If you have built a successful business with a proven track record and now looking to expand your business, then franchising your service business will be your best bet. However, the question of the hour is- how to franchise a service business? Where and how to start?
First things first, franchising a services business comes with a plethora of benefits. You can start a franchise business model where you can delegate management responsibilities rather than opening multiple storefronts and managing them all by yourself.
Therefore, if you are convinced that your service business is the right candidate for a franchise business model, then let’s start the guide to understand further what benefits you can get from ranching and how you can franchise a service business.
What Does A Franchise And Franchising Mean?
A franchise is a business where the owner licenses its operations, knowledge, product, and branding to a franchisee in exchange for a franchise fee.
Whereas franchising is a contractual agreement, a license, that allows the owner of a business to grant the use of the brand’s name, its trademark, processes, strategy, and the propriety business knowledge to the franchisee.
There are many legal terms in a franchise business, and understanding them is crucial.
People often get caught up in these terms and let their legal team handle them. However, if you are thinking of entering this industry, you need to understand not all the legal terms but at least some of them.
The most common legal terms in the franchising industry are franchise, franchisee, franchise disclosure agreement, franchising, franchise fee, and investments.
What Does A Franchise Service Business Do?
Franchises in the service industry cover a range of services such as consultancy, tutoring, lawn care, painting, eldercare, and flooring service provider.
One of the best examples of a service-based business is Floor Coverings International Franchise.
So, in simple words, service franchises are basically businesses that provide services to their customers rather than offering a product.
It requires you to be organized, have good marketing skills, and have good skills in building relationships with the customers.
Service-based businesses are uniquely positioned to expand and grow through franchising. It creates an excellent franchise opportunity that offers lower start-up costs, increased return on investment, growth opportunities, and scalability.
Advantages Of Franchising A Service Business
Franchising a service business has more advantages than disadvantages, but still, you need to consider all the factors before jumping onto transforming your service-based business into a franchise.
Moreover, these advantages will help you understand where you stand before making any uninformed decision.
- There is a healthy demand for service-based businesses.
- The entry costs are much more lower and affordable as compared to the retail franchises.
- Service-based franchises generally require fewer employees, which can save your payroll costs.
- It has an attractive and considerable income potential.
- In service-based franchises, you can enjoy flexible working hours and a greater work-life balance.
- The upfront risk is lower in service-based franchises from day one.
- A service franchise is not operated from a store. This means the overhead cost will be less than the retail franchises.
Disadvantages Of Franchising A Service Business
Every business expansion has benefits and drawbacks. This makes it important to weigh down each and every pros and cons before starting your journey.
Here are some disadvantages of franchising a service business:
- When compared to the retail franchises, customer and transaction volume will be low in service-based franchises.
- You might experience limited and restrictive territories.
- You require technical knowledge, certifications, and continuing education in service-based franchises.
- You might be required to spend a lot of time on marketing your service franchise.
- Lastly, you may have to juggle many responsibilities at once.
How To Franchise A Service Business?
Franchising your service-based business is an excellent way to expand your business across multiple geographic locations.
It offers you dozens of benefits. However, franchising depends on whether people are willing to take the franchise opportunity of your brand across different states.
Here are the steps you need to follow to franchise your service business with good knowledge and a strong foundation:
1. Evaluate Whether Franchising Your Business Is Right
Just like any other business, evaluating whether it is the right time to franchise your service business is crucial.
By evaluating the business metrics alongside your personal goals, you get a good understanding of where you stand. It also helps you to ensure that your franchise system will stand in the highly competitive market.
Therefore, consider the following questions before franchising your service business:
- What are your personal goals?
- What are the goals of your management team?
- Do you have a training system in place?
- What size territory do you operate in?
- Do you have a strong marketing plan?
2. Do Market Research
Even though your local service business is successful and running smoothly, expanding a business means you will be entering into new areas and new markets with the same business concept.
This makes it crucial to do your market research by looking into the demographics of the locations, customer demand, market saturation, and other factors that will help you determine whether your business is viable to stand in the market or not.
3. Prepare A Franchise Business Plan And The Consider Costs Involved
Irrespective of how easy and simple it might seem, franchising is much more difficult than running a single business.
Therefore, hiring a professional in the business who can help you design your business plan is essential.
Also, look into the financials and numbers of your business. This means how much you are willing to spend on the training of the franchisees and what support will you offer to them.
Consider asking these questions yourself:
- Will there be any need for equipment or vans?
- What amount of royalties should I charge to the franchisees?
- What will the marketing and advertising costs be?
4. Register Trademarks
Franchising means that you are given the right to use your brand, brand name, business model, and more integral parts of the company.
So, you are basically enabling the third party to use your brand’s identity in a consistent manner.
Therefore, you need to ensure that the intellectual property rights of the company are protected so that you don’t face any problems moving forward.
5. Prepare The Documents
After you have registered the trademark of the company, the next step is to prepare all the documents, such as the Franchise Disclosure Agreement, operations manual, and other legal documents as required.
The purpose of FDD is to inform the prospective franchisees about the 23 service areas of your business.
Moreover, your franchisees will also need marketing material that will help them to market their services in their own territories.
6. Market Your Franchise Company
Now that you have got all your ducks in a row, it’s time to launch your service franchise. You need to create a website for franchisee recruitment.
Include all the details and information on your website that will help the franchisees choose your service franchise.
Also, build your buyer’s persona- the right franchise. This will help you to target the right type of audience-franchisee.
To ease up the process, you can opt for the best franchise recruiting software that will help you recruit the best franchisee for your service franchise.
7. Provide Training And Support
When franchising a business, it’s important to provide the necessary training and support to the franchisees to run your business smoothly.
You can hire a franchise relationship manager to conduct all the training and ensure that the managers offer post-training support for all circumstances.
8. Monitor The Franchisees
You must monitor the franchisees after they have started working on the business. The success of a franchise chain and its profitability depends on how your relationship is with the franchisees.
As a franchisor, you are in the authoritative position to expect and monitor the work execution of the franchisees to maintain your brand’s reputation.
However, it will become overwhelming to monitor multiple locations, so for this, you can take the help of some best operating software.
Conclusion
Service-based business holds a lot of potential to grow through franchising. And now that we know how to franchise service business and the advantages associated with it, it’s certainly a move worth considering.
However, the next steps to the process might be overwhelming, but once followed, they will lead you to a new successful journey of expansion.
And skipping any one of them will do more harm to your business than you can imagine. For this reason, it is advisable to follow each and every step in the process.
FAQs
How do I turn my business into a franchise?
Turning a business into a franchise requires many steps, but the very first thing to do is to determine whether franchising is the right thing for you and your business.
What are the three main types of franchises?
The three major types of franchises are business format, product, and manufacturing.
Can a franchise make you a millionaire?
Yes, many franchisors make millions of dollars by operating multiple locations. It’s up to you to set your own financial goals and implement the right franchise marketing strategies for your business.