Recognizing Your Limits and Finding the Perfect Sidekick

by Joan Trinka

Batman and Robin. Joe Montana and Jerry Rice. Harry Potter and Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. What do almost all super achievers, real or fictional, have in common? They can’t do it on their own! And one of the most important things to realize as you’re starting your own franchise business is that neither can you. Nor should you have to.

First, evaluate your skills to determine what your strengths are and what part of your business it makes most sense to spend your own time, energy and expertise on—and what might be better outsourced to someone else. Whether it’s Web marketing, closing sales, creative advertising work, or social media—a good franchisor will provide you with either free resources and support OR pre-qualified outside vendors to be your loyal sidekicks.

You might be thinking, hey, I have a buddy down the street whose son knows a lot about Facebook; why wouldn’t I just ask him to help me out? The answer is that you could, and maybe it would work out to be a cost-effective and valuable solution. But chances are, he won’t know your business, he won’t know what resources your franchisor already has available, he won’t know your brand standards, and you won’t have a good way to hold him accountable to provide the results you are paying for.

In addition to learning about included resources and support, you should ask a potential franchisor what vendors they have built partnerships and relationships with to help you with the aspects of running your business that may not come naturally or easily to you. Vetted vendors that have a history with the company will often be able to more quickly accomplish your goals because they know what has worked in the past in your business, what hasn’t, and they are likely to place more priority on your individual needs because they value and want to keep their recommended status for your company as a whole.

For example: At Bark Busters USA, a home-based dog training franchise, we often have Franchise Owners come on board who are very passionate about dogs and training, but may not have a strong phone sales background, which is the way most of our lessons are booked. Although many trainers choose to handle their own phone calls, almost half use our recommended vendor, the Top Dog Sales Center. This 24-hour phone center is dedicated exclusively to booking our trainers’ prospective clients, in addition to helping them mine old leads through email promotions and other initiatives. They have intimate knowledge of our business and longtime data to back up the strategies that they use—something other call centers would not have.

This longstanding relationship saves our business owners from having to reinvent the wheel; instead, getting their phones covered either full time or simply while they are on vacation for a week or two is simple, fast and relatively stress-free. Even some of our business operators who are very skilled salespeople choose to use Top Dog simply to free up their time to be out doing lessons—and making more money!

So remember: Even the Lone Ranger wasn’t really alone. When talking to potential franchisors, ask them what they’ve done to find you the perfect Tonto or Silver—to complement your own Kemo Sabe characteristics.

Joan Trinka
Director of Development
Bark Busters USA

Learn more about Bark Busters at topfranchises.franchisebusinessreview.com.

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