Summer is well and truly here, and while the franchising world rarely slows down in July, we’ve used the month to write about some of the things that come up most often in conversations with the franchisors and franchisees we work with every day.
One bit of news before we get into it: our new website has recentlygone live, and we’re pretty pleased with how it’s turned out. It’s a much better reflection of how we work, and how we’re keeping ahead of the curve when it comes to all the changes in how the industry works, so if you haven’t seen it yet, it’s worth a look: thefranchisingcentre.com
Here’s what the team has been writing about this month:
Franchising Your Business
Franchising isn’t something that happens quickly: from the moment you start the process to the moment you welcome your first franchisee, you’re looking at a minimum of twelve months of focused work. Which means every month spent waiting is simply a month added to the back end of the journey.
Steve maps out exactly what that journey looks like and what you can do right now to get a clear picture of where your business stands – including a free ten-minute assessment that gives you a no-nonsense view of your business’ franchising potential and clear recommendations on your next step, whatever they turn out to be.
The decision that’s costing you 12 months of growth
Franchise Copywriting & Content
What are the pros and cons of using AI to write your content vs using a human copywriter?
It’s the same debate we’re hearing all the time going back and forth without anyone really agreeing. Everyone has an opinion, and no-one has the same answer, but our Head of Storytelling, Dan Sherrington, believes that’s because everyone’s asking the wrong question.
Once you reframe it, the whole debate shifts. AI used without real expertise behind it tends to produce content that’s technically fine and almost completely forgettable. It draws on the same pool of existing material as everyone else, and the result is franchise brands that are starting to sound increasingly alike.
Dan’s piece sets out what the right question actually is, and what a smarter approach to AI and human expertise working together looks like in practice. If you’re producing content at volume right now, it’s worth a read before the next batch goes out.
AI or human copywriter? Asking the wrong question is costing you conversions
Franchise Operations & Support Services
How much of your week are you actually spending on growing your franchise, rather than just keeping it running? If the honest answer is “not as much as I’d like”, you’re in very good company.
The thing we see a lot is franchisors who know their network inside out but genuinely can’t get an objective picture of it. Being close to a business and being able to see it clearly are two very different things, and all too often business leaders are being pulled away from what they do best. The performance data exists, the instincts are usually right, but translating that into consistent, effective action across a whole network is harder than it looks from the outside.
Steve Eastaugh talks through how TFC’s Business Development Management service approaches exactly that problem.
How much of your week is spent growing your franchise rather than simply keeping it running?
Endless Franchisees
Andrew Croney’s piece this month is about a pattern that shows up in almost every franchise recruitment pipeline we look at: the leads that take up the most time and attention are rarely the ones most likely to convert. They’re just the loudest.
A candidate who’s constantly in your inbox, chasing calls and following up on everything, naturally pulls focus. Meanwhile, the person who’s spent a few weeks quietly doing proper due diligence, who arrives on the call well-prepared with the right questions, has often already drifted to the bottom of the follow-up list simply because they weren’t making as much noise.
Andrew looks at how better lead scoring and early qualification can do most of this sorting work before you’ve even picked up the phone, and why most franchisors already have a gut feeling about which leads matter but aren’t building that instinct into their process early enough to act on it.
Are you actually focusing on the right leads? Or just the loudest?
Franchise Matchmaking
This month’s Franchise Matchmaking piece is aimed at prospective franchisees, so you might wonder why it’s in a round-up for franchisors. It’s here because it gives a really useful window into how TFC’s Franchise Matchmaker service works on the candidate side, and how it might work when it comes to improving the quality of franchisees joining your network.
John Overdijking writes about the different reasons people come to franchising: the ones who’ve simply had enough of building somebody else’s success, the ones looking for more control over their time, the ones who just know something needs to change even if they’re not yet sure what. His point is that understanding that motivation is what makes proper matching possible, and that matching people to the right franchise based on what they’re actually looking for produces very different franchisees to matching them on investment level alone.
A better-matched franchisee performs better, stays longer, and tends to become the kind of success story that does your next round of recruitment for you. It’s a good read, and a reminder of why the matchmaking side of what we do matters as much to franchisors as it does to the candidates themselves.
What’s your reason for looking at franchising?
Executive Recruitment
Many of you will remember Shirley Hughes, our head of Executive Recruitment — one of those names that everyone in franchising has heard at least a few times. Over a long and remarkable career, she built the kind of deep personal networks and industry relationships that no job board could come close to matching.
Shirley has now retired, and we wish her all the very best. In her place, we’ve partnered with Careertopia, a specialist franchise executive search firm, to make sure the quality of service she was known for doesn’t retire with her.
Through our partnership, we can now offer a fully structured, confidential search process with access to deep franchise industry networks, sourcing the right candidates at every level, from Franchise Development and Operations through to VP, Director, and CEO. No inboxes full of CVs. Just the right people, properly qualified, ready to have a serious conversation about your business.
Whether you need to fill a role right now, are planning ahead, or simply want to know what’s available to you if something unexpected comes up – and as Shirley always used to say, it can happen in any business at any time – we’d be happy to talk it through.
Anything here you’d like to learn more about?
We’re always happy to chat: Schedule a call with the TFC team
