn this to their advantage.

5. Take advantage of different revenue streams

Exploit the potential of proprietary products and services. Promoting and using a reliable and exclusive product or delivering a specialist service can give business owners a competitive edge.

It will take effort, time and expense to develop a proprietary cleaning product but for franchisees the work has already been done by the franchisor. And it gives the brand a point of difference.

Some franchise models have added a sales revenue stream to the services provided, so encouraging customers to purchase products adds more income to the franchisee’s business while keeping the brand name constant in the customers’ minds.

It makes sense to adopt other revenue streams the franchisor may introduce as a means of diversification and a way to build on the customer database.

6. Utilise the technology

In every sector of business now technology rules. The good news is that franchisors generally have invested time and money in assembling a swathe of tech tools that allow franchisees to do their job more efficiently- from leads to loyalty programs, from marketing to management.

For instance franchisees can access a simplified dashboard that give business owners an easy oversight of their business, or a program that makes it easy for franchisees to quote on a job – simple ways to introduce efficiencies that benefit everyone.

7. Plan for your future

A franchise agreement in almost every case has a limited term. A renewal of that term once or twice is usually possible, but never guaranteed. So there’s a built-in deadline that can sharpen franchisees ambition and goal-setting.

Setting and working on a business plan means setting clear goals with time frames. As business develops, goals are achieved, changed, developed, all within a framework that allows franchisees to plan for the future.

A clear destination and a road-map to get there will ensure the potential of the business is fulfilled.