Candidates often ask me why we pay for all their expenses when they come to Discovery Day to see our award winning children’s salons. Well, first of all that isn't quite accurate, as we do ask our best candidates to buy their own plane tickets (that way they have a little “skin in the game”). But other than that it’s pretty much on us. Now don’t get me wrong, there is some qualification that goes on and candidates that come into see us take our free no-obligation webinar, and have sent us some financial information that we check out. We don’t feel like it would be a prudent use of company funds for us to treat candidates to a  hotel on Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza district if they weren’t financially qualified to join our system. But for those that meet our qualifications, we do feel like Discovery Day is an important part of the process.

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People are requesting information about our franchise on a daily basis. The two most often asked questions I get are, “how much does it cost?” and “how much can I make?” These are questions that most interested franchise buyers have the right to know. If I may, I'd like to offer prospective buyers a question that would answer the other two and save everyone a lot of due diligence and research. You see, I think the most important question that franchise buyers should ask is, “How many of your locations have closed?”

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When you are looking for a franchise to buy, there's a lot of due diligence that needs to be done. One of the things that I would recommend that you look for is current franchisees who are opening up additional locations. When a franchisee is opening up additional units it tells you a couple of things, number one is that there's a very high likelihood that they are either making money with their first location or they feel comfortable with the support and training that they are getting and the trajectory that they are on to continue to expand. Scalability is one of the most important elements of franchise success and opening additional units is a great sign of scalability. Multi-unit owners are really important in franchise systems that don’t have a 10 or 20 year track record. Everyone knows that McDonalds, Taco Bell and Subway have expandable and scalable systems, but if you are buying into a newer franchise system the importance of multi-unit owners is magnified. A lot of this relates back to the issues that I have mentioned previously, namely a proven track record and the support and training that you receive from your franchisor. With everyone looking for a new and exciting franchise opportunity, looking for franchise systems where franchisees are opening up additional units is a great place to begin your search! 

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You hear people talk all the time about scalability, but what exactly does that mean? I would recommend that you find out exactly what that means as it relates to the Franchise you are thinking about buying! If you are not buying into a “scalable” system, then what you might be saying is that you're content with NOT growing your business. For example, have you ever watched the TV series Shark Tank? In this show, one of the first question they ask is, "What are your revenues?" Another good question that they ask is, "What were your revenues last year?" They ask this, because what they really want to find out is if the model growing, if it's creating more revenue than it did last year, and if it's scalable. Scalability, the ability to grow revenues and expand on an ever increasing workload, is one of the main characteristics of a franchise system. This is where the link can be found between the systems that the franchise has in place, and how those systems function under the ever increasing revenue that is produced. There are lots of ways to measure scalability for lots of different business models, but here are some of the most important when it comes to franchising;

• Is there a market for the service? Without demand for the product, how will you grow?
• Can you teach someone else to do it? Scalability relies on the fact that whatever you are doing can be taught to some else who can then teach it to others.
• Standardization: Can it be repeated successfully over and over, the same way, and continue to produce more and more revenue as it grows?
• Recurring revenue: I would venture to say that very few franchise models can survive without services or products that meet a need and require customers to come back again and again to get them.

It's a fact that running a business can be hard work and encompasses many challenges that most people have never encountered. But it's arguable that when you invest into a salon franchise system, you have a greater chance of success. Plus, most salon franchises (like Shear Madness Haircuts for Kids) do offer the advantage of a successful business history and scalability. However, as implementing a salon franchise system does take effort, you'll want to make sure all your questions are answered through doing a little research. Contact salon franchises, reach out to the franchisors, and compare business models!  You'll also want to take a look at the Franchise Disclosure document, the Franchise Agreement, and talk to current franchisees. Seek out a franchise business that currently has a long track record of success. Keep in mind that the franchise system itself may be younger than the actual concept itself.  Find out how long the franchisor has had a history with the concept itself.  Have they really figured it out before offering the franchise?

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Ok, so here’s the deal, according to a recent article I read, a new franchise starts in the United States about every 8 minutes. There are several things that bother me about this trend. Number 1 is that many new concepts have no history of operating successfully, so how does a business know that their systems works and can be taught easily to franchisees? Furthermore, without going through all kinds of economic environments and all the various issues that a business can face over a long period of changing business climates, how do you know if the concept will stand the test of time? One of the biggest advantages that I see of buying into a franchise is the “benchmarking” that they are able to do for a franchisee to make sure they are on pace to succeed - and those metrics only come from watching a business over a long period of time. If a franchise can’t show you a track record of success, don’t risk trying to create one for them! 

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