Opening a New Franchise Location: Part 5, Training

This is part 5 of a 6-part series on opening a new franchise business. For part 1, Finance, click here. For part 2, Real Estate & Site Selection, click here. For part 3, Construction, click here. For part 4, Permitting, click here. The last installment will look into marketing.

Your franchise is almost a go! You’ve found a site, built it out, and worked through the necessary paperwork to ensure everything is up to code and legal. But the work is not done. Next up is taking the necessary steps to learn how to properly run the franchise: training.

There are four kinds of training. Depending on the nature of the franchise, you may experience one or more of them. They are:

• Operational training. These are the basics that anyone needs to know to run the franchise, from standard operating procedures to brand values and staff management to POS and IT systems.
• Hands-on training. Typically, this training takes place at the franchisor’s headquarters and allows franchisees to take what they learned during operational training, put it into practice, and ask questions as they go.
• On-site training. The next stage of training happens at your new location with team members from your franchisor, who will help you set up and open the franchise.
• Ongoing training. This is the additional and continual training offered by the franchisor to keep all franchisees up to date on changing franchise goals, policies, procedures, and systems, as well as on information about new products under development and upcoming marketing campaigns.

“A future franchise owner should look at their franchisor to provide comprehensive training on the business model and how to be successful with that franchise,” says Bruce Barnett, Vice President of Franchise Development for ProSource Wholesale. He feels that help with training is the most important thing a franchisee should expect from a franchisor.

Robert Morris, Vice President of Development and Global Operations for Altitude Trampoline Parks, describes the franchisor-franchisee relationship in familial terms. “You should look at the franchisor as the parent of an adult,” he says. “They are a great resource for information and provide support as needed.”

Once the initial training is complete, both the franchisor and franchisee must be receptive to continual learning. Barnett says that franchisors always should look at what their franchise owners are doing, adapting their best innovations and making them scalable for the whole system. “Every franchisor should learn from their franchisees,” he says.

Morris adds that franchisees need to do the same to avoid the common mistake of not being receptive to change and new ideas.

Recent upheavals in the economy and the world have only magnified the importance and value of a solid training program for franchisees. “If anything, the changing economy has shown the value in training for the long term, as a solid training program can encourage reduced turnover,” Morris says. It also reduces training costs over the long run and increases guest satisfaction.

Ongoing training is also beneficial to handle technology changes, Barnett says. “There may be new tools or apps that franchisees won’t know about unless they come to training.”

The changing role of technology is probably the most significant way the training process has shifted for franchisees in the last 5 to 10 years. From online curriculum and refresher courses to the flexibility in communicating information that brands learned during the pandemic, technology has made the training process more accessible and adaptable than ever.

Ginny Gaylor is an award-winning writer and editor based in Greensboro, North Carolina. She has more than 25 years of experience writing on a variety of topics from home furnishings to health care, hospitality to lifestyle. She can be reached through her website, ginnygaylor.com.