How to Start a Franchise: Advice for Mobile Service Companies

Want to know how to start a franchise? We consulted two experts, a franchise lawyer and a marketing consultant who works with franchises, to share advice from both sides. They’ve provided tips for companies thinking of expanding their operation into franchising, and for companies thinking of joining an established franchise brand.

In either case, there is a lot to consider. Our experts break down how to start a franchise with actionable advice you can use. First up is advice for companies that are thinking of buying into a franchise.

1. Buying Into a Franchise, with Scott Fish

During the past two decades, Scott Fish of 32 Digital has delivered value to franchises, hotels, resorts, and tourism organizations around the world, utilizing digital marketing strategies to help them drive more business and connect better with their customers.

Maintain Control Over Your Franchise Brand

Owning a franchise is an exciting and dream-fulfilling decision. Often the decision to start a franchise includes consideration into how much support the national brand will give your newly opened franchise business.

Most franchise agreements include fees being paid into a corporate marketing fund or co-op marketing fund that will help support the local brands with national advertising. This obviously has benefits for a new business, connections with advertising channels are already in place, marketing materials have been created, and brand recognition is a key ingredient in jump-starting your new franchise.

Getting Started

When you begin down the road of creating a franchise, you will be given lots of advice and tools on how to best market the business and establish new customers. One of the most popular ways to generate more customer leads and brand awareness is through social media channels. A social media channel managed by someone that is not in tune with your business is not a great idea. Keep social media in front of you as a business owner. It’s a great channel to drive new business. It also helps you keep a pulse on the customer service and feedback loop elements of your business.

Set up a few different social media channel rules with your employees. But don’t forget to empower them to make decisions and response within a certain scope.

With a strong social media strategy, franchises can respond quickly to customer issues and maintain a strong local brand presence when they are new to a local market.

Own Your Lead Generation Experience

Owning a franchise is an exciting and dream fulfilling decision. Often the decision to start a franchise includes consideration into how much support the national brand will give your franchise business. Most franchise agreements include fees to a corporate marketing fund or co-op marketing fund that will help support the local brands with national advertising.

This obviously has benefits for a new business. Connections with advertising channels are already in place, marketing materials are available, and brand recognition is a key ingredient in jump-starting your new franchise.

Don’t Let Leads Go To Waste

During the past 15 years, I’ve seen many companies deciding to spend tens of thousands of dollars of paid search, social media ads, or SEO in an effort to drive more leads. Choosing your marketing channel is only half the battle– the lead closing or customer service experience is the other half. You should test, monitor and develop these so that the leads do not go to waste.

Finally, using a phone call tracking system will help you tie all of your marketing efforts together. It will help you understand what channels are making the phone ring.

Always Own Our Message, No Matter the Channel

During the next several years Google’s importance in driving local search will likely shift. But they will always be a major factor in driving leads for local franchise businesses. Channels change, the way that people search for services change, but the importance of owning your local business franchise presence will always be present.

Whether you’re starting a new franchise or have many years of franchise business experience, dial-in your local search strategies, social media assets, email marketing opportunities and lead generation method.

It’s the only way to keep the phone ringing.

2. How to Start a Franchise System, with Craig R. Trachtenberg

Craig R. Tractenberg is a Partner at Fox Rothschild, LLP. He is a skilled international litigator who handles complex business disputes involving intellectual property, licenses, business torts and insolvency issues. He focuses on franchise companies’ development and expansion.

Your Competitive Advantage

You need to be able to articulate and protect your competitive advantage. Your competitive advantage will not only draw customers to your product and services. It will help sell franchises and help franchisees make money.

Advertising and marketing explain and demonstrate why your system is the one to choose. But you need to explain that message above the noise of competitors. Competitive advantage means better, faster and more value. In some systems, it can mean better, faster and cheaper.

Investing in mobile technology which gives customers confidence in reliable, safe, secure and competent services is only the start. Once the job is done, learn how to do it better with customer feedback and surveys. Contests and incentives motivate customers to share their valuable opinions with you. How you follow up creates opportunities for customer loyalty.

Enforce Your Rights

Protecting your competitive advantage is also important because successful systems will be imitated under the guise of ‘best practices.’ Engage and listen to lawyers and consultants with experience in protecting brands. Enforce your rights or lose them. Police your advantages against poachers and continue to innovate.

Franchise Management Software

Want to learn more about how to start a franchise, or how to manage and grow your franchise using franchise management software? Book a free, private demo of Vonigo.