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Franchise Business in India
Understand Franchise Business
A franchise business may seem easy because, everything is ready made. But, the onus is on the franchise to develop this business. You, as a franchise are developing an already established brand and you have to work as hard as starting your own brand. Do not assume that because you have a set business model and training material ready, you don’t have to work on marketing strategies and growing the presence of that brand you are franchising.
As a franchisee, you are prohibited to implement your own idea with regard to any major or minor aspect of the business. You must know that, when you take up franchising, you are only permitted to follow all the rules and guidelines of running this business as per the stringent rules laid by your franchisor. There are humongous sectors to franchise. Choose your interest. You can start franchising in footwear, clothing, food, restaurants, electronic equipment, sports equipment, or any other brand from a different sector. Jot down your understanding of that product and how you can sell it and choose the brand that convinces you the most. If clothing or jewelry sector interest you, you can look at a list of brands in jewelry for franchising options.
Choose a sector in which you want to operate
If you are starting new as a franchise, then choose a sector in which you have knowledge and professional expertise. For instance, if you have studied hotel management, then you can start a franchise business in fast foods or restaurant chains. If you belong to the education sector, you can start a publication franchise of any of the major book publishing brands or stores. Choose your sector as per your expertise when you are starting as a new franchise.
Find a franchise that interests you
Once you have performed a thorough research, choose a franchisor in the sector that interests you. Contact them via mail or any form of business correspondence presenting the cost you can invest in setting up a franchise and some other reason why that particular franchise interests you. Not every franchisor will be interested in making you a franchisee of their business. You have to tumble down this road to find the right opportunity and also be able to convince the Franchisor that you can grow their business. The royalty that they get annually will be fixed. The percentage of sales that you make as a profit will be fixed and will continue till the agreed tenure of contract expires. When you renew your contract with the Franchisor and you are able to make the targeted sales, you can negotiate to increase the percentage of profit margin in sales.
Success comes with hard work
It is not easy to develop an already established business and reach the sales that cross the break even margin. You must know how to delegate responsibilities as a franchise. You must be good at people skills and management skills. You must develop strategies to increase footfall of customers at your franchisee store. You must train your staff to be customer friendly and deal well with unsatisfied customers. You must teach them with successful strategies to address any negative feedback given by customers and learn to placate a dissatisfied customer successfully.
Be a good business manager
Management is entirely your responsibility when you start a business as a franchise. You have to make a note of the customer’s feedback with regard to their likes and dislikes. You can use this feedback to improve the services and make your staff hospitable and prompt so you can have satisfied customers. Always learn to take the woes and feedback of customers constructively. Research as much as you can to learn about new marketing strategies that are implemented digitally.
Care for your customer as well as employees
You can use many digital marketing tools to that are freely available for downloads. As much as it is your responsibility to develop loyal customer base, so is your responsibility to develop a loyal employee culture. Make sure to keep the work culture and atmosphere free from internal competition and friction. Your training show reflects your complacence and amicability. If you succeed in running this franchise out let, you can grow your franchise and create a bigger business out of it by expanding and developing as many franchisee outlets as you can.
Learn and adapt
Your capacity to manage a business and people is tested well by running a franchise with definite set of rules. It will also give you a deep insight into how to run a successful business. If you ever want to take entrepreneurship seriously and build your own brand, you can run a franchisee successfully and learn a great deal from those successful business models.
Be well informed
When starting a franchisee, you must know how to negotiate with your franchisor and get all your queries answered. When you know how to delegate every day to day task, you will also reduce the work load for your employees and they will stay productive.
Give your best wherever you can
As a franchisee you can only get creative with people management. You have to work on strategies to make your employees productive and teach them techniques to manage time effectively. This creates no chance of chaos or confusion with regard to responsibilities.
Legal formalities
Apart from knowing that people skills are a must in any kind of business set up, especially, in a franchise, there are a few registrations and licenses you need, to start a franchise business.
- You have the option of taking financial assistance from your franchisor as well.
- You can apply for business loans and also request your franchisor to assist you in getting this loan by answering many important questions about the business. Since, your franchisor has successfully established this business, they will be in a position to answer any financial question, and also understands banking and finance jargons and answer them for you. This is one of the few biggest advantages of choosing a franchisee business. You will find a financer, mentor, and a helping hand all in a single go in a franchisor.
You must get the shop and establishment act license, VAT, TAN and PAN number registrations. You also have to sign a contract which is an agreement between you and the franchisor that falls under standard commercial law. Also, company registrations are needed if you are a LLP or a private firm that wants to start a franchise.
