Franchise efficiency, good relationships and what to spot in a potential franchisee…Rozzi’s Canteen founder and CEO Dean Salomone shares his views on the franchise sector.
1. What have you learned about franchising?
People and money equal emotion. I like to refer to it as the great Australian second dream – running your own business.
As a distribution model, franchising can be very successful for all stakeholders when done correctly and, wearing my recruitment hat, this means being honest and transparent with prospective franchisees about what the business actually needs from its stakeholders to succeed: planning and application.
2. What does it take to have an efficient franchise model?
- Consumer relevance
- Realistic growth plans and resources
- Solid policies for consistency of product and/or service.
The franchisor will drive efficiencies within the franchise model by way of innovation in product and technology. Franchisors are really the disruptors of their industry – they take a business model and scale it up for growth while retaining the fundamentals that make their business attractive to prospective franchise owners.
3. What do franchisees want from their franchisor support team?
Everyone’s definition of support can differ, but most franchisees want regular, open and honest two-way communication about how they can improve the running of their business. As a support team, we need to add value constantly.
4. How does a franchisor foster trust in the relationship with a franchisee?
Deliver what they say they are going to do – from the moment they receive an inquiry. It’s pretty simplistic, I know. However, franchisors need to show commitment to franchisee growth (while treating everyone equally and fairly) if they want franchisees to believe in them.
Franchisors should always look for ways to help the ongoing profitability of franchisees.
5. What do you look for when interviewing a prospective franchisee?
Our first interviews with franchisees are relatively informal and really an opportunity for an open and frank discussion about both parties, as well as their key motivations for thinking about joining the Rozzi’s famiglia.
Sometimes we are not aligned, and that’s okay, but we are looking for service-focused individuals who love the idea of producing new products every day. I look to see how many questions they will ask during the interview.
A potential franchisee can never ask too many questions of a franchisor.