How to Build a Franchise Worldwide

When it comes to building a worldwide fitness franchise, and expanding into different continents and markets, it is important for the brand to have a unique story to drive the company’s global vision.

Training is the most important strategy that is recommended for new franchisors to streamline compliance when expanding globally. A dollar spent training before a franchise opens is ten dollars saved in retraining downstream. Making sure everyone knows how to do everything correctly is the first step in compliance.

It is important to develop a plan to have support team members physically in stores as much as possible to ensure brand standards are met and maintained. It's also important to have as much visibility on the quality of the service or product being delivered as possible and choosing the right franchisees for the initial store in a new country. There's a lot on the line when entering a new country. If the first franchise fails due to an incorrect operator, it will make it exponentially more difficult to relaunch and expand. Not impossible, just much harder, so be patient and make sure everyone is a good fit before diving in.

It's important to pay close attention to all the metrics and all the milestones that you can measure - everything is important to track. Sales, profitability, lead volume, lead conversion rate...anything that can be measured, should be tracked. The stakes are higher when entering a new country as there are many sunken market entry costs that need to be cash flowed. The success and trajectory of the first handful of franchises are pivotal to the speed of your expansion in the new country and your overall success. By tracking as many metrics as you can, more frequently than you normally might, you can identify when things are going off the boil and adjust your support, advice, or strategy accordingly.

Bringing on the right franchisees is one of the most important things to consider. They are the absolute linchpin to the success of a location. Bring on the right people and the brand will bloom in that market and the entire brand is strengthened. It’s far better to have a smaller amount of great operators than many operators doing things incorrectly. We have always been very selective of who we choose to grant a franchise to and it remains critically important to this day.

It would be impossible to expand broadly without the passion and dedication of local franchise owners. They lead their teams to greatness each day and this allows us to scale quickly while maintaining excellence and our incredibly high brand standards across the globe. By partnering with local franchisees, we can grow the business while tapping into their knowledge of their specific markets. This model also allows entrepreneurs to be part of a proven system while contributing their own expertise and enthusiasm, which drives growth.

If you use a lot of cloud-based systems in the back end of your franchise and you have a high level of visibility and accountability measures in place that are linked to the things that drive the performance and quality of a store, then I would encourage you to dive in and figure things out along the way. It will take effort, a lot of research, travel, and obtaining local advice from service providers and industry experts, but it can absolutely be worth it. Your brand might be even more popular in a foreign country than it is at home!

Jade Winter is the CEO and co-founder of Studio Pilates International.