Rob Tyndall, EFM franchisee and the South Australian FCA Franchisee of the Year (single unit, up to one staff member) takes our Q and A on successful franchisee behaviours.

What daily habits contribute to you running a successful franchise?

Daily habits include monitoring access to both members and the franchisor along with those items necessary for the running of the business. I keep a calendar log of action items with cut-off date at the end of the week or month. This log is monitored daily to action those items that are able to be done rather than wait for the end of week or month logjam. These may include accounts, marketing or member communication.

How do you manage your relationship with the franchisor?

I’m in daily contact either personally with a manager or via a group communication network. This enables sharing of ideas, feedback on problems, suggestions on system improvements and general communication.   

What steps do you take to build your business?

Marketing, marketing, marketing! Every day will present an opportunity to market the business either through formalised programmes or just relationship building with our school, local or business community.

How do you stay motivated?

Every day presents new challenges and rewards. It only takes one member being excited about reaching a goal that we set together to make it worthwhile. This can be as small as losing a few kilos to walking or running the City to Bay for the first time. It can be especially rewarding to have a member controlling their type 2 diabetes through regular exercise. It is also a pretty good way to stay fit myself.

How do you manage your business and your home life?

This is the difficult bit. I would recommend to anyone to get some personal time. This may just be an afternoon at home doing the books or catching up on some shopping but it needs to be something you want to do rather than have to do. Whilst we may love what we are doing there needs to be some down time.