The Subway franchise agreement and the method to their madness is a perfect template for any up and coming fast food franchising chain.

If you are getting organized to start franchise your company, the Subway franchise agreement and the success it has spawned is a great place to start. The list of examples of great franchised fast food chains is as long as your arm. But among the great stories of how to take a healthy food outlet chain and turn it into a franchising powerhouse, Subway stands out.  The Subway franchise agreement and the other documents that drive that powerhouse can serve as templates for great success for any upstate franchising company that wants to know how to do it right.

You can find evidence of a truly unique approach to building a franchise buried right there in the Subway franchise agreement and their franchise operations guidelines.  Because Subway attacked the franchising market with their own slant on things and they brought the corporate philosophy that made them a huge success before franchising to the game, they exploded on the world of franchise fast food and they just keep on exploding there.

One way that the Subway franchise agreement and the other functional franchising documents laid down a formula for massive success is in their attitude about their customers. Subway made it a point to challenge the empires of McDonald’s and Wendy’s with one simple concept.  That concept was quality foods combined with phenomenal customer service.  You see it and sense it when you walk into a Subway.  That impression that you are eating food that is good for you served by happy and friendly employees is no fluke.  Franchising documents like the Subway franchise agreement made those values job one for any Subway franchise.

Putting the franchise owner on the pedestal.

Perhaps more than any other international franchising company, the Subway franchise agreement is all about the beginning of a powerful partnership between Subway and each and every franchise owner.  Subway is notorious for treating their franchise owners like royalty. The way they take great care of the people who make money for them has resulted in the Subway franchise agreementbecoming one of the most sought after franchises to own in the fast food industry.

For any fast food company that is thinking about getting into franchising, you cannot go wrong modeling how your franchise relationships work form the Subway franchise agreement.  If you can replicate the incredibly strong relationship between the Subway franchises and the corporation and the volcanic growth that Subway has enjoyed because of their unique approach to franchising, you will be in for a very prosperous future to be sure.

 

The hotel operations manual is a unique document because it is the key to assuring that consistency in looks, service, products and performance is the same from franchise to franchise

It is smart to create a great hotel operations manual because it is a dynamite way to enforce consistency in your franchises.  When you franchise your company,  that is a great way to grow your empire in a big hurry and to take the winning formula for making piles of money and spreading it like wildfire across the land. The key to that explosion of success and wealth is tied up in making sure every one of your franchises lives up to the name you plaster on the building. The hotel operations manual is a great way to achieve that compliance to franchise standards.

You cannot be in every location in your far flung franchising empire every day.  But making sure that every one of your hotels lives up to the corporate name, logo, reputation and advertising is absolutely essential to the success of your business.  That is why a franchise operations manual  will become your way of extending your management fingers into each franchise to make sure that franchise lives up to expectations.

You may think that the franchise owner will resent how specific the hotel operations manual is about the operations of every facet of the operation of that hotel.  The opposite is usually the case.  A hotel franchise owner knows he or she is buying into a very successful name in the hotel industry and the one thing they want to know is how to turn this opportunity into their golden ticket to success in running a hotel.

You didn’t come by your initial success in running a very profitable hotel overnight.  But by buying a franchise of your hotel, the franchise owner “inherits” the good name of your hotel which can turn into instant success because of the trust the public has in your corporate logo. So they need that hotel operations manual to tell them how to hit that high mark of success that you are giving them with their franchise ownership.  The more detailed and specific the hotel operations manual is, the better things will run for everyone.

That hotel operations manual can virtually clone your years of hotel experience.

When you begin to draft your hotel operations manual, you already are in possession of a huge bank vault of great stuff to put in there. In fact, if you already have a hotel operations manual that served you well before you ever gave a waking thought to franchising a hotel chain, that can serve as a perfect template for a hotel operations manual for every one of your franchises to swear by.

You bring to the table an impressive wealth of information about how a great hotel runs.  You have an instinct for turning hotels into huge profit making empires and that is why you are ready to spread that magic formula for success to your franchise owners. Naturally you will put together orientation materials and training classes or videos so that you can mold every new franchise owner into a virtual spitting image of yourself in terms of hotel management.

