Everyone in franchising has been talking about one big thing over the last couple of years: recruitment has become much harder. The same questions keep coming up, too: is it me, is it the market, or has something changed for good?
There’s no simple answer, of course – when is there ever? – but I did want to share a piece our CEO, Dug Aylen, wrote to accompany the recent bfa survey, which gets right to the heart of those questions. The survey gives us some very interesting numbers, but this article is more about what sits behind those figures. It’s less about what is happening, and more about why.
It’s well worth a read: RECRUITMENT & SUPPORT BENCHMARK REPORT 2026
Dug’s central point is one I’ve made myself: recruitment hasn’t stopped working, it’s changed — and the brands that understand how are still doing very well indeed.
What feels like a couple of hard years is really the tail end of nearly a decade of near-continuous uncertainty, going all the way back to Brexit. When the world feels unstable, people leaving a secure job to run their own business quite reasonably take longer to commit. Dug also explains how the economics have shifted: more enquiries are arriving than ever, often at lower cost, yet converting them into signed franchisees has become harder, and the true price of each recruit has risen sharply. The conclusion he draws is that counting enquiries tells you very little about the real health of your recruitment.
The idea I found most interesting comes right at the end, where he looks beyond individual brands entirely and asks what would happen if the sector spent even a tenth of its collective recruitment budget growing franchising itself, rather than competing over the same pool of increasingly difficult-to-convert candidates.
What if, rather than fighting harder over the people already looking at franchises, the industry invested in creating more people who are open to the idea in the first place?
That might sound strange to those used to operating in a market founded on competition over leads, but I think it’s an idea that will become increasingly attractive as candidate behaviour continues to change.
One thing’s for sure: what we did to sign franchisees ten years ago isn’t working anywhere near as well any more.
That brings us back to the individual franchisor.
If the problem is no longer simply generating enquiries, but getting the right people through the recruitment journey and converting them into franchisees, then the quality of that journey matters far more than the sheer number of leads coming into your CRM.
That’s probably the most important takeaway for all of us, and it forms the thinking behind much of what we do at The Franchising Centre.
We help franchisors across the whole recruitment process, from sharpening a website and improving enquiry handling through to fully outsourced recruitment. One newer service, though, takes a rather different approach to the problem Dug describes.
Our Franchise Matchmaking service starts with the candidate, rather than the lead.
We find, qualify, educate and introduce candidates ourselves, so rather than adding another batch of enquiries to the top of your funnel, we bring you people who have already done much of the thinking that normally takes up the early stages of your recruitment process.
They already understand the fundamentals by the time they reach you. They will:
- understand what a franchise is, and what running one within a system actually involves
- know what funds are required, and where they can access them
- recognise that a franchise agreement will govern the relationship
- have a good working overview of your business
That means your first conversation with them can start several steps further along than one generated through a more traditional lead-generation route.
You’re not necessarily getting more people into your inbox. You’re getting people who have already taken some of the steps that your own team would otherwise have to guide them through.
That matters when the cost of converting an enquiry into a signed franchisee is rising.
There’s another important difference, too: Matchmaking is a success-fee-only service. You pay no retainer, nothing upfront, and nothing at all until a franchise agreement is actually signed. You’re not paying for activity, you’re paying for the outcome that actually matters: a new franchisee signing an agreement.
If your recruitment is already working well, Matchmaking may not be something you need, but if you’re seeing plenty of enquiries without enough of the right candidates progressing, it could be worth looking at a different approach.
If that sounds intriguing, the natural next step is a short, no-obligation conversation about where your recruitment stands today and whether Matchmaking, or anything else we do, could help.
You’ll get an honest view either way.
Click the button below to pick a time that suits you.
John Overdijking
Franchisee Recruitment Specialist & Partner
