Franchising commands a staggering 43% of the nation’s total retail sales and service dollars. It is an employment engine on fire, and produces wealth right through economic decline. You don’t need an MBA to succeed, and everyone is in it together to win. Franchising is the profitable muscle machine that plows through challenge and persistently produces success. And, it consistently achieves record growth across the nation and around the world. Today’s modern method of Franchising is a powerhouse for investing. From corporate boardrooms to venture capitalists, they can’t get sufficient positions in this imposing force. Many clamor to buy more branded systems selling at 10 to 12 times earnings. Franchising truly is a fiscal movement of broad based business.  

 “Never be a pioneer; it doesn’t pay. Let the other man do the pioneering; and then after he has shown what can be done, do it bigger and more quickly. But let the other man take the time and risk to show you how to do it.”

Leo Bakeland made this declaration near the turn of the 20th century. He invented Bakelite, an insulating product used in the manufacturer of food-equipment. Bakeland’s pronouncement did not have anything to do with franchising, yet he nearly captured the quintessence of franchising – to succeed through the work of others. 

If we follow Bakeland’s doctrine, one should allow the franchisor to do all the testing, make the costly up-front mistakes, take the risks, and find the marketplace. Today, dynamic relations between the franchisee and franchisor must exist to promote the growth of the chain and to allow communications, customer experience, and direct marketplace knowledge to flow both ways. Both parties also must share commitment to the company vision as they march lockstep to establish lasting values, foster brand development, create corporate culture, set marketing directions, and cultivate bottom-line-enhancing worth. Everyone must be working together toward the same winning goals.

So what are franchisors looking for in an ideal franchisee? They want a person who understands the value of a dollar and what it takes to make it, an individual with experience in the industry who has a strong work ethic, an explosive record of success in the business and ability to be a world-class communicator. They need a superstar who can bring more to the franchisor than simple Franchise fees, one who can make an immediate, positive impact on the system. The perfect franchisee would be a polished professional who is well known and admired in the community, has an extensive positive cash net worth and is unencumbered with a need for financing or even income, for that matter!

In addition, it would be wonderful if this mortal could walk on water, boast of a personal closeness with the Almighty, and have a high-traffic commercial site ready for an immediate grand opening. 

That franchisee candidate, however, does not exist.

All kidding aside, virtually invited is everyone to join in. Franchising crosses all lines of our society and embraces almost anyone who is ready, willing, and able to work.

In franchising, the success of both the franchisee and franchisor is truly dependent on the success of each other. The symbiotic relationship thrives on the willingness to prepare for success. Through consistent training, they strive to improve and to increase the system’s value. But each must be willing to invest in the other. 

Successful franchisees must be captivated by the business in which they plan to invest and build a future. They should be infatuated with the force that goes into a thriving development, expansion, and basic commerce. They should possess charm, ability, experience, work habits, people skills, and that “burning in the belly” along with a willingness to give in order to receive.

Successful franchisors become so because they have come to wisdom through successes and failure alike. Very little wisdom emanates from success alone; therefore, when franchisees buy into the system, they are betting on the quality of the franchisors’ failures as much as the quality of their successes.

Franchisors must eliminate the franchisees’ reasons for failure. To accomplish that task and remove the risks, franchisors are obliged to constantly test, refine, and add to their products and services.

They must learn exactly what succeeds and what does not within the mercurial marketplace.  

Lee Iacocca once noted, “There are times when even the best manager is like the little boy with a big dog waiting to see where the dog wants to go so he can take him there.” Similarities exist in the franchise relationship although sometimes we are not as clear as we should be in determining which the big dog is and which the young lad is. 

Both sides exhibit a fervent passion to achieve, along with bold strength and a dire determination that can make or break the plan. But certainly, neither party should ever be on the receiving end of the big dog’s mission.

Franchise relations can have neither winners nor losers. Everyone must be successful. If we lose sensitivity for each other, the balance – which plays such a critical role in a nourishing franchise chain – is defeated, and the business world becomes stubborn, prosaic, and insipid.

Responsible parties must work together to continue building toward the realization of important aspirations and dreams, which test the very limits of imagination.

After more than 29 years in franchising, I find this business world is composed of two distinct groups: those who borrow and those who lend those who lead and those who follow.

What makes franchising so successful are the franchisors tested methods of business and their unending search for franchisees. Franchisors are looking for someone who wishes to borrow as much as the other is willing to lend and who, at the same time, remains focused on the common progress of the system. Franchising itself is bountiful enough for the non-pioneers and pioneers to walk shoulder to shoulder.

Jerry Wilkerson is the former president and executive director of the International Franchise Association in Washington, D.C., and founder of Franchise Recruiters Ltd, an international franchise executive management search corporation with offices in Toronto, and Chicago. He recently marked his 30th year in the business of franchising and is a strategic partner with the iFranchise Group. 

E-mail Jerry at [email protected] or visit www.franchiserecruiters.com for more information.