Here’s how franchisors can help franchisees overcome the biggest obstacles in the year ahead
Two undeniable truths about being a franchisor? Your franchise owners will always face new challenges, and you must support and coach them through those challenges.
Having profitable, happy, engaged franchise owners is the only true way to grow your franchise system. So as new business challenges come up in 2022 and beyond, it is your job as the franchisor to help your owners overcome them.
As a Franchise Growth Catalyst, I run roundtable discussions every week with franchisors to solve their current challenges. Perhaps you’ve even experienced these sessions before! Through these conversations, I hear the struggles that franchisees face and how franchisors try to support them. Below are three of the main challenges I hear and strategies for how you as a franchisor can both support and coach your owners to overcome them.
Challenge #1 – Finding Employees
Far and away the biggest challenge the franchise owners are facing moving into 2022 is the challenge of finding employees.
When it comes to the labor market in 2022, business owners must focus on highlighting their company culture and the deeper reasons an employee would want to join their team. Highlighting things like having a strong mission, a fun day-to-day work life, and an inclusive team, are all key to attracting the right people to your team. Especially if your franchise owners can’t compete on wages or benefits, they need to highlight the company mission and culture.
The other thing to consider is where your franchisees are looking for employees. Do your franchise owners need part-time workers? Perhaps stay-at-home parents would be a great market. Many stay-at-home parents are reevaluating their careers and may be seeking a way to get out of the house more regularly.
To support your franchise owners with finding employees, help them highlight the deeper mission of the brand, focus on the company culture, and brainstorm different demographics that may find the brand attractive.
Challenge #2 – Retaining Employees
On top of the trouble of finding employees, franchise owners have also been struggling with retaining their team. I see this continuing in 2022.
The good news is that by focusing on company culture and employee satisfaction, you are solving this challenge as well!
Having a supportive, positive company culture will help increase the happiness of employees. When employees have a sense of pride and belonging in a company, retention increases and so does business overall.
I recommend brainstorming with your franchise owners (hosting a zoom call usually works well for this!) where you can all share ideas on how to highlight and magnify your company culture.
Doing this kind of brainstorming collaboratively will bring out the best ideas and leverage the collective genius of your owners.
Challenge #3 – Managing Mindset and Mental Health
With the continued pandemic, the struggle to find and retain employees, supply chain challenges, etc. your franchisees and their team may be struggling to manage their mindset and mental health. It will continue to be important to manage and be proactive about mindset and mental health for both your franchisees and their team.
You can support your franchise owners by creating a network (roundtables with fellow franchisees would work well for creating a sense of community) so they know they have fellow business owners they can talk to for support. You can also encourage them to set boundaries for how much time they are spending on their business each day. It’s important to spend time doing things other than work to limit burnout.
When it comes to helping their employees, one of the best ways to support mental health is to normalize the conversation. Give your franchise owners some helpful language about setting healthy boundaries, being able to speak up candidly, and handling emotions.
Another great way to support employees’ mindset is to have regular acknowledgment of small wins. Perhaps every Friday you all share a win from that week or every morning you all share a positive intention for the day. Keeping a positive mindset and culture can come from small, consistent actions.
I hope you have found the ideas above helpful and are feeling excited and motivated to support your franchise owners with these challenges.
Something to consider in this conversation is HOW you are supporting and coaching your franchisees. Do you have a field coach team? Do you host weekly calls with your owners yourself? Having a solid coaching relationship with your franchisees is a key part of supporting them through these challenges.
With the right coaching structure, collaborative approach, and can-do attitude, you can help your franchise owners overcome the challenges that 2022 will bring, and continue growing your franchise system!