A specialist franchise marketing agency has made a key recruitment to assist with their expansion plans and support a number of new clients, in what has been a very busy few months.
Martin Hawthorne joins Franchise My Business as Franchise Development Consultant. With more than 25 years’ experience in franchising, Martin is key to helping franchisors add significant value to their existing business as well as advise on franchising.
With a background in national franchise management, Martin has held a number of roles including managing a AAA retail franchise, CEO appointed to turnaround a 200-unit UK franchise and launching various franchise start-ups. Martin also understands both sides of the business having been a franchisee for a multi-unit franchise.
“The key part of my role is to provide modern, honest and straight-talking advice to new franchisors,” explains Martin. “I’m looking to create long-term business relationships with our clients and help them reach the next level in their franchising journey.”
Franchise My Business specialises in working with small businesses to start them in franchising as well as franchisors looking to build their network. “The unique provision that we offer is based on the success of the franchisor,” adds Martin. “It’s not good enough to set up a franchise by simply producing documents. We work with them every step of the way and we only succeed if they do. It’s a business growing relationships, not a service. The support we offer is key and we will create it to work for the individual.”
With his wealth of experience, Martin understands the challenges that small franchisors face and helps them overcome them with bespoke solutions. “Starting slow and steady will always win the race,” says Martin. “It is crucial to invest well at the start of the process with time, skills and technology. An almost forensic and experienced examination needs to be made at the very start and at every new stage. Franchise empires have and will continue to fall because the correct processes and systems were not put in place on day one. These omissions become amplified the larger the network, until one day, that overlooked detail brings everyone down.”
Franchise My Business are committed to the success of every franchisor they work with, assisting with all aspects of franchise recruitment through their detailed industry knowledge and marketing as well as their own unique franchise recruitment software.
For those franchisors not seeking advice from a specialist company, Martin explains that a recurring problem is that the franchisor often chases growing their franchisee network at the expense of remembering why their business was successful in the first place. “A franchisor has to remember that their profit ultimately comes from the franchisees’ customers,” explains Martin. “They should never stop innovating their core service and using all the tools necessary to drive positive customer engagement across every franchised location.”
Understanding exactly where people’s key strengths are is another area that can make or break a business. “The biggest tool in a business leaders toolbox is the ability to let the experts be experts whether that be internal or external appointments,” adds Martin.
For any business, the customer is always king and to provide the service that they expect, every franchise needs to have proper SEO and genuine social media. “What I always see is incomplete SEO including search listings, opening hours and maps when researching franchised businesses,” explains Martin. “There is also a lack of new content and videos. But the biggest sin of all is not replying to customer reviews.”
Whatever stage of the franchise journey you are at, Martin and Franchise My Business offer a low fee or success fee only opportunity, creating exciting prospects for every small business looking to scale up.
