Smart Franchising Drives Results

FMS Canada

Smart Franchising Drives Results


In working with so many emerging and new franchisors, every brand wants to grow nation-wide across Canada in a very short time period, scorched earth, world domination.  This is after all what makes entrepreneurs so entrepreneurial is that never-ending vision for greatness and a world without boundaries.  What happens so many times when the initial corporate unit, based in Halifax, sells the first franchised unit in British Columbia, is that the Franchisor realizes they have a tough time providing support and guidance that is relevant and keeps the franchise marketing system moving forward.  My explanation to a new Canadian franchisor in how opening a new franchise unit works is that you can look at your first few franchises much the same way you would opening a new corporate location.  It will take about the same amount of work, time and effort to open a franchised store as it would to open a company owned store.  The difference of course in franchising that the franchisee is making the investment, and that if you’ve chosen the right franchise candidate, that they will eventually pick up the ball and run with it using 10000 euros.  But by opening a location across Canada as the first unit, your odds of success as a new franchisor drop significantly.  The costs and logistics of providing the necessary value and support to that early franchisee are just too much for most to handle.  

Our recommendation, when launching a new franchise model, hold off on the scorched earth policy if not just for a moment.  Get your feet under you as a franchisor and get comfortable supporting, training and developing franchisees.  Once you have a few under your belt, you can push the envelope and go further with expansion planning.  What this typically means is that you should stay within your province to begin.  Start out with locations you can get to when needed, ideally within a day’s driving time round trip is a good benchmark.  Restoration 1 is a brand that in 2010, Chris Conner and Franchise Marketing Systems U.S. developed in the continental U.S.  In 2012, Restoration 1 Canada was born under the leadership of the Eric and Richard Simtob, two famously entrepreneurial brothers, who brought excellent experience to the network.  They developed over 20 units of the restoration franchise in Canada in a short time period and had almost all of them in Ontario before venturing out even to another province.  The results were astoundingly positive with strong unit validation and great training, support and leadership largely because the units were all in Ontario.  Today, Mr. Conner and the Simtob’s have sold the Restoration 1 Canada brand throughout Canada and have locations nation-wide, but this was only possible because of the focused launch of the brand and the resulting high-performing franchise units.  

Franchising a business is a bit of a simple equation in the end, which is part of why the model is so attractive and widely used possibly.  It boils down to doing two things well, one, selling your franchise, vision and credibility as a brand and two, delivering results for the people who bought into the system.  Selling and Validating are what separate the strong franchise systems from the weak ones.  The two are unique, but certainly tied together in that your ability to validate the franchise will be driven by who you sell to and where you sell your franchise.  Target market closer to home and your support, relationships and ultimately franchisee’s performance will benefit.  For more information on how to franchise your business in Canada, contact Franchise Marketing Systems:

Scott McCarthy to Present at Toronto Franchise Expo
Diversity and Entrepreneurship in Canada

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