What Does a Franchise Owner Do? Do They Have To Work?

There are loads of long established businesses doing brilliantly in terms of revenue and popularity. Hearing that you can get yourself a piece of that action with an upfront fee can be pretty tempting. Since the business is already up and running, you don’t really have to worry about many of the pitfalls that come with building up a business from the ground up, you already have pre-existing marketing, training, and operations to follow.

It can be the perfect opportunity to become your very own boss and step into the world of business. But if you’re expecting an easy ride and very little work, you are going to be bitterly disappointed. Owning a franchise has many advantages, you are your own boss, to some degree you can pick your own hours and approve any needed holidays for example.

But I wouldn’t want you to walk into this thinking that you can simply set up the franchise, hire some staff, and then just sit back and watch the dollars role in, because simply put, it’s just not feasible. Franchises have the ability to gain you quite a bit of cash, but to do so you’ll need to work hard and be dedicated to the store.

Throughout this article, we’ll take a closer look at the role of a franchise owner, and exactly what you’ll be expected to do.

Investor VS Owner

The first thing we need to do is understand the distinction between a franchise investor and a franchise owner. Now there definitely are some similarities between the two roles, and some store duties will be expected of both investor and owner.

However, the main difference is that a franchise investor won’t tend to be as involved in the actual store. An investor will likely own more than just the one store, and will often hire several other people to manage the day-to-day duties of the store in question.

An owner however, tends to be a much more hands-on role. Think of this role, and it’s duties, similar to that of any business owner. If you are a franchise owner, you’ll be expected to maintain the standards of the store as well as the quality of the goods and services to the expectation of the franchisor.

This will be of the upmost importance because you are representing the franchise and it only takes one bad store to completely ruin a reputation. We’ve all been there right? When you’ve had awful food at one restaurant of a chain, it can put you off going back to any of those restaurants.

You’re franchisor will have high expectations and it is you that is solely responsible in their eyes for meeting those standards.

Duties of a Franchise Owner

So now that it has been established that you will be expected to work as a franchise owner, let’s take a look at some of the duties that can be expected of you.

1. Customer Service

This is a pretty important one. Remember the saying? The customer is always right. That’s because you need to keep your customers happy to ensure that they continue to return to your store/business. And a happy satisfied customer means that your brands reputation is a positive one. Unhappy customers mean bad reviews, less custom, and thus less revenue.

As a franchise owner, you will be responsible for the training of your employees to ensure that they are maintaining only the optimum customer service at all times. You’ll also be responsible for ensuring the quality of the products sold at your store.

2. Marketing

Don’t worry, as a franchise owner you won’t be expected to come up with nation-wide marketing ideas that will be on billboards or adverts on the television. The franchisor has all that covered. With that being said, it will be your responsibility to do some local marketing.

So you’ll need to budget some money to go towards these marketing schemes. These will also need to be approved by your franchisor to ensure that they meet the standards and expectations of the brand. It may be worth while doing some research into marketing if you are considering becoming a franchise owner, as stores with better marketing often bring in a much better revenue than those without.

3. Hiring & Training

When it comes to hiring and training, many franchise owners will delegate much of the workload to the manager of the store. However, some prefer to have the control themselves over who works in their store.

It is not uncommon for the gathering of resumes and the set-up and follow through of the interview processes to be the duty of the manager, while the franchise may sit through the interviews themselves to have more control and input over who eventually gets hired. As a franchise owner, your manager may also come to you before firing staff too.

4. Business Tasks

You can’t own a business and escape business tasks such as admin (as much as we may wish we could.) This means that you’ll need to ensure that all the relevant paperwork for the store is consistently filled out and then submitted to the franchisor. You will also need to ensure that all royalties have been paid to the franchisor, though you may hire an accountant to help with this.

Though ultimately, it is still your responsibility to ensure that this happens. Another important task is essentially ensuring that the business is running smoothly, working well, and generating a profit. There are a few different ways that you can do this.

Some owners will take the approach of delegation, ensuring that they have a hard working team behind them that can keep the store running well while they are away from the store. Then others tend to go for a more physical approach of being in-store most of the time ensuring that they are on-hand to fix problems within the store as they arise.

Final Thoughts

Becoming a franchise owner can be a new and exciting venture for those that are hoping to step into the world of business. And there are many advantages to owning your own store – who doesn’t want to be their own boss? But being your own boss does not equate to not having to work.

Sure, if you’re a franchise owner the likelihood of you working the typical 9-5 is unlikely. And you won’t necessarily have to be on the fryers, grill, coffee machine, or till throughout your shift. But that doesn’t mean that you will be free of responsibility or hard work.

You are the most senior member of staff and as such you must set an example for the other employees. There are many high expectations that your franchisor will also demand that you meet, and doing so will involve a hard graft and dedication.

You are also responsible for innovative thinking and marketing to help generate some extra profit, as well as being in charge of all the important paperwork and business-related tasks. Being a franchise owner can certainly be a little stressful at times, and you will need to work hard to see good results. However, all that hard work soon becomes worth it when you begin to reap the benefits of those good results.