Retiring military vets continue to have a love affair with franchising, and it’s easy to see why. Both endeavors lean heavily on a team approach.
Having a tried-and-tested formula as opposed to a one-off operational guidebook is a natural fit for veterans. Veterans are in general well versed in working together as a team.
There’s another motive, too: profit. Franchising makes scaling up the enterprise a vastly easier endeavor than growing a larger business with an existing one-off storefront. One stand-alone storefront can generate an income, provided the owner exercises a reasonable level of business acumen. But add the element of scalability through franchising, and it’s a whole different level of enterprise!
Training tasks can be more easily codified and applied to each new location. There’s less need to reinvent the process with each new store that opens.
Supplies can be purchased in a higher volume and distributed to each store, resulting in a cost reduction per unit purchased. Oddly enough scaling up the enterprise often reduces staffing needs, particularly among the franchise’s managerial staff. That’s because operational efficiencies kick in once a franchisee opens five or 10 locations. A franchising concept can also lend more marketing visibility to the enterprise as new stores open within close enough proximity to other stores to boost visibility.
With so many compelling reasons to franchise a concept, the only surprising fact is that so many entrepreneurs do not give the franchising model the credit it’s due for kick starting a business from the get-go.
