Running a successful franchise system is about much more than scaling a proven business model—it’s about managing a relationship between franchisor and franchisee. There are often unseen challenges for franchisors. They often focus on operational processes, marketing strategies, and compliance, and these hidden challenges can create barriers to franchise success if left unaddressed. Below, we explore some of the most common challenges and offer solutions to help franchisors navigate them effectively.
Franchise networks are diverse by nature, with franchisees coming from varied backgrounds, experience levels, and learning preferences. One size does not fit all when it comes to support.
The Challenge:
A franchisee with a corporate background may require guidance on customer interaction and daily operations, while a franchisee from a trade background may struggle with financial planning and marketing. Without understanding these nuances, franchisors risk offering generalized support that misses the mark.
Solution:
Effective franchise support managers must be adaptable and tailor their communication, training, and coaching methods. Using tools like learning style assessments and past performance reviews can help customize the support needed.
Franchisees may hesitate to share challenges due to fears of being judged or perceived as incompetent. This is another of the unseen Challenges for franchisors
The Challenge:
Without open communication, franchisors may miss early warning signs of franchisee dissatisfaction, leading to deeper performance or morale issues.
Solution:
Franchisors can foster trust by encouraging active listening, empathy, and creating an environment where franchisees feel safe discussing problems. By shifting the role of franchisee support managers from directive problem-solvers to trusted advisors, franchisors build stronger connections with their network.
Franchisees often face limiting beliefs about their potential, which can hinder their performance and growth.
The Challenge:
Limiting beliefs—such as “I’m not good at managing staff” or “Marketing won’t work in my area”—can prevent franchisees from fully leveraging the resources and opportunities available within the franchise system.
Solution:
Franchisee support managers should address these beliefs head-on by identifying them through conversations, coaching, and feedback. Helping franchisees reframe their mindset with affirmations and goal-setting exercises can lead to significant breakthroughs.
Franchisees often expect immediate solutions from the franchisor, which can foster dependency rather than self-sufficiency.
The Challenge:
Franchisee support managers walk a fine line between offering solutions and empowering franchisees to find their own.
Solution:
Training franchisee support teams in both coaching and mentoring techniques ensures they can adapt to various scenarios. Coaching encourages franchisees to think critically, while mentoring provides them with long-term guidance for ongoing development.
Franchisees have personal goals that may not always align with the franchisor’s strategic objectives, creating tension.
The Challenge:
Franchisors want franchisees to meet brand standards and growth targets, but individual franchisees may have different aspirations, like maintaining work-life balance over rapid expansion.
Solution:
Setting goals collaboratively helps align personal aspirations with brand objectives. Franchisee support managers can use goal-setting frameworks that explore the “why” behind each objective, creating shared motivation and accountability.
Franchise support managers often face blurred boundaries, leading to burnout or over-involvement in franchisee operations.
The Challenge:
When support managers overstep boundaries, it can create dependency, decrease franchisee confidence, and lead to emotional exhaustion among the support team.
Solution:
Training on resilience and boundary-setting helps support teams maintain a healthy relationship with franchisees. Techniques like time audits and mindfulness exercises can help manage workload and avoid burnout.
Franchisees often struggle with understanding and managing the financial aspects of their business, which can jeopardize their success.
The Challenge:
Without proper guidance, franchisees may misinterpret key financial indicators, fail to plan for challenges, or underinvest in growth.
Solution:
Providing financial literacy training, such as understanding cash flow, profit margins, and KPIs, helps franchisees make informed decisions. Support managers should also foster a “big business” mindset, helping franchisees act proactively rather than reactively.
The final of the unseen challenges for franchisors. Many franchisees fall into a fixed mindset after the initial training, believing they’ve learned all they need to know.
The Challenge:
A lack of ongoing development can limit innovation, adaptation, and long-term business growth.
Solution:
Implementing ongoing training programs and promoting a growth mindset ensures franchisees continuously improve. By celebrating incremental wins and emphasizing learning from failures, franchisors can help franchisees evolve as business leaders.
The key to addressing these hidden challenges lies in a well-trained, adaptable, and empathetic franchise support team. When franchisors invest in the professional development of their support managers—focusing on communication, coaching, financial literacy, and cultural awareness—they create an environment where franchisees can thrive, ensuring long-term network success. This ultimately creates more top performing franchisees who can be developed further, through powerful peer to peer performance groups.
By addressing these challenges head-on, franchisors can foster strong franchisee relationships, boost performance, and drive sustainable growth across their network.
Tim Morris has more than 30 years’ experience managing and supporting franchise operations around the world. He has a success record of driving sales and profits, managing multi-site units, as well as positively influencing individual franchise owners in franchise B2B and B2C environments. Tim has seen particular success supporting groups of high performing franchisees in peer group settings. He has managed teams developing and implementing sales and marketing strategies. With senior leadership experience, he has achieved 80% growth in net profit through motivation and development of teams. From assisting with the expansion of an international franchise brand to heading up the support functions of both national and international franchise systems, he has been instrumental in the growth of hundreds of franchisees. His proven success record comes with a passion for ‘360 business development’ and his unique perspective empowers franchisors and franchisees alike to get the very best from their partnership.