Franchisee First

By Lucy Campbell, FranchisingWorks Chef Executive

 

FranchisingWorks was delighted to recently host it’s fifth “Franchisee First” event.  To date we have endeavoured to bring our Greater Manchester franchisees some of the most beneficial speakers in the business. Supporting them with everything from social media through to stress and resilience, the response to date has been fantastic.

This month’s event was no exception, and it is was so inspiring for me to see so many people eager to avoid becoming victims of the recession, as they plough their skills and efforts into building successful businesses.

Our enthusiastic franchisees arrived and the room was filled with energy as our attendees exchanged stories of the ups and downs of their businesses to date, keen to offer support wherever possible. With the UK heading for a stress epidemic , we were delighted to bring to this event one of the most prominent ladies in the business of stress reduction- Pauline Doyle. From the moment Pauline took the stage the atmosphere in the room settled and a feeling of calm flooded the air. For the next forty five minutes the crowd was compelled to a space where they were encouraged to recognise the symptoms of stress and were informed on the importance of being a “Human Being and not a Human Doing”.  At the end of the session there was most definitely a mutual appreciation between the “stress sufferers” in the room – with nobody denying being affected.

Obviously for FranchisingWorks the advice of established franchisees is also really valuable to us, so we couldn’t resist the chance to pick their brains for some tips to share with our clients currently going into franchising. It was extremely insightful to gather their thoughts on the importance of the franchisors headquarters, with a resound agreement that first impressions  influence ones decision about the franchise brand. It reminded me a speech given by Robert Dancy at the Franchise Supplier Showcase in 2013 about the need to ‘set the stage’ in a franchisor’s headquarters in order to give the correct impression of the brand from the outset. His advice was certainly supported by the opinions of the franchisees that attended.

Alongside, we were delighted to hear how much they valued the peer support network that Franchisee First has created , and also their views on the importance of their internal franchisee peer network, which people generally thought was of equal value to the support provided by a franchisor. It’s great to know that we are adding real value through our network.

The night finished off with some more informal networking, with promises of future business meetings and communications, with everyone leaving feeling a little more resilient to the stresses of business management.