When the Ink Dries

by John DeHart

Becoming a franchise partner of any company is a pretty substantial commitment. Typically the financial (and emotional) investment is large. When looking into a franchise system, be sure to study them carefully. Also, pay close attention to their philosophy on keeping franchise partners in the system. What happens if you have second thoughts or want to leave the system? Will they facilitate an exit or will they hold you by the letter of your agreement?

At Nurse Next Door, one of our most successful recent ideas was to offer each new employee $1,000 to leave us after one month. It’s as simple as it sounds. At the end of an employee’s first month with us, we offer them $1,000 not to show up the next day.

Why do we do this? Well we really take culture seriously. If someone is willing to take a measly thousand bucks to leave our company, then they weren’t really that committed in the first place.

With the success of this program, we’re now looking at launching something similar with our new franchise partners. One thing we’ve learned since launching nearly 50 home care franchise locations is that a half-committed franchise partner will do more harm than good to our brand. If a new franchise partner isn’t chomping at the bit to get started, we probably made a mistake.

Now, we haven’t launched the program yet – we’re still working out the details – but the idea will be to have a check waiting at HeartQuarters in Vancouver for all new franchise partners sometime between when they are awarded a franchise and when they begin training. Just give up your just-awarded franchise and you can have the check.

Could you imaging the commitment of our franchise partners if they turned down a check for $10,000 before they even started? And if they take it? Great – they probably weren’t the right fit for us anyway.

The lesson here – be sure to really study your franchisor and understand their philosophy on keeping you in the system. Once the ink dries on your franchise agreement, will they still be as willing to consider your needs?

John DeHart
Co-founder and Co-CEO
Nurse Next Door
www.johndehart.com

Learn more about Nurst Next Door at topfranchises.franchisebusinessreview.com.

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