101 Tips for Franchisees

By Tracey Leak

This is a must read for every Franchisee!

Whether you decided to read this book cover to cover or simply one tip a day or even just the tips that you need at this time, you will find that you will gain value from this book. These are the best tips for Franchisees to help them succeed or build a more profitable business.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tracelle Enterprises Pty Ltd
• Release date: Jun 11, 2019
• ISBN: 9781646061624

Book preview

101 Tips for Franchisees

by Tracey Leak

This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process or distributed without written permission from the publisher or author.

The information provided in this book is intended as suggestions only. Our services are advisory only. Any view or opinions expressed from or during interviews of those individuals speaking do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the author (Tracey Leak of Tracelle Enterprises Pty Ltd) or any of its affiliates or employees. This information is not intended to be a substitute for gaining specific professional advice from legal, tax, investment, accounting, insurance, or financial advisors. It is the reader’s responsibility to consult professional advice or services with regard to any strategies outlined in this book and to determine their relevance to the reader’s geographical location and personal situation. The contents of this book in no way dilute the absolute responsibility of the reader to perform due diligence with regard to any transactions nor do they absolve the reader from, or assign to the author, responsibility for the consequences of any actions taken.

Copyright © 2016 Tracey Leak

and Tracelle Enterprises P/L

All Rights Reserved.

This book is dedicated to all those individuals, couples and families that have made the leap into buying a franchise and those that started the franchise. Going into business is not easy and I congratulate you on backing yourself and making a change to hopefully produce a more fulfilling life for you and your family.

Contents

Introduction

# 1 - How well do you know your numbers?

# 2 - To do lists

# 3 - Call in Debtors

# 4 - What three things . . .

# 5 - Attend Conference

# 6 - Piggy back head office’s social media

# 7 - Get your LIFE organised

# 8 - What else could I use the money for?

# 9 - Study successful franchisees

# 10 - Know your break even

# 11 - Allow Success

# 12 - Be Happy

# 13 - Do you really know who your ideal customer is?

# 14 - Watch your health

# 15 - Don’t rely on Head Office for leads

# 16 - Culture

# 17 - Create a checklist for your customers

# 18 - What are you contributing?

# 19 - Corporate Boxes

# 20 - FAQ & SAQ

# 21 - Go back to business basics

# 22 - It is never the person’s fault

# 23 - Profit & Loss percentages

# 24 - Clear the slate

# 25 - What’s your vision?

# 26 - When it’s quiet book

# 27 - Ask for help

# 28 - Be loyal to the group

# 29 - Ask for the sale

# 30 - Work Ethic

# 31 - Have an exit strategy

# 32 - The fortune is in the follow up

# 33 - When to ask for referrals

# 34 - Use a 90 day plan

# 35 - Put the blinkers on

# 36 - Rules of the Game

# 37 - Strategic Alliances

# 38 - Be confident

# 39 - Add Value, Don’t Discount

# 40 - Using Scripts

# 41 - Best Thing / Worst Thing

# 42 - Keep things simple

# 43 - Cashflows

# 44 - You are unique

# 45 - Go old school with your marketing

# 46 - Marketing is numbers

# 47 - A-Z Book

# 48 - Franchise reports

# 49 - Are you 100% committed?

# 50 - Stop learning new things

# 51 - Critical Non Essentials

# 52 - Expect a great result

# 53 - Living your life marketing

# 54 - Regular Team Training

# 55 - Starve the black dog

# 56 - Help don’t Sell

# 57 - Action BEFORE Motivation

# 58 - Work/Life balance

# 59 - Cross Train your Team

# 60 - What can you see for me that I can’t see?

# 61 - Have a marketing plan

# 62 - Focus on your team and customers

# 63 - Solutions, not questions

# 64 - Increasing your profit margin

# 65 - Do you really need an award?

# 66 - Do More

# 67 - Team Meetings

# 68 - Set a timer

# 69 - Systemise the routine

# 70 - Who does what by when?

# 71 - Get Accountable – to Yourself!

# 72 - What are your systems?

# 73 - Who are you associating with?

# 74 - Stop avoiding things

# 75 - Weekly Directors Meeting

# 76 - Read aloud

# 77 - Not everyone wants the cheapest

# 78 - Delegation vs Abdication

# 79 - Look deeper at your problems

# 80 - Objections in the sale

# 81 - Character

# 82 - Do good stuff

# 83 - Not negotiable time

# 84 - Will you cry?

# 85 - What are your strengths in your franchise?

# 86 - Understand the theory behind the marketing

# 87 - Believe in yourself and the system

# 88 - Don’t get too concerned with change

# 89 - Prevention is better than cure

# 90 - Stick to the System

# 91 - Sponsorships

# 92 - Treat the Head Office team well

# 93 - What will this mean to me in a year?

# 94 - Read, read, read

# 95 - Getting testimonials

# 96 - Networking

# 97 - Set your intentions

# 98 - Which Social Media?

# 99 - Ask your team this question

# 100 - Marketing is momentum and consistency

# 101 - Keep going

Final Message

Look for ways to add value . . .

