Franchisors who sell their franchise opportunities to prospective franchisees often offer a range of benefits that come with the package. There is usually a mix of training and support, marketing and advertising, business development, location build and outfitting, recruitment, financing and payroll and a whole lot more. When you are evaluating different franchise opportunities, you need to carefully consider each of these aspects of the franchisor’s offer.
And one important aspect related to this is the training for franchisees. Although most franchisors offer some type of training, these training programmes differ from each other and from industry to industry.
However, there are some unifying factors that make for a successful franchisee training programme and in this blog post, we’ll explore what these are while addressing some of the most frequently encountered questions you may have.
Table of contents:
- What is franchise training?
- Why is it important to undertake franchise training?
- What are the benefits of franchise training?
- What kind of training should a franchisor conduct?
- How long does franchise training usually last?
- What should you pay attention to when evaluating a franchisor’s training programme?
- Concluding remarks
What is franchise training?
Training is usually described as an action that is taken to teach a person something specific so that they have the tools, skills and knowledge to perform that task well on their own.
Franchise training is quite similar to this concept, but in particular, it is provided by the franchisor to the franchisee to help them replicate the business model successfully.
As such, it involves a broad range of steps to help the franchisee ensure that they understand the franchisor’s policies, learn more about the marketing strategies, learn how to operate their business, retain brand consistency and maintain customers’ expectations related to the brand.
Why is it important to undertake franchise training?
Franchise training is a way to build a new franchisee’s capacity to run the business successfully on their own.
In addition, it helps them better represent the brand in their local territory. Because running a franchise business is such a broad undertaking, it is essential to cover skills training and empowerment in areas such as:
- Entrepreneurship
- Product/service-specific knowledge
- People skills
- Marketing and maintaining brand consistency
- Retaining a passion for the work at hand
- Self-motivation, etc.
This training is often provided in the form of courses in a step-by-step process as franchisees gradually learn all the ropes that they need to know to help ensure their business takes off. In other words, franchise training provides the foundation for proper business management and operations.
Benefits of franchise training
Franchise training comes with a wide range of benefits to both franchisors and franchisees. Here is a short list of just some of the most important ones:
Franchise training benefits for franchisors
- Consistency and sustainability of the parent brand
- Franchisees are committed and motivated to succeed, which benefits the franchisor
- Consistent and sustainable replication of the business model
- More satisfied and loyal customers
- Greater financial success
- Stronger internal company culture
- Optimised way of running the entire business
- Stronger market positioning
Franchise training benefits for franchisees
- Solid business foundation on which to build and grow their business
- Better empowerment to replicate the business model successfully
- Equipped with all the essential knowledge and skills to succeed
- Gain access to a range of tools and resources and how to optimally use them
- Receive information on the technical part of running the business
- Better enabled to realise their full potential
What kind of training should a franchisor conduct?
With the unquestionable importance of franchise training, many prospective franchisees wonder what training is available when you purchase a franchise.
Although there is no single answer to this question, we can break it down into several types of training that a franchisee can expect to receive.
Each of these types comes with its own set of advantages and is geared towards making your business a success. Let’s take a look at the different options now.
1. Headquarters training
One of the very first training types a new franchisee can expect is training carried out at the franchisor’s headquarters. The benefit of this type is that franchisees can quickly get to know key members of the team that they will be working with in the future. This already helps align the franchisor’s goals with those of the franchisee.
But in addition to getting to know the team, franchisees should also get classroom instruction which is broken down into several parts that may include written segments with a corresponding exam, group work, case studies, lectures, etc.
Overall, everything (or almost everything) that is covered in a franchisor’s operations manual should be covered at headquarters training. It is perhaps one of the most intensive types of training that a franchisee can receive.
2. On-location training
On-location or on-site training takes place at an existing franchisee’s location or at the location where the new franchisee will be running the business. It goes beyond the theoretical training covered in the headquarters training and it helps solidify theoretical knowledge by enabling the franchisee to put it into practice.
By observing the new franchisee’s strengths and weaknesses during the initial on-location training, the coach or trainer will be better able to tailor the remaining training to their needs. This minimises mistakes and encourages good practices.
3. Group training
Group training is a less common type of training but it serves an important purpose.
By putting new franchisees together with existing franchisees, you will be better able to address motivation and engagement challenges and reluctance in adopting the franchisor’s business methodology.
4. Marketing training
A special word must be said about marketing training partly because it plays such an important role in the franchise business’ success.
Franchise marketing training can be divided into two main parts:
- The first is where headquarters does the main marketing and requires franchisees to simply replicate the marketing message locally.
- The second is when a franchisee has leeway to create and run their own marketing campaigns but this is where policies and procedures must be in place as well as an overarching framework within which to focus their efforts. Ultimately, the main benefit of this type of training is brand consistency.
5. Mentorship training
Mentorship training in franchising is the process where a successful franchisee is appointed as a mentor to a new franchisee.
This knowledge exchange, share and transfer is one of the most powerful ways for a new franchisee to experience success and enjoy greater levels of business growth.
As such, a key benefit of this type of training is both the encouragement and management of franchisee information requests.
Keep these valuable insights about franchise training options that franchisors may include in their training programme by downloading our helpful PDF:
How long does franchise training usually last?
The most frequently encountered training period is between one and four weeks.
The duration of franchise training will differ from franchise to franchise.
And in addition to this, depending on the complexity of the business model, training can vary from a few days to several months.
What should you pay attention to when evaluating a franchisor’s training programme?
There are many criteria for evaluating a franchisor’s training programme. A few of these include:
- The location and duration of the training programme
- The cost involved for training (if any)
- Which members of your team should attend the training?
- What criteria will you and your team be evaluated against?
- What does the training curriculum cover?
- What portion of time will be spent on which type of training?
- Will you receive additional marketing, financial and operational training?
- Who will the training be carried out by? What experience do they have?
- By whom and how will the rest of your team be taught?
- How comprehensive is the training material?
- Will you receive tools and resources before the business’ opening?
Concluding remarks
It’s essential to carefully study every element of the franchisor’s package offer before you sign on the dotted line.
One such element is the franchisor’s training programme. You need to be assured that it is comprehensive enough to equip you to handle the daily business operations from the get-go. Your franchise training programme should align with your goals and objectives.
Overall, with an effective training programme, both the franchisor and franchisee can really benefit and reap the rewards.
And if you’d like to find out more about the different types of franchise training that are available and what they entail, download our helpful and informative resource.
