From franchisee to franchisor and from both sides of the Atlantic, Jim Hunter has seen all the faces of franchising.
Through it all, the president and CEO of the handyman franchise operation House Doctors, has observed some secrets to success that are steady across oceans and industries.
“Most successful franchisees have energy and enthusiasm and pride in their business,” says Hunter, a native of Scotland who oversees the national operation made up of around 450 employees in 103 territories. “If you get that in your office and in your team, then that overflows.”
So Hunter starts with enthusiastic franchisees. Then he accelerates the training process to get them up and running before their energy has time to fade.
Since he started this “Fast Start” program, his franchisees are opening their operations 70 percent faster than before. And last year, the program paved the way for both the fastest-growing and the highest revenue-generating franchises in House Doctors’ history.
Smart Business spoke with Hunter about how to build enthusiastic franchises.
Find enthusiastic candidates. I’ve seen some great franchisees who have built a fantastic business and went on to create great wealth. All of these very successful franchisees had three main traits: One, a very strong determination to succeed that enabled them to overcome any challenges that they had. And they had a real energy and enthusiasm and pride in their business and what they were doing. Finally, all of the really successful franchisees are able to work in partnership with franchisors and follow a proven system.
[We] always start with a discovery process where the franchisor is learning as much about the candidate as the candidate is learning about the concept. It’s very much a two-way interview process, first by telephone and then when we meet during discovery day at our home office.
As part of our discovery day, we have the candidate complete a personality profile questionnaire. We compare the results to existing successful franchisees and look for similarities. We’re not only looking for the personal traits like determination and enthusiasm for the concept but also certain business skills based on their work history.
We start off with an overview of the company: how it started, where it came from and where we’re going. The vision and the buy-in really start with the discovery day. [You can see] they’re excited and they’re giving a response like, ‘Oh yes, I see what you mean,’ and, ‘Yeah, I agree with that. Wow, that’s the way to go.’ They’re giving positive responses to what we are telling them. If they didn’t, then we wouldn’t award them a franchise.
