This article is written and owned by Lance Winslow
One of the worst things for a franchise system is to have negative franchisees which bring down the morale. When a franchise system is doing well the energy and synergy of all the franchisees along with the franchisor and his marketing will propel the company to greater heights. But just as when you are with a group of friends, and one of them has a bad attitude, their negativity can spread throughout the group like a virus.
Before retirement, I ran a franchising company, and I do remember a few franchisees with negative attitudes. It was amazing how much damage they did, and I later found out that they were talking negatively to customers, new potential franchise buyers, and all the other franchisees. Often if you read the advice and articles from small business consultants, they will tell you; if you have a negative person in the office - fire them, or to use an analogy throw them off the ship.
This may sound like cruel and unusual punishment, but if they are doing damage to your team, you’ll be sorry later if you don’t. Your best bet is to keep people with negative attitudes from joining your company. In other words, a franchising company should not sell franchises to people who come in and complain a lot about their former boss, or how they hated corporate America and their 9-to-5 job. Because in the end once they join the company they will find something to gripe about, and cause the same problems in your company.
This is why franchisors is often ask questions of new franchise buyers such as; “why did you leave your last job?” Or “are you able to get along with other people, and do you work well on a team?” If you run a franchise company, or if you are in charge of choosing new franchisees, I’d recommend that you ask questions just like these. Please consider all this.
Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes in franchising.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lance_Winslow
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1 response so far ↓
1 Pirtek Punisher // Dec 18, 2009 at 8:52 am
This article is very one-sided. My opinion is when franchisees complain, and the complaints are consistent, that the franchisor kicks those franchisees off the ship because the truth hurts. It is immoral, and I think unethical, to promote any franchise that has a failing track record. Covering up flaws in any franchise business system is bad for the franchise, and bad for the franchisee. On the other hand there are many examples of franchisees improving the system, these improvements all started with a complaint. This article points out the assholic attitude of franchisors. Most likely the morale is bad because business is bad, and business is bad probably because something is wrong with the business model. Almost all franchise contracts dictate who, what, when and where and for how much, a franchisee must deal with, pay for and buy from. If the franchisee has a complaint it should be recognized as valuable, because its the franchisee that is in the field and has the best data.
As an example, all company owned Pirtek locations lose money in the USA. Pirtek claims that they are following the system at their own stores but still they lose money. While they claim THEY follow the system, they also Terminate franchisees for not following the system. The number one complaint at Pirtek is extremely high product costs. Some franchisees complained and they were Terminated ( another way of throwing them off the ship). Let this be a warning to all prospective franchisees, attitudes like Lance Winslow’s run rampant through franchising. I say its a bad attitude.
If you want the truth about franchising read Robert Purvin’s book “the franchise fraud” If you want the truth about individual franchises talk to every franchisee, past and present. If you can’t get in contact with past franchisees and get the whole story then do not buy that franchise. Kicking people off the boat because they complain is nothing more than franchisors’ attempt at covering up the flawed and onerous franchise systems they try to sell every day. If you have any questions about Pirtek you can email or call me. If you have questions about franchising in general I suggest you not listen to the Franchisor! Thanks, Scott Layer. fixxme@aol.com. Or 813-318-1258. Have a great day.
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