There is so much talk about recession, whether we are in it or if it’s coming shortly. But what you need to worry about as a franchisee is how to make sure you are prepared for whatever happens in the economy.

You have to be aware that there might be global, countrywide, or local events that could affect your operations. That’s why you need to think through and act to make sure that your business is as protected as possible. That’s one of your jobs as a business owner: take the time to design strategies to minimize the negative impact of outside influences.

That’s when you work on your business, not in your business. Especially if you are a growing multi-unit franchisee, dedicating time to strategic thinking is critical to protecting your business, your people, and the brand that you invested money in.

Entering into survival mode? Review these tactics to grow in 2022 and beyond

In this blog post, I want you to analyze the questions you should ask yourself....

Building a profitable and proven brand is hard! But franchising allows entrepreneurs to own their business and achieve the time and financial freedom they want and deserve. Without franchises, many people wouldn't have the opportunity to make the American dream of business ownership a reality. 

But there’s a catch. Many franchisees come from a corporate background or haven't had a job for a little or a long time. And when they finally invest in a franchise, they realize how different it is to be an employee vs. owning a business.

Why is this? When you work for a company, your role within the organization dictates what you focus on day in and day out. Someone defines your goals and monitors your impact on the overall results. And, most importantly, you're clear on what your job is and the activities you must execute every day to accomplish the business objectives.

When you are an entrepreneur, especially a franchisee, that's not the case. You don’t have that...

Throughout my +30 years involved in the franchise industry, helping franchisees around the world, I’ve come to realize what is the #1 key to success for a franchisee. 

Of all the things that you need to learn and do when you invest in a franchise, if you don't have this, you are going to struggle as a business owner. How can you avoid this conflict? What is the number one key?

The secret is that you care about your people and they know and feel you care for them. It might sound simple, but sadly, sometimes franchisees and business owners forget to demonstrate and communicate this. 

Communicating this is crucial because even though we may do a lot of things for them every day, unless we share it and let them know why we're doing it, they won’t really know. 

With this blog post, I’m inviting you to reflect on what caring for your people truly means and if you are indeed demonstrating it or not. And, of course, I’m giving you tips and information...

AFA 6th Anniversary Celebration

July 18 marked our sixth anniversary. Six years of great achievements not only for The American Franchise Academy (AFA) but also for the clients that have trusted us during this time to help them become successful franchise business owners. (Thank you for that!)

It's amazing how what started as a deviation from my sabbatical came to be this organization that for the last six years, has been serving franchisees and their leaders, giving them knowledge and information so that they can thrive with their businesses, reach financial and time freedom, and fulfill their dreams.

To commemorate this joyous occasion, I invited Curtis Moore, an ex-Dunkin Donuts franchisee, expert district manager, and also one of our AFA’s instructors, to a live broadcast on my YouTube Channel.

During this special session, Curtis and I shared some insights that have helped the Academy and its clients reach their goals. Here are six insights of success that we came up with...

Many franchisees struggle to achieve the goals they expected when they bought their franchise because success in this industry requires more than just hard work, time, dedication, and commitment. 

Sure, some investors eventually are able to grow into a successful multi-unit organization and become top-performing franchisees. Still, most franchise owners don’t achieve this level of success. They continue to struggle daily, trying to compensate for the things they don't know or don't have with more work, longer hours, and using the franchise as their job.

Why does this happen? Because even though they know something is broken, they don't know precisely what it is or how to fix it. That’s where the challenge comes with most franchisees. 

The good news is that there’s a solution. We at The American Franchise Academy came up with four steps that will help you determine what's missing within your business and what you can do to fix your franchise so you can...

Although the constant attraction of new talent helps you grow, being able to retain the people is also critical, especially with the staffing crisis our industry is facing. How can you do that? In this blog post, I’ll be sharing five strategies to reduce turnover and have a healthy organization.

People that look for a job are searching for opportunities and benefits, but in the end, they stay for the company’s culture. Taking this into consideration, these five best practices will help you transform your business culture, and therefore, have better employee retention.

1. Select the right people

This doesn’t only mean having the talent, the skills, and the experience to perform properly, but making a good fit with your company. Otherwise, you'll end up looking for people again in three months or so.

To help you discover those candidates, you have to define clearly who is your ideal employee and how does the right cultural fit look like. Based on that, as...

When it comes to managing people, why, when, and how to give raises to their employees is one of the biggest challenges that franchise or business owners face. Why? Because given at the right time and in the right way, raises can impact the company culture positively. On the other hand, not having them can affect the working environment negatively. 

You must remember that there are two objectives when it comes to giving people this financial benefit. First, to give recognition for performance. Second, to provide fair and competitive pay according to the market, to be able to retain those employees.

Think about it! Upgrading a person’s salary when they outperform will get them excited and motivated to be in your organization and willing to continue giving you that extra effort when they come to work. Otherwise, even if you have a great culture and you do everything right, if you don’t offer the pay that the employees deserve, then they might end up leaving you.

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Franchisees who want to grow their organization from a one-unit job into a multi-unit enterprise require the help of a district manager to accomplish the business and financial results they expect. 

But this multi-unit leader often gets frustrated because there’s a lack of clarity in the industry as to what is their role. So much so, that this is the first reason why these particular leaders struggle to be successful.

Why is this? The position usually gets promoted from a single unit manager into a district manager and ends up becoming super general managers, instead of true multi-unit leaders that focus on the things that actually impact and make a difference in the organization. 

To prevent this confusion, we at The American Franchise Academy have identified three specific roles that these fantastic and hardworking team members have to play. 

1. The protector of their people

Protecting their staff is the first thing they have to focus their time and...

There are seven critical responsibilities that the district manager has to command to achieve the business and financial results that the franchisee business owner expects.

In past blog posts, we covered leading, planning, staffing, execution of brand and business systems, maintenance, and marketing. Last, but not least, we’ll analyze the results responsibility, which ultimately sums up why these leaders do their job every day. 

If you want to see all prior responsibilities, subscribe to our YouTube Channel to review the rest of the District Manager’s playlist!

If the district manager does what he needs to do in all the other responsibilities, he’ll be able to accomplish this one. That’s why this position has to be clear on what are the duties and routines they have to perform to achieve the desired results. 

That’s not all. Aside from that, they need to develop these specific five skills:

1. Understanding financials

The district...

The district managers require a multi-unit vision to supervise the operations of several stores and deal with the variety of challenges, environments, opportunities, and people that come with overseeing a large organization. 

But those skills and abilities have to be developed with the tools and the knowledge that’ll help them overcome the difficulties of that multi-unit leadership and do the job successfully. The American Franchise Academy has identified seven critical responsibilities of a district manager, and in this blog post, we’ll be discussing the sixth responsibility: market. 

Did you miss the prior responsibilities? Subscribe to our YouTube Channel to review the rest of the District Manager’s playlist!

This responsibility has to do with all the local store marketing that happens in the units of their district. Among the activities the district managers have to perform, they must support and execute the franchisor-driven marketing campaigns in...