Being mindful of your expenses is a critical responsibility for a multi-unit franchisee. However, that alone cannot drive your long-term success. If you focus only on cost control, you won’t be able to move forward with strategic thinking and growth for your business.

• Every franchise brand has a proven financial model, we call it unit economics. 

There are five things about your business and the franchise brand that you need to be aware of to truly maximize your profits, make the most of your investment, and be successful as a top-performing franchisee. 

1. Understand the Unit Economics of the brand

This is the first step for you to be a successful franchisee. Financially speaking, you need to know the limitations of the brand you invested in. That means, knowing how to maximize the average indicators based on the experience that the franchise has had in its existing years.

Some of those indicators are:

• The average revenue of the franchise.
• The...

Choosing the right franchise is a very challenging process. Some franchisees may have already started operations and still wonder if the business concept they acquire is the ideal one or not.

How can you tell if you have the right franchise for you? What can you do if you realize that the brand you chose is not your best fit? Answering these questions as quickly as possible is very important for your success as a franchise business owner. And that’s what we’ll be exploring in this blog post.

5 ways to detect if your franchise is the right one

First, you have to understand that every franchise is different, especially in terms of the effort and the support needed to operate. The unit economics in the business model is also different, even within the same industry.

Once you are clear on this, there are several reasons that'll make you suspect that a franchise is not perfect for you.

1. You have less revenue than you calculated

In most franchises, the level of...

Building a profitable and proven brand is hard! But franchising allows entrepreneurs to own their business and achieve the time and financial freedom they want and deserve. Without franchises, many people wouldn't have the opportunity to make the American dream of business ownership a reality. 

But there’s a catch. Many franchisees come from a corporate background or haven't had a job for a little or a long time. And when they finally invest in a franchise, they realize how different it is to be an employee vs. owning a business.

Why is this? When you work for a company, your role within the organization dictates what you focus on day in and day out. Someone defines your goals and monitors your impact on the overall results. And, most importantly, you're clear on what your job is and the activities you must execute every day to accomplish the business objectives.

When you are an entrepreneur, especially a franchisee, that's not the case. You don’t have that...

Many franchisees struggle to achieve the goals they expected when they bought their franchise because success in this industry requires more than just hard work, time, dedication, and commitment. 

Sure, some investors eventually are able to grow into a successful multi-unit organization and become top-performing franchisees. Still, most franchise owners don’t achieve this level of success. They continue to struggle daily, trying to compensate for the things they don't know or don't have with more work, longer hours, and using the franchise as their job.

Why does this happen? Because even though they know something is broken, they don't know precisely what it is or how to fix it. That’s where the challenge comes with most franchisees. 

The good news is that there’s a solution. We at The American Franchise Academy came up with four steps that will help you determine what's missing within your business and what you can do to fix your franchise so you can...

Franchisees who want to grow their organization from a one-unit job into a multi-unit enterprise require the help of a district manager to accomplish the business and financial results they expect. 

But this multi-unit leader often gets frustrated because there’s a lack of clarity in the industry as to what is their role. So much so, that this is the first reason why these particular leaders struggle to be successful.

Why is this? The position usually gets promoted from a single unit manager into a district manager and ends up becoming super general managers, instead of true multi-unit leaders that focus on the things that actually impact and make a difference in the organization. 

To prevent this confusion, we at The American Franchise Academy have identified three specific roles that these fantastic and hardworking team members have to play. 

1. The protector of their people

Protecting their staff is the first thing they have to focus their time and...

There are seven critical responsibilities that the district manager has to command to achieve the business and financial results that the franchisee business owner expects.

In past blog posts, we covered leading, planning, staffing, execution of brand and business systems, maintenance, and marketing. Last, but not least, we’ll analyze the results responsibility, which ultimately sums up why these leaders do their job every day. 

If you want to see all prior responsibilities, subscribe to our YouTube Channel to review the rest of the District Manager’s playlist!

If the district manager does what he needs to do in all the other responsibilities, he’ll be able to accomplish this one. That’s why this position has to be clear on what are the duties and routines they have to perform to achieve the desired results. 

That’s not all. Aside from that, they need to develop these specific five skills:

1. Understanding financials

The district...

 (Part 8 of the 2022 Multi-Unit Franchising Conference)

For the last eight weeks, I’ve been reviewing what I experienced during the 2022 Multi-Unit Franchising Conference. To close up this blog series, today I’m sharing particular tactics that four successful multi-unit franchisees are implementing to grow their organizations and their portfolio. 

The best part is that you too can take these actionable to increase the revenue of your business not only in 2022 but beyond! 

Did you miss the past video sessions of the 2022 Multi-Unit Franchising Conference? Subscribe to our YouTube Channel to review the rest of the series!

Donna Lafreeda, Denny’s multi-unit franchisee

She operates over 80 restaurant units in multiple states. She is focused on growing her organization with this single brand, and her current goal is how much cash flow she can get out of her business. 

One of the things she looks for is to take out language that...

Many people believe that when you invest in a franchise, you're going to get everything you need to be successful. As mentioned by my friend Brent Veach, a multi-unit franchisee who owns 55 Del Taco stores, nothing could be further from the truth.

Don’t miss my YouTube interview with him here! 

Franchisees need systems, which means that they require a set of processes, that also have a series of procedures within, and once these are all implemented the right way, together they produce a consistent result day in and day out. 

Think of systems like a car. When you turn the car on, a lot of processes and procedures have to happen simultaneously to make the car run and take you from point A to point B.

It’s the same when it comes to a business: you have to have those systems, processes, and procedures so your team is able to execute, day in and day out. When this happens, the business will produce a consistent result.

When you invest in a franchisee, you do get...

One of the things that multi-unit growing organizations require is to have properly trained and skillful district managers. This position is critical for the success of the company but, as I have explained in a previous blog post, it is also the most difficult one in the retail and franchise industries. 

To add to that, there’s very little clarity of what this role does and it is the one with the least amount of training and support.

Perhaps because of the investment companies have to make to train the people in that position, not only in terms of money but also in time. But believe me, if this investment is not done, it can cost you greatly.

Why should you train your district managers? 

What makes these leaders so crucial for your organization? There are several reasons.

The first one is that people that are promoted to this position don't naturally know what to do or how to execute the job correctly. That’s because their previous leadership position,...

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...