Strategic Planning

We start with a full business analysis, gather historical and current financials and patterns, as well as existing executable data while collaborating with you and your management team to create the ideal modelling and plan to enter each optimal market and territory.

When you are planning to use the franchise method to scale your business, it is critical to storyboard out the model and financials at both the unit level (franchisee level) and the franchise office level (franchisor level) and to not just develop a business plan for the initial stages of the scaling organization, but rather to create a Living, Breathing Document capable of optimizing your planning for both the near-term and future.

The ideal Franchise Business Plan will include multiple responsibilities executed by your FSI consultants, including but not limited to:

• An Onsite Visit to review your entire model after gathering any required data pertaining to your business relevant to the plan, such as questionnaires, financials, marketing materials and routines, and other data specific to your model.
• Competitive Analyses: Do you have a complete list of competitors that covers every geography?  What are their unit-sales?  What is their cost-per-square foot?  Their franchise fees up-front?  How does their current performance compare to our desired model performance?
• Market Analyses: Have you run relevant demand-modelling for your business offering/creation?  What markets are best to enter first, second, and third for scaling your franchise?  Is available industry data “enough” to make the best scaling decisions, or do we need to invest in a full “market study” for our particular industry?
• Income Platforms: The franchise business is a “royalty-based” business, and accounts for the majority of our franchisor company’s income.  However, what are ALL of the income platforms we profit from in our opportunity?  If we have a restaurant or quick-service concept, do we earn  rebates on food distribution or grocery sales contracts?  If we are a service business serving households in various territories, do we have any white-label cleaning products or other consumables  we sell to our franchisees that are our own branded product?  What about involvement in real estate or other ventures?  All must be defined completely based on your goals and specific industry and model.
• Franchise Business Structure: What exactly is our franchise, and how is it constructed?  What business model are we actually selling, and to whom are we selling it?  Do we only want “sophisticated Area Developers” in our program, or do we also sell individual franchises to mom-and-pop buyers via our opportunity?

Although every plan is customized to the individual emerging brand, these primary fundamentals are super-important to “get right” to the extent possible in the beginning stages.

As noted above, a properly-designed Franchise Strategic Business Plan is a Living, Breathing Document, and should not be utilized “one time only” during the building phases of the franchise, but rather be an important ongoing planning tool to both measure past performance, and plan for the future of the business in every category of the business.

Whether you are running an individual corporate location for your business or a franchise company, the economics of the business are governed by the familiar fundamentals in each category.  At a minimum, a 3-5-year pro forma should be built and separated showing the unit economics of each franchisee location (using existing corporate-location data to gather data), as well as creating the new franchisor newco “on paper” to see how the economics of both should ideally scale.  Neither a franchisor nor franchisee pro forma should be viewed as a knowledgeable “forecast,” as generally speaking there is not enough reliable data on the new franchise individually to assume anything.  However, that does not mean we do not need to create reasonable goals and storyboard them out both in the written plan and the financial plan.  Also, your franchisee’s economics are going to be different from your “corporate level” economics in at least one major way……they are paying you a royalty off the top of every gross dollar that they earn.  Therefore, failing to carefully view both the volume and margins attainable and anticipated is a vast disservice to your future franchisees, and every effort should be made to evaluate your assumptions prior to creating territories and selling franchises.

The efficiency of your support model for your franchisor organization needs to be fully analyzed, so defining the labor component of your franchise business over time is super-critical right away.  Technology has created some huge benefits in the cost of labor and efficiency, but we still need to hire and support the “talent-in-category” to delight and support our most valuable resource, which is our franchisees.  When you assist in making your franchisees successful, the world is your oyster.  Over-promising and under-delivering in the support of franchisees is the number one reason for failing in the franchise industry, right up there with under-capitalization, and failing to manage internally.  Being unrealistic on beginning and ongoing scaling of support costs is what we have noticed being  extremely common with new franchise models, making constant focus and storyboarding of your plan that much more important.  How much of the hand-holding can be done using technology, streaming, and smart software to provide this amazing support?  Do I still need to audit each of my franchisee locations in-person on a monthly or quarterly basis, and how much does this frequency affect the franchisor’s profitability?

Technology has also radically improved basic demographic data and territory decision-making processes in the past 20 years.  Your business plan should not just clearly map out what your starting territories should be for your demand model and franchise sales, but also what the cost of operating in each relevant state (or country) looks like, and doing this right may well involve the purchase of a strong Franchise Territory Management Software Program to clearly plan and map-out your territories.  Just like franchisor payroll, support requirements, and competitive decision making, selecting, and saturating the right territories should include using the right tools in your planning regimen.  The cost of doing so should be included in your business plan pro forma right along with ongoing labor and other costs to execute the ideal franchisor business.

Lastly, the budget and economics for marketing need to be clear for both the Franchisor and Franchisee Pro Forma review.  The franchisee needs to develop their territory and do multiple forms of advertising appropriate for their business, and this is defined in a customizable “Unit-Level Marketing Plan” to improve the economics and drive customers to the new franchisee location.  Separate from this, a Franchise Level Marketing Plan is created to calculate the “Cost of Acquisition” for each franchisee, and the appropriate way to connect with them.  Although the budgets for these items will be included in each individual plan, the economics and estimates for the marketing plans need to be parallel and reflected in the Strategic Franchise Business Plan described above.

A plan is just a wish list unless it is followed by execution.  A talented team to accompany a well-designed plan makes a successful franchise operation a reality!

Our approach to Strategy and Franchise Company Modelling is the most detailed and comprehensive methodology in the franchise industry used today.    We create the most optimal  plan and pro forma design to fully prepare our clients with each impactful decision, whether reviewing the competitive landscape, choosing revenue or royalty models, and detailing and advancing the overall business structure and service components.  This is accomplished by employing the best strategic consulting talent for franchise expertise and marrying it together with the financial talent typically only experienced with a top-4 accounting firm.  FSI’s Strategic Planners are former leads from major accountancy and auditing firms who now focus their talents on preparing the best tools for our franchisor’s scaling journey.