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The next excerpt is from Mark Siebert’s guide Franchise Your Enterprise. Purchase it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes
To develop a sound coaching program, you have to begin with an understanding of your franchisee. Is that this new franchisee somebody with industry-specific data? Particular expertise, akin to gross sales or administration talents? Or will you have to deal with your franchisee as in the event that they have been studying completely all the things for the primary time?
In the end, your coaching program should be ok to make sure that the least-skilled new franchisee will symbolize the model to the usual of high quality related to the idea.
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One of the best franchisors are large advocates of coaching and make investments closely in it. Though the coaching carried out by newer franchise firms is commonly pretty casual, the very best new franchisors make it a precedence to develop extra formal packages as quickly as attainable. These packages will prescribe intimately precisely what every franchisee and their personnel should grasp. By specifying precisely what should be taught and the way the instruction can be carried out on an hour-by-hour foundation, these coaching packages present data in a fashion that can foster consistency.
As soon as a brand new franchisor decides on the subject material, they need to then resolve the right way to conduct the coaching. Usually, this coaching takes a number of varieties:
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Coaching on the franchisor’s headquarters
For many franchisors, the hands-on portion of coaching begins at their dwelling workplace. This coaching can final for a number of days or perhaps weeks and, for newer franchisors, is commonly held in lodge convention rooms or non permanent workplace amenities to maintain prices underneath management.
Usually talking, dwelling workplace coaching begins with a tour of the prototype operation and company workplaces, and an introduction of employees and their roles. As soon as the formal coaching session begins, most franchisors give attention to topics finest taught in a classroom setting. Among the many dozens of matters often included on this portion of coaching are company historical past and philosophy, web site choice, lease negotiation, pre-opening procedures, day by day operations, insurance coverage necessities, vendor relationships, and reporting necessities. This phase of coaching usually includes hands-on coaching inside your franchise prototype (or maybe a particular coaching prototype constructed for that function).
Franchise coaching lessons must be vigorous and interactive. A combination of coaching codecs akin to video (for instance, displaying a key provider’s facility), lecture, dialogue, and hands-on work (akin to product preparation or the right way to present the franchise companies) creates an inviting coaching atmosphere for franchisees. Furthermore, varied research have proven that franchisees retain extra data when the coach makes use of a wide range of coaching methodologies combining visible, auditory, and tactile studying. We frequently suggest that our shoppers contain their administration employees within the dwelling workplace coaching session as nicely. Exposing a number of employees members to franchisees energizes the method and helps construct franchisee relationships all through the group.
House workplace coaching, like all coaching, must be accompanied by testing, analysis, and different procedures to make sure that franchisees are certainly able to high efficiency.
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On-site coaching
The following step usually includes spending a number of days to some weeks (or extra, relying on the complexity of your operation) helping franchisees and their employees on the franchisee’s location.
As with dwelling workplace coaching, you must develop an in depth coaching agenda for this stage. Coaching ought to give attention to helping the franchisee in turning into extra acquainted and cozy with the day-to-day operation of the enterprise. Franchisees new to the {industry} can have totally different questions and expectations than franchisees with prior expertise in associated companies. One of many key aims of the on-site coach is to determine and prioritize the franchisee’s wants throughout the first day or two so she will tailor the remaining coaching schedule to finest meet these wants.
On-site coaching is a crucial extension of the franchisor’s pre-opening coaching program. New franchisees can simply grow to be overwhelmed and may generally momentarily overlook all the things that has been taught to them. Having the franchisor’s representatives on the web site — usually within the type of a gap group — can ease this transition and make sure that prospects get an excellent first impression of the model and the franchisee’s operations. A gap group helps franchisees break into day-to-day operations slowly, so they do not really feel they’re leaping into the deep finish alone, with out help from the franchisor.
Inside a number of days of the completion of on-site coaching, you must present the franchisee with an total written analysis of his or her efficiency within the coaching program. The analysis ought to reference each the franchisee’s strengths and areas through which the franchisee wants further work, and it ought to embody a selected motion plan with a transparent record of aims for the approaching weeks and months.
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Ongoing coaching
For the very best franchisors, coaching would not finish as soon as the startup interval is over. It is a important ongoing a part of the franchise relationship. For a franchisor to be aggressive in the long term, its franchisees should stay present with {industry} tendencies and adapt to modifications out there, incorporating new merchandise, companies, advertising, and working procedures into their companies.
With this in thoughts, each franchise settlement ought to comprise not solely preliminary coaching necessities but additionally particular necessities for ongoing coaching. To reduce the erosion of system requirements over time on account of a scarcity of coaching, you could need to contemplate requiring periodic recertification on core competency points for franchisees and their key employees members. Such a program would possibly embody commonly scheduled refresher coaching for these high positions, in addition to detailed coaching for all employees on any new merchandise, companies, or procedures which can be launched occasionally.
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