So keep on your to do list to transcribe into a neatly laid out hotel operations manual every detail of that orientations and training material to become a permanent on site resource that can help your hotel franchise buyers to overcome problems, recruit great help and build a massive and loyal customer base so every one of your franchises realizes just as much explosive success as you expect.

 

Look to your banking operations manual as a great template for training your bank employees in every aspect of their jobs.

You really do not need to look further than your banking operations manual to find the perfect resource for everything you need to train great bank employees. Whether you work at a branch or a bank franchise unit, that banking operations manual can be just as valuable as any other document you may have in the building. You can look at your franchise disclosure documents or any of the many other information resources you may have laying around and none of them will beat using a great operations manual to put together your training plan.

One of the challenges that new hires to your bank have is getting their arms around the many policies of the bank. Banking is nothing if not rich with policies and regulations enough to come out the ears of employees. That is why the banking operations manual must be a big part of that training program.  Even if you do not push the new trainees through every page of that document, showing them how to use it to tap into this gold mine of information about banking procedures can help the people who make your bank hum know where to go if they are not sure about what is ok and what is frowned on as they go about their daily duties.

Bank robbers don’t always show up with masks on and carrying guns.  There is enough creativity in how bad guys try to do bad things to get money out of banks to keep Hollywood making movies forever. But even more than that guard with a gun, your banking operations manual can arm every employee to know what to look for when it comes to dirty deeds about to be done. They can watch out for phony checks or forged currency because they were trained to become a crack team of crime busters through the knowledge that comes in the banking operations manual.

Taking the fear and loathing out of banking computer systems using your banking operations manual.

Even if your new employees are not phobic about computers, the systems that are used to be a good bank customer service representative take some getting used to. In every business in the world a good operations manual can smooth out the problems of getting employees up to speed on how to use your banking software systems.

If you are just putting together your bank training program for new employees, you can use the banking operations manual as the template for the format and content of that training.  Even if the document itself is a bit dry to read, by taking what is there and turning into exciting training materials, you know you have your feet planted in good banking policy while you use your training and showmanship skills to turn those recruits into great banking employees without killing off their enthusiasm for the job.

A good franchise operations manual outline takes on the hardest part about writing your operating manual which is getting started.

If you can take advantage of a good franchise operations manual outline, that is a great way to take charge of the process of creating this crucial franchising document. When you are preparing to franchise your company,  you will be one of the smart ones if you get your critical documents prepared before you do your first presentation to future franchise owners. For one thing, having your disclosure documents, your franchise agreement and operations manual all completed will make you ready for any questions that might come up.

Sadly, it is easy to procrastinate on writing these important documents. Many companies will contract out this important step in developing a franchise rather than turn to a franchise operations manual outline to do the job themselves.  This is an expensive way to go and it really doesn’t make sense.  Yes a franchise operations manual outline is usually quite generic but it gives you the framework to build a franchise operating manual that is fits your company. A consultant would never be able to pull that off because they would not understand your company the way you do.

Take the ball and run with it!

There is good news and bad news when it comes to the franchise operations manual outline. The good news is that a good sample of a solid operating manual can jump-start you in a big way to get this document done.  Your franchise operations manual outline will give you that skeleton that you can hang all of the important things that you want your franchise owners to know about your business on.

The outline can serve to stimulate your imagination because you have a clue about what is expected of you in writing this valuable guide.  That writer’s block problem of not being able to just get started can be vanquished by simply downloading a well prepared franchise operations manual outline.  You will find in this document the critical areas of operations that most operations manuals have.

The bad news is that the franchise operations manual outline is not a finished product.  You have to take the ball and run with it. But that is also good news because by writing your franchise operations guide yourself, you will do a great job with it because you will make sure that it covers everything that needs to be there to make each franchise line up with the look and feel of your company and to make sure every franchise owner is just as passionate about making your company a success as you are.

Do not be stingy in how much time you give to the process of customizing the franchise operations manual outline and turning it into a work of art that skillfully lays out what you expect your franchise owners to know.  Don’t expect a franchise operations manual outline to be industry specific.  The details about how your niche works and the specifics of how you and your franchise owners deal with vendors, employees and customers is all in your head.

The franchise operations manual outline simply gives you the tools to take that vast storage vault