The staffing crisis in our industry makes it difficult for businesses to attract new talent because of the high cost of the hiring process. Is rehiring an employee a solution? What are the benefits and disadvantages of this decision? 

When it comes to rehiring employees, the topic becomes very personal for me. I was an employee of an amazing company that I love, still to this day, but after nearly 20 years I decided to leave so I could grow beyond this organization. Everything that I knew about business and franchising I have learned there. But I wanted to explore other companies and expand my horizons.

When I called my boss to let him know, he reminded me that if I left, I could never go back. Believe me, it was one of the hardest decisions I made but I stood by it because I knew this was right for me.

That didn’t make me a bad employee. Nor someone that should not be rehired, especially considering that if I returned, I would have brought more value, knowledge, and...

There is a big confusion in the franchise world: franchisees believe that when they acquire the rights to duplicate a brand, they will receive everything they need to be successful. The reality is they only get one part of the formula. This causes unfulfilled expectations, constant frustration, tremendous struggle, hard work, and sometimes sadly, even failure.

But there’s a way to fix that to make the most of these businesses. I have found that there are 12 keys to being a successful franchisee. And I have portrayed them in The Franchise Fix, a book that collects my 30 plus years of experience in this industry, working with franchisors and franchisees and running operations, units, and brands.

Do you want to discover those best practices and how applying them can help you obtain financial and time freedom? 

How The Franchise Fix was born

After a 25-year career in the franchise world, I wanted to take a sabbatical and then go back into the corporate world to...

In these times of staffing crisis, hiring the right people is very important. But being able to retain them is even more relevant. So, if they are not meeting your expectations, why not take the time to figure out the reasons they are not doing a good job?

In a past vlog, I explained why I completely disagree with the saying “hire slow, fire fast” and how the correct approach is to hire slow and fire slow (learn all about it here). This means that before you take the fast lane and let someone go, you should find out what happened and ask the right questions to inquire into why they're not doing right. 

It’s worth the time! Surely enough, you’ll learn a thing or two about your business and how to improve it. In my +30 years of experience in the franchise industry, I’ve come to realize that there are only three potential reasons why the job is not done correctly.

1. Lack of knowledge

When somebody goes into a new company they have to acquire not...

I’m sure you work really hard and you do everything you can to achieve your dreams and to have a successful enterprise. But sometimes, the easiest way to attract that success is by being thankful for what you have accomplished. 

Thanksgiving is one of our treasured traditions in the US and an occasion where we reflect on the things that we are grateful for. But we have to be thankful all year long! So, taking that holiday spirit, I want to invite you to constantly ponder on what you are most appreciative of your business and of the things that you have. Trust me, it’s a great exercise and it’ll bring you many benefits! Here are two of the most tangible ones:

1. Having a mentality of abundance

If you focus on the things that you don't have and the things that you wish you had, you are attracting scarcity. But if instead, you focus on the things that you do have and you are thankful for them, then the mindset of abundance will come into your...

One of the biggest challenges of new district managers is not knowing what responsibilities they have. It’s a vicious circle: if they lack this clarity, they’ll work extra hard not only on what they have to but on duties that don’t belong to them. In consequence, they may neglect some important tasks that would produce the results their district needs.

It doesn’t end there. Not only are they're not achieving their goals and responsibilities; they’re getting frustrated. The sum of these may hurt your operations and efficiency.

Don’t let this happen to your district manager or your business! Make sure these seven critical responsibilities of a district manager are fulfilled so that they can be successful, reach their goals, and, in turn, help your business thrive.

Do you know what’s the average franchise profit percent you can make? Read this blog post to find out!

1. LEAD

When it comes to the responsibility of leadership, district managers...

Franchisees often compare their unit’s performance with others within the franchise network and the industry, to know where they are versus where they should be and if they are reaching the average franchise profit percent in the market. This comparison may help them determine how to scale their organizations.

But, is there an average profit that franchise investors can expect? What needs to happen to achieve that, considering that not everybody does? That’s what we are going to uncover in this blog post.

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The average franchise profit percent will depend largely on your average sales, which can vary anywhere between 400,000 to 1.4 thousand a year for the traditional brick and mortar franchises. How much you achieve will be determined by the type of franchise you have.

Let me point out that I’m referring to...

You were excited about investing your savings into a franchise so that you could have the financial and time freedom you have wished. Even though you didn’t have experience, you thought that buying a franchise would give you everything you needed to be successful. But then, you open your first unit and the struggle begins. Sounds familiar?

Running a franchise is not as easy as many people think. After my 30 plus years of experience in this industry, I have detected the three most common reasons why franchisees struggle with their business, listed above from bad to worse. 

If you are about to invest in a franchise, take note of these topics to avoid conflict. If you are already finding it difficult, follow my recommendations to ease the pain.

Reason #3: The wrong franchise

There are different levels and types of franchisees. I categorize them in:

• Startup franchises. These are the ones that have a handful of units and feel ready to start selling the rights for their brand....

(Part 7 of the Multi-Unit Franchising Conference)

In the last weeks, I’ve been sharing my learnings of the Multi-Unit Franchising Conference 2021. In this blog post, I’ll share some recommendations for successful succession planning.

Watch the complete Multi-Unit Conference series by subscribing to our YouTube Channel. Review all the related blog posts in our category menu.

Being away from your business doesn’t necessarily mean that you are out of the picture forever. Perhaps you want to take a break and enjoy the fruits of your hard work and labor for years and years.

To approach this topic, a panel of multi-unit multi-brand franchisees shared their best practices. The panelists were:

• Fred Burgess, who operates franchises of Marriott Hotels, Papa John’s, and Twin Peaks.
• Jeffrey Tews, who owns units from Bright Care and Bright Star Senior Living.
• Eric Denver, franchisee of Hand & Stone Massage Spa.
• Paul Booth, franchisee from Ace Hardware and a recipient...

(Part 7 of the Multi-Unit Franchising Conference)

Scott Kelly is a NASA retired astronaut. He's a veteran of four space flights, he commanded the International Space Station (ISS) on three expeditions and was a member of the yearlong mission to the ISS. It's a matter of fact, in October of 2015, he set the record for the total accumulated number of days spent in space. 

The Multi-Unit Franchising Conference invited him to give one of the keynote sessions, and on this post, I’m sharing the main takeaways he gave as part of his lecture.

Watch the complete Multi-Unit Conference series by subscribing to our YouTube Channel. Also, sign up for our newsletter at the bottom of this post so you don’t miss the next blog posts.

1.  Never be afraid of doing hard things

If we are always choosing to do things that are easy, then the likelihood of us accomplishing extraordinary things goes down dramatically because easy is normally not exceptional. Scott knows what he’s...

(Part 5 of the Multi-Unit Franchising Conference)

Since a few weeks ago, I've been writing about the main takeaways of the Multi-Unit Franchising Conference, to share with you valuable knowledge and ideas that you can implement in your business. Today’s entry: Scale your organization for growth with 10 best practices from a franchisee panel. 

Watch the Multi-Unit Conference series subscribing to our YouTube Channel and register at the bottom of this post to read the rest of the related blogs once they get published.

1. Trust your franchisor

It will be very difficult to grow if you are in constant fighting or disagreement with your franchisor. Bill Noble, multi-unit franchisee from Pearle Vision, advised: if you want to grow, you should follow the franchise systems because the brand already has the knowledge, experience, and proven reliability that the model works. 

Rather than spending your time to change something in your franchise, trust the model and the path...