Owning a franchise is a way of giving your business an enormous advantage in the business world. In the first year of business, about 30 percent of non-franchise businesses fail, but only about 4 percent of franchises do. To ensure that your business is not one of those 4 percent, there are many ways that you can manage your business for success.
Communicate With the Franchisor
The beauty of running a franchise business is that you always have someone who knows the answers to your business questions. Franchisors have a sincere interest in your success- they don’t succeed unless their franchisees do. If you have a problem, give them a call. Chances are that they have experienced that problem and have already figured out a way to combat it. Keep the relationship with your franchisor positive, communicating with the company regularly to get as much advice as possible.
Stay on the Lookout for Marketing Opportunities
The marketing materials and training that you are provided with are invaluable for your business, but new opportunities will present themselves over time. If you notice an opportunity to get your business’ name out there, investigate it. It may be sponsoring a kids’ sports team or using bathroom stall advertising at the local stadium. If it can get you better name recognition, it may be worth your investment.
Manage Your Time Well
Without a boss there to tell you how to spend your time, you have to rely on your own time management skills. Making sure that you are available to both customers and employees is essential for keeping good relationships with both. Allow employees to do as many of the day-to-day tasks as possible so that you have the time to handle the management side of things. If you try to fit in too much work in a day, you will be tired and distracted the next day, making your work less efficient.
Work Steadily to Keep Stress Low
Management is largely about paperwork. Making sure that all of the month’s paperwork is completed and correct is a big part of the job, and it’s not something that can be done in a rush during the last few days of the month. This creates additional stress, makes mistakes more possible and can generally make the workplace unpleasant. If you keep up with your paperwork steadily, you can avoid end-of-the-month stress and panic.
Hire the Right Employees
Keeping a franchise business running smoothly involves a number of aspects, not all of which you can do yourself. You may want to do everything yourself to save money, but if you are stretched too thin there will be aspects of the business that don’t get enough of your attention. If you have a weakness or two, such as accounting or purchasing, hire someone to do those tasks for you. The added expense is well worth it when your business is running more efficiently and you have more time to tend to the tasks that you are good at.