The Biggest Problem with Franchising

There is always someone to blame.

When you are in business by yourself, no brand, no Franchisor, all on your own, then the buck will always stop with you – as it should in business. When it comes down to it, you pretty much can go through and blame everyone else for not succeeding, but in the end it is you.

The problem with franchising is that a Franchisee has always got someone to blame if they are not succeeding and they can make it sound totally plausible and the truth… even if it is not… because they can always blame the Franchisor.

I had a Franchisee just last week try and blame the Franchisor, the business model, the royalties, everything for their lack of success and if you were someone they were telling this to at a BBQ, then it would have sounded totally true. The challenge for this Franchisee was that they tried to tell me that it was all of these things….

Time for a little tough love right?

I simply just said “I’m listening to you, but I have one flaw in everything you are telling me. If all of the things that you are telling me, that you have convinced yourself are true, were actually the truth, then shouldn’t the other 150 Franchisees in the system also be failing in their business, not be making any profit?” and then used my favourite technique in coaching (the shut up !)

The Franchisee had to sit in the awkward (well for them) silence and truth in what I had just asked them. I did put them out of their pain and followed this up with a “It’s OK that it isn’t working for you, but what about instead of spending all of our energy trying to find someone to blame, we instead just fix things and get it working?”

This is my issue when you see things in the media about franchising not working. Now I’m not saying that maybe there is blame for the Franchisor or the system in some of those cases, but who is asking the question if others can make it work, then maybe it isn’t the Franchisor or the system, maybe in fact, eeek… it’s you the Franchisee.

If you are working with Franchisees that are trying to lay blame – which seems to be human nature – then maybe you need to start handing out a little tough love. Most of the time, the reason people are blaming, besides the obvious that they don’t want to admit it is them that is the real problem is because they are trying to ‘save face’ or protect their own interests. If you can guide a franchisees through this, then you will find that you can help them not only save face, but also to move through the problems and either fix what is happening or admit that maybe business simply isn’t for them.

When someone is blaming, don’t simply go along with what they are saying, ask a deeper question. You have to catch people in their excuses and blame and help them move forward because blaming someone else for your failure will never fix the issue.

If you have enjoyed this article, then please give it a like and leave a comment. Also come and grab your copy of my ‘Top 10 Tips for Helping Struggling Franchisees’ at www.tinyurl.com/strugglingfranchisee . You might also like the Supporting Franchisees course at www.SupportingFranchisees.com .

Thanks for reading and I hope this article has helped !

Tracey