Tracey Leak grew up in country Australia in a home-based business. She started her first business when she was just seven years old.

Tracey lived in Canada for a year on a Rotary Youth Exchange, returning to Australia to complete high school before completing a Bachelor of Applied Science at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

Working as a radiographer, Tracey was unable to ignore the entrepreneur in her heart. After being diagnosed with a brain tumour, which she no longer has, she made her leap into being a full-time small business owner.

Tracey’s journey led her to become a business coach after much coaxing from her own business coach. Tracey has now been helping small business owners just like her for more than a decade.

Tracey still works from home on the Gold Coast, Australia and can be found most days working in her PJ’s.

For more information on Tracey, to read her blog or to discover more about her services and products, visit her website at:

www.TraceyLeak.com

Introduction

For more than a decade now, I have been working with Franchisors, Franchisees and entire franchise groups. I’m a Franchise Profitability Specialist, which is fancy way of saying that I am a business coach, trainer and speaker that helps franchises to make more money and to grow successful businesses.

So although I specialise at helping franchises make more money, I also know that for a franchisee, profit is not just a number on your Profit & Loss statement. That profit number is actually your mortgage repayments, your kid’s education, food on your table, your savings, your retirement, your holidays – it isn’t just a number on your P&L.

The other thing I know is that every franchisee is unique. Even though you have many franchisees in a group, no two businesses within a group will be exactly the same. Why?

Because no two people are exactly the same. The things that each franchisee is hoping to gain, their personality, the way they work, the way they set goals, how they run their business

– all of these things will be different. Yes, the business model is the same and their businesses will be extremely similar, but each franchisee is a person with their own uniqueness and that needs to be remembered when working with franchisees.

Why have I told you these two things? Because I want you to understand where I come from when I write this book for you.

It is a collection of 101 tips and hints to help you in your franchise business. Some you may already know or be doing, whilst others might give you a new way to look at something

and some may be totally new to you. It doesn’t matter if you are a brand new franchisee or a long term existing franchisee, you can always learn something new.

I’ve made this book so that it is easy to read so you can take it all in. You can read it from cover to cover or you might read a tip a day or week or you could just move around and read the tips that are relevant to you at this time which could be different tips in a week or month or year so you can continue to return to this book when you need. it. I know you are busy and I know that you want to get the information and then move on it right? Yes, you need to implement the ideas or otherwise you’ve just read a book.

Reading is one of the most important things you can do as a business owner. It is quick and easy to gain new knowledge, you can read almost everywhere and the most important reason you read is that when you read, you generally read in your own voice, in your head. We are more likely to listen and take in information in our own voice so that’s why reading is so good.

Now of course you want to combine reading with other types of learning such as coaching, mentoring, live workshops, online courses and the most important, conference, but reading is generally the one that is the most difficult to get people to do. I think it is because most of us were forced to read books that were of no interest to us when we were at school. I would not say I’m a reader, but at the same time I am a reader. Confused by that statement? I don’t read novels. I can list the novels I have read in the last 15 years and outside of the entire Harry Potter series, it is just four books. Yet, in the last 15 years I have read hundreds of business and personal development

books. I couldn’t list them all, but I know that just the ones on my shelf number over 500 and I haven't even counted the number on my Kindle. So I just had to find my topic of book to become a reader and for me, reading is an activity I do to gain information to USE to help me further in business and life.

I certainly hope that this book does that for you.

So I hope you enjoy reading this book. You might just read one tip a day or you might sit down and read it from cover to cover. Don’t be too precious with this book, highlight things, write in the margins, turn down corners of the page. Use it, don’t just read it. Most importantly, when the ideas come to you as you are reading, put them on your to do list. There is nothing more frustrating for me than when I see franchisees get great information and then proceed to do nothing with it. The information in this book is only good if you use it.

So let’s get started….

# 1 - How well do you know your numbers?

Not once in more than a decade have I found a franchisee who knows all the numbers of their business. Not one. Business is all about numbers in the very end and those numbers will let you know where your business is at any point in time.

Every business has a different set of numbers they need to know and these are called your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Which should you know? Conversion rate, turnover/revenue, percentage of your biggest expenses such as a labour cost, number of customers, profit margin?

A good way to work out which numbers you need to know is to imagine that you are going to go and spend the next six months on some little tropical island somewhere (wouldn’t that be nice!). Every Monday morning at 9am, the manager of your business can send you through a one page document with all the numbers you need to know, all the facts you need on the previous week of business. Which numbers or facts would you need to know so that you could see if all was OK with your business, that it was tracking OK and staying profitable and moving forward? These are the numbers YOU should be tracking each and every week.

Every time I talk about this, a franchisee will always tell me they weren’t good at math at school or they don’t necessarily understand all the numbers of their business or that every time they go see their accountant, it is like the Accountant is talking in some foreign language to them. I suggest you learn. Maybe not from your accountant, but I bet someone in the head office team could help you understand them and how to work them

out. Ask other franchisees what numbers they track and that will also help you.

Don’t let this stop you. The more you understand the numbers of your business, the easier it is to track and the easier it is to make sure you are going to