Emerging franchisor with a small budget? Established franchisor seeking more franchise development opportunities? Organic franchise recruitment is a great option for growing your system! By Angela Coté
Emerging franchisor with a small budget? Established franchisor seeking more franchise development opportunities? Organic franchise recruitment is a great option for growing your system!
Finding ideal franchisees is a top-of-mind priority for most franchisors. Paid strategies such as ads, conferences and brokers are awesome if they fit in your budget and are yielding you good results.
But often overlooked are low-cost, organic strategies that attract the right candidates that align with your mission, are passionate about your brand and have the DNA of a high-performing franchisee.
Leverage Your Existing Network
One of our favorite strategies is to leverage your existing customers, franchisees, friends, family and general network. Do all of these people know you are a franchise?
Do they know that there are opportunities to join your mission and start a successful business of their own?
Try adding “Start Your Own [Insert Business Name]” to the end of each email you send. Talk about your brand with your network. Get used to asking people if they know someone who would be interested in opening their own [insert your concept here].
The best part of this strategy is that you don’t need to pressure anyone, just casually bring up your franchise and the purpose behind it every so often. It can be easy to forget that without telling your community about your franchise opportunity they may not even know it exists!
Share Your Story and Mission
Another amazing solution for how to find ideal franchisees is to share your story, mission and values with free content platforms.
When an ideal franchisee finds and connects to your story, there is a higher chance that they will reach out to you to learn more about the opportunity. Feeling connected to a mission and core values will attract candidates who align with your brand and therefore be a better fit.
Try sharing your story, values and mission through blog posts, on social media, email newsletters, YouTube videos, podcast interviews and by pitching articles to guest blogs, magazines or podcasts.
Angela Coté
Angela Coté is the CEO of Angela Coté (AC) Inc. and has been in the franchise industry for 25-plus years as a franchisor, franchisee and adviser. AC Inc. helps franchisors scale strategically and support franchisees for success through community roundtables, 1:1 advising and field coach training. Join the AC community at angelacote.com.