After years of owning and successfully running a business, you’re now stumped on how to effectively expand your business.
Expanding a business can be expensive. In addition to the costs, you also need to factor in what it takes to scale your operations to adapt to new markets. The amount of time, research, and money it takes to expand a business can make it seem like a daunting task.
In this scenario, franchising your business can be an excellent option for you. It’s a proven strategy that has worked for many businesses in the past.
How Can Franchising Help You Get To Your 100 Plus Outlet Goal?
Franchising is an efficient tool used by many businesses for growth. It’s also a profitable growth strategy. The two most appealing qualities of franchising are that it allows you to quickly scale your business while minimizing the need for any excessive capital on your part.
If your business model is scalable and you have systems in place that can replicate your business’s success in different locations, franchising is an incredible strategy. It can help kick-start your brand into its next phase.
Related: Start Franchising For Explosive Business Growth
7 Popular Strategies to Successfully Grow Your Business
- Plan It Out First
Every business owner wants more leads and more franchise partners. Expanding your business will require a significant amount of capital on your part, before dedicating any of your funds to marketing your business, ask yourself this, “Is my business in the best shape it can be to support this?”
Meaning, your business model should be able to handle and support your growth until that, think about holding off on expansion.
Your franchise partners are going to explore your business model, view your social media pages and websites, look through your customer reviews, etc. before they consider signing up to buy a franchise. Make sure everything is up to date and running smoothly first.
2. Don’t Be Afraid To Change Things Up
Change is a normal part of any business. It’s essential if you want your business to remain relevant and it’s even more important for growth. This can include changes in branding or operational changes.
Any major changes should also be communicated to your franchise partners. Your operational changes could include changes to your franchise agreements, royalty fees, territories, etc. While your marketing changes can mean changes to your product line, your branding, or even a rebrand.
Changing the way you market your business or even some of your operations could help you grow your business more efficiently. It could even save you money in the future.
Related: The Future of Franchise Marketing: Emerging Trends and Technologies, Why Are American Brands More Successful In Franchising?
3. Go For A Bottom-Up Approach
Most franchises in the past have gone for a top-down approach. Which meant they used TV advertisements, radio, or outdoor advertising to market their brand. This would allow for the business’s brand recognition to trickle down to their individual locations.
Things are different now. Unless you can build a genuine connection with your customer base. Your business won’t see much growth or revenue. Engaging with the needs of the local customer base will help you establish that connection. Find out what’s in demand in each of your franchise locations and how your brand can fulfil that need.
This type of approach can drive customers to your brand rather than just having you tell them what your brand is. Through this method, you can also gain more revenue by helping customers decide on their next purchase.
4. Location-Based Strategies
This can tie into the previous section. Each of your franchise locations will have different needs and demands. It is your job as the franchisor to assess these needs and figure out how you can have your business capitalize on this.
The demands of your smaller city locations will probably be different when compared to your locations in larger metropolitan cities.
Having location-based marketing campaigns can result in more customer engagement, retention and, an increase in your overall revenue.
5. Maintain Brand Consistency Across All Your Locations
Changing things up can help your brand and business overall in the long run. Just keep in mind that the overall branding and the core message of your brand should stay the same for your franchises and business.
Your core brand features should be present in all your franchise locations. Along with any brand changes you’ve made that are specific to that franchise location. They should both work together.
This means that your location-specific marketing changes should still relate to your core brand image while being relevant to the local customer base.
Related: How do I protect my Brand’s quality in Franchise?
6. Consider Multi-Unit Franchising Or Master Franchise Agreements
Nothing spells rapid expansion like a master franchise agreement or multi-franchise setup. This is one foolproof way to ensure that your business can rapidly expand in a particular state or region.
This may seem like a daunting task, but the pros far outweigh the cons. If done right, multi-unit franchising can vastly boost brand awareness, while increasing your business’s overall market share.
7. Research Your Competitors
While this might not directly impact your business’s growth, researching your competitors is the most important step you can take when growing your business. If you want to be a 100-outlet franchise brand then this is one thing you can’t skip.
Doing this will give you valuable insight into what you can do to improve your business. It can show demands in the current market that aren’t being addressed by your competitors that you can take advantage of.
So look into what they’re doing (or, what they’re not doing), what works for them and how you can differentiate your business from theirs.
Related: 8 Traits That Make a Successful Entrepreneur
How Do You Successfully Market Your Business As A Franchising Opportunity To Entrepreneurs?
Let’s not forget, expansion is a long and complex process and franchising is not a shortcut to success. However, it is an effective strategy to build on your current success so that you can reach new audiences.
But for that to happen, people need to know that you’re franchising your business. Your business should also look like it would be a good investment to potential buyers. You need to work on marketing your business as a franchise to potential buyers, on top of marketing to your customers.
Remember, marketing your business and growing your business go hand in hand.
Related: 6 Ways to Market Your Franchised Business
FAQ
- How long does it take to get to 100 plus outlets?
That will depend entirely on your business and how much demand there is for your services. Keep in mind that expansion is a long and complex process. Franchising is not a shortcut for growth, but something that will help facilitate that process.
- What are the 4 types of growth strategies a business can use?
Market penetration, market development, product development, and diversification (launching new products or services in unexplored markets). All the strategies listed in this blog are based on these four principles.
- What is the best way to grow my business in India?
Franchising. This is a good one size fits all approach that many businesses have used to successfully expand their business on a large scale. Franchising can take your small local business to a nationally recognized brand.
To Conclude
The strategies stated here are some of the best in the industry. Applying these techniques along with seeking out professional services like Sparkle Minds will surely help with the growth of your business.
We adopt a step-by-step process where we take our clients through the ins and outs of starting, running and growing their businesses in India. With our help, you will be well on your way to growing your business to 100+ outlets in India. Connect with us now!
