Look for Integrity in your Franchisor
Look for high integrity propositions and franchisors
High integrity is essential for two crucial reasons:
You will keep your peace of mind, and sleep at night. The world is full of miserable millionaires - people who have exploited others to make their money - don't be seduced by this false dream. Always behaving and deciding with high integrity will keep you safe, well, and probably make you wealthier too.
You will delight your customers and good word will spread, which is vital for local service businesses, which nearly all franchise businesses are. Local businesses live or die by their reputations. Behaving with high integrity will automatically ensure that your reputation shines and grows. Many well established successful franchisees never need to advertise or look for their next customers - their customers find them.
If you buy a franchise that lacks integrity, then with all the best will in the world, you will be pushing water uphill.
Look for and buy a franchise which has high integrity at the centre of its products, services and business ethos, and you are half way to running a high integrity franchise business - all that remains is for you to ensure that your own input and activity are high integrity too.
The Four Way Test
Everyone has heard of it, everyone has thought of it, but does everyone use it or at least the principals it is derived from?
The test, which has been translated into more than 100 languages, asks the following questions:
Of the things we think, say or do
1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
Joey’s Franchise Group has used the test in one form or another for many years. It allows us to bring great products and quality to all of our franchise systems. It helps ensure we bring quality Franchise Partners to market and most importantly it has built a level of trust within our community. Over 5o% of our ReFranchise stores are sold to existing staff members. That says a lot about the brand development, not necessarily the growth, but the brand trust that our Partners and their Employes have with us.
When you’re choosing your next franchise, ask them how they implement the Four Way Test.
Rob Hilditch – VP of Business Development
Joey’s Restaurant | Joey’s Urban | MVP Modern Barbers | Homes & Land Magazine Canada
What drives us....our Partners.
“When we work hard towards something we believe in, it’s called passion. When we work hard towards something we don’t believe in, it’s called stress.”, Simon Sinek
What is your Passion? What drives you?
Our Franchise Group is driven by our Passion to see our Franchise Partner’ succeed. Succeed in their businesses and succeed in their personal lives. Each of our Partners is a member of our franchise family.
We try to build this foundation on trust. Trust is a feeling. It is the same feeling for friends or companies. To earn that trust we need to act like our friends would when interacting with our partners.
Our Partners are the reason for it! They are out ‘why’.
Financing for Franchises
Did you know that most financial institutions have franchise financing programs and that typically your best chance of success and best rate is usually with your current institution. When researching your financing options, start with your local bank that your already hold accounts with. They will be able do give your the best terms and service. Using other lenders can lead to higher rates and shorter terms unless you use institutions that have franchise specific programs. If your local institution can’t provide you with satisfactory terms, look to the institutions below. We recommend their programs regularly and have great success with our franchise partners using them. They’ll not only help you get the financing you need but also review the franchise business model you are considering and give you advice on them.
TD Canada Trust Franchise Financing
Scotia Bank Franchise Financing
Success in the restaurant business...
Success in the restaurant business can be elusive. What’s more, success means different things to different people. Some operators want to just make a living. Others have loftier goals – maximization of market share, achievement of targeted return on investment and so on. Regardless of one’s definition of success, the basics in the restaurant industry never change.
Here are the top 10 factors that contribute to success in our industry:
• Validated concept definition. Can you clearly state what experience your restaurant offers, what products it serves and what service-style it employs? If not, you’re not sure what your restaurant is all about and neither are your customers.
• Understanding your restaurant’s demand types and sources. Is your demand destination, generative or impulse? What is your trade area?
• Location. Regardless of your restaurant’s types and sources of demand, customers must be able to find and access your restaurant easily.
• Differentiated brand imagery. What makes you stand out from your competition?
• Targeted value proposition. Consumers are more knowledgeable and more demanding than ever. Value means offering the choices, convenience and monetary satisfaction at whatever price point the consumer selects.
• Targeted marketing. Make sure your marketing focuses on your trade area, your customer demographics and their buying behaviours. Find ways to measure the success of each marketing program.
• Quality food. You’re only as successful as you last meal.
• Quality service. You’re only as good as your last customer interaction. Do you talk about good service or does everyone in your organization understand it and live it?
• Flawless execution. Do all the elements of the experience you expect to provide to your customers come together every hour of every day? How do you know? Do you take action to make sure that they do?
• Customer data. Do you really know your customers – their demographic profile, their needs, their wants, their expectations
Joey’s Urban | Joey’s Restaurants | MVP Modern Barbers | Homes & Land Magazine
Hospitality.....
Ultimately, hospitality is your competitive edge. Don’t confuse that with providing good service — you can give good service and still have people leave feeling un-cared for.
True hospitality doesn’t come from what you DO, it is a result of how you ARE. This creates a training dilemma. How do you help people learn to BE different? For that matter, how do YOU learn to be different?
The truth is that you don’t learn it as much as you allow it to blossom from the inside. It is a wonderfully natural — and totally painless — process of seeing life from a different direction. A Place of Hospitality is designed to help you move in that direction … and help you stay in that place once you have found it.
“To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.” – Donald A. Adams
It all starts with…….you!
Avoiding franchise remorse...
Much like the picture attached, ask yourself, what makes you feel good. The best feeling in the world, is knowing you made the right decision and having no remorse in it.
At Joey’s Franchise Group, we believe in making our Franchise Partners feel good by ensuring they feel happy about their decision to choose one of our Franchise concepts.
Evidence of support tends to nurture trust and builds group resilience. It is typically sought by people in three primary forms:
• Consistent Leadership Behavior
• Regular Feedback
• Adequate Resources
Without sufficient or appropriate forms of support, individuals and the groups they belong to, tend to fuel their own anxiety and stress. This is counterproductive which in turn hampers trust and performance of all kinds.
In business almost any action we take is dependent on support of others, and approval either before or after the fact. In contrast to criticism and complaint, expressions of approval and support do have long shelf-lives.
Our support system of our Franchise Partners is integral to their and our success. It allows them to feel great about their decision.
Rob Hilditch, VP of Business Development
Joey’s Franchise Group – Great Canadian Franchises
Why you need a partner...a franchise partner.
The statistics are overwhelming. Couples live longer than
single people. One study reported that the mortality rate for
single men aged between 30 and 59 is two and a half times higher
than those who are married. Though some of the theories point to
quality of life and earning potential, the most compelling reason
is deeper than that. As social animals, we function better and cope
with stress more easily when we’re in a trusting relationship.
After a hard day, for example, there is someone at home to talk to
– to air your thoughts. Whether running errands, keeping the
household going or raising a family, on so many levels, the best
marriages are like a partnership. And in business…the best
partner- ships are like a marriage. We often spend more time with
people at work than we do with our own families, so some of the
same dynamics should exist at work as at home. Many entrepreneurs
say of their companies, “it’s like a family,” it’s only fitting
then that the family should have two parents. We all know the
increased stress and pressure that single-parent households face.
Whether a formal relationship or not, the best business partners
also have strong emotional bonds. This is the person with whom you
can close the door and share doubt and expose your vulnerability.
This is the person with whom you can bounce ideas and figure out
the best way to “raise the kids.” But more than anything, partners
keep each other going. Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely
affair.
Unlike working in a company, the person at the top doesn’t
have peers. Whether a formal equity partnership, a senior employee
or a right-hand-man or woman, a franchisor-franchisee, every
entrepreneur needs a partner…a business husband or wife. Every
entrepreneur needs someone they trust and who trusts them. And if
for no other reason, having a partner you love working with will
just help you live longer.
Ambition in Franchising
What’s the story behind the franchise?
What drove the concept to become what it is?
Who is at the healm and what is that person like?
Strong, established franchise systems, have great stories behind them. They have leaders who built the system from their passion for the product and the ambition to make their dreams a reality. The key word here, is ambition. That ambition drove the franchise system in its infancy and will still be driving the franchise company today.
“Make no little plans: they have no magic to stir men’s blood.” These words were uttered by Daniel Burnham, the Chicago architect whose vision recreated the city after the great fire of 1871. The result of his ambition is an extraordinary American city that still has the magic to stir men’s blood. Ambition is sometimes seen as a negative these days, but without it we would stagnate. You need a culture that supports big steps and powerful beliefs. You can see these qualities in cities that have transformed themselves. Cities are the most visible examples of successful and failed cultures. Bilbao and Barcelona did so and became the envy of the world and prime tourist destinations. Pittsburgh reinvented itself when the steel industry withered. But Detroit wasn’t able to do the same when the auto industry took a dive.
At Joey’s Franchise Group, our leaders, have that ambition and passion. We have a great story of adversity to dig the trenches and crawl out with success. Our culture is founded on Passion, Urgency and Excellence. Our Founder, Joe Klassen and his partners, literally used their blood, sweat and tears to grow the Joey’s brand into a success. Then use that foundation to create and maintain multiple franchises and supporting companies. We have become a truly vertically integrated company allowing for success of our franchise partners at every level with every concept!
– Joey’s Restaurants,
– Joey’s Urban,
– MVP Modern Barbers,
– Homes & Land Magazine, and,
– many other support companies
Rob Hilditch, VP of Business Development
Joey’s Franchise Group
Franchisee or Franchise Partner?
Joey’s exceeds expectations in our dining rooms and in our Home Office but our Partners are the reason we are here and they are of the utmost importance to us. This is how Joey’s Urban operates, with our Franchise Partners at top of mind.
Joey’s Urban is an innovative twist on Fish & Chips shops of days past. A contemporary urban atmosphere awaits trend setting diners with a menu that invigorates your senses; Flavourful Poutines with Hand Cut fries, Globally Inspired Street Taco’s and our famous hand battered Joey’s Fish.
At Joey’s we believe in building a business through great foundations. Our development team is with our Partners right from the beginning, building the first relationship in our franchise family. Opening a new business is stressful and difficult, so our team works hand in hand on site selection, lease negotiation and construction to help you feel comfortable at every step.
by Rob Hilditch, a.k.a. Joey Franchise