Franchises for sale with a unified vision

Mike Stringer | Managing Director | Car Care 

If you are considering franchises for sale that are mobile or car-based franchises, Car Care is Australia’s largest mobile car detailer with nearly 100 franchisees operating throughout Australia and New Zealand. Mike Stringer, Managing Director of Car Care, tells us about one of the key elements you should look for in any franchise: effective communication between the decision makers of the franchise, and the franchisees.

Franchises for sale with a unified vision

When you consider if you wish to purchase franchises for sale, you need to take into account the leadership of the franchise. The business of a franchise is by nature decentralised, with each franchisee responsible for much of the day to day decision making within their business. This does not mean that the decision makers within the franchise are allowed to be complacent. Instead the management team for the franchise you are looking at buying into should be proactive, ensuring that the franchise business has a consistent and clear vision, and that this vision is shared with its franchisees.

Here at Car Care we understand the value of providing everyone with a unifying vision. The main benefit is that it ensures our franchisees understand the direction the franchise is moving in, and that they are adequately prepared for the road ahead.

The key to ensuring the success of this vision is simple: Communication. A good leader needs to understand that communication is a two way street, with both input from franchisees, and output to let them know where we are headed, and that their valuable opinions have helped us shape the company.

Input with the decision makers can enhance the franchise business

‘Communication is a two way street’. This is not just a throw away line; it is the bedrock to effective communication. With the franchises for sale you are looking at, ask what mechanisms they have in place for taking on board franchisees feedback, whether that be; committees; satisfaction surveys or one on one conversations.

"As the Managing Director of Car Care, I make a personal effort to go to every state and speak with franchisees on the ground about the direction of our business on a regular basis" 

To ensure we are hearing our franchisees effectively, we have put a number of processes in place. As the Managing Director of Car Care, I make a personal effort to go to every state and speak with franchisees on the ground about the direction of our business on a regular basis.

This means I am made aware of possible future concerns well in advance, directly from the people who will experience it first-hand. This direct insight into the unique conditions of the local markets is invaluable during our strategic planning, and it lets us know what is making life easier and business more productive for our franchisees, and what more we can still do.

This input from franchisees is not a shallow token gesture, either. At Car Care we have implemented a product validation group made up of one franchisee per state, offering their experienced opinion on future potential products.

Output from the decision makers

Using this input from our franchisees, we can consider our vision for the franchise. However a vision will not help us if it is not shared with our franchisees.

With the franchises for sale you are considering, ask what mechanisms they have in place to share the vision for the business and to make sure that communications are followed by actions.

At Car Care we have a number of processes in place to make sure franchisees find out the information they need in a timely fashion. Central to our internal communications is an internal newsletter sent out quarterly, which disseminates information easily and conveniently within our company. In addition we have frequent state meetings with master franchisors, acting in sync with consistent communication between our master franchisors enables a clear message to be provided to franchisees.

When there are big changes to our processes or products we get out face to face with franchisees. One such recent road show involved sharing how we would transition from the use of Yellow Pages adverts to the use of Adwords and Search Engine Optimisation to gain new business and the next steps that were available to make this transition.

By ensuring that our franchisees are heard, and by translating feedback into a vision and action we are able to ensure the goals for Car Care in the future are a collective vision.

Effective two-way communication is key for a successful franchise business, so I encourage you to examine this closely in the franchises for sale you are considering.