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Photo: Caleb Roenigk (Flickr) |
After several years of running a pizzeria, there comes a time when you start to think about expanding. That can mean opening a store in the town next door or branching out across the country and allowing others to use your company name and recipes.
Running one store can be hard enough, so when considering
franchising, many pizzerias bring in an expert to help make the transition from
one to many a smooth one.
I touched base with historic Aurelio's (aureliospizza.com)
in Chicago, which currently operates 40 locations in six states, to see why chief
operating officer Kirk Mauriello sought franchising assistance, and how it
ultimately benefited the pizzeria.
The Pizza Insider: Why did you seek
assistance from FranConnect?
Kirk Mauriello: We were looking for an all-encompassing
system to use for handling our franchise information and communication
stream. FranConnect had the most comprehensive and easy-to-use system for
corporate and franchisees.
How long did the process take from start to finish and
what were some of the biggest challenges and rewards?
We were able to get FranConnect up and running within about
30 days. The biggest challenge was internal. Getting all the stores set up
and making sure that we had all the correct information such as email addresses
for the franchisees. The biggest reward was being able to have one system
that keeps all the information we need about each franchise locations in a
database.
Are there some aspects that you felt could not be done
without assistance from an expert?
We are a small organization. Although, we are listed in
the Top 50 Pizza Chains in America, we are very lean. We only have six
corporate employees and we rely heavily on technology systems to maximize our
effectiveness. FranConnect has saved us thousands of hours of work that we used
to have to do compiling data. Now we just enter the data and the system
keeps track of it all.
How has working with FranConnect helped to grow
Aurelio's?
We have been able to implement other pieces that FranConnect
offers such as PerformanceWise, which has allowed us to improve our quality control
process and automate a very detail oriented, time consuming process.
What advice do you have for the independent pizzeria
operator considering franchising?
The key to franchising is systems and processes. Not only
restaurant operational systems and processes, but administrative systems and
processes.
Rick Arevalo, chief client officer from FranConnect shared some
additional information with The Pizza Insider about what pizzerias operators
should think about before considering franchising.
The Pizza Insider: What are
some of the big questions an independent pizzeria operator should ask
themselves when considering franchising?
Rick Arevalo: Before considering converting a business over
to a franchising model, there are many commitments and legal requirements to
consider. Once you have registered a trademark and created the franchise
agreement, you have now committed to a system of promised support that would
convince an investor to spend a significant amount of time and money to become
“part of a greater thing” – your trademark. So why should they gravitate to
your offering? The operator going into franchising would need to have over
time:
· An organized process of handling leads from
different sources which organizes, automatically send responses and retains
records of all investments and results by lead source as well as an electronic
sending and accounting of all FDD’s sent out and their results.
· A clear communication follow up to every
prospective inquiry that expeditiously showed them what is offered, why it is
attractive and graphically represents your company as the only choice in your
specific space.
· Once you have brought on new franchisees,
they will need an organized, managed process to cover all bases and expedite
the opening of their location and shorten their time to “days first dollar”.
· A centralized online communication tool where
your whole system would “congregate” to drive culture, improve communication
and create alignment throughout your network.
· A formalized way of supporting franchisees
through online training and timely addressing daily issues that come up.
· The ability to retain all records of
documents, trainings, personal information, phone calls , emails and field
visits in one place that is easy to access and understand corporate wide.
· An objective way of making location visits
that specifically directs franchisees on what to do and why through pictorial
examples and impeccable follow up to ensure compliance and progress.
· Compiling financial information and KPI’s,
collecting royalties electronically and comparing all units to benchmark
results and progress.
· The ability to help franchisees increase
revenues through an integrated marketing platform to include franchisee
micro-sites, email marketing, PPC, print marketing, online ad builder, customer
feedback etc.
How long does it generally take to open a franchise using
FranConnect versus doing it on your own and what is involved in the process?
There are a myriad
of issues and problems to overcome if one were to consider entering franchising
on their own. The biggest problem that you would encounter is not knowing what
you don’t know. It takes many years of experience to realize that it would take
you years to setup a franchise system, start to bring in prospects, show them
that they are investing in a complete system that will ensure direction,
protection of the trademark they are investing in, and a solid promise of
increasing the value of their investment over time. All of this comes from the
“complete” array of services brought to the franchisee by the franchisor. FranConnect
offers all of these modular pieces in one place and most importantly, supports
individual franchisor/customers by bringing them the expertise and best
practices of over 500 brand names. The result is the ability of the potential
small company can become a franchisor in a fraction of the time because all
modules you could possibly need along with the supporting expertise to use them
is provided in one place.
Is help affordable to the small business owner? What is
the typical return on investment?
It does not matter
what size of an organization you are, help is affordable and expandable. FranConnect
currently works with many small and startup companies that may start out with
only a few modules, but expand to others as they grow and need them. The ROI on
any particular module is clearly short term and ongoing. We are highly
accessible to anyone and want to become partners in growth for life.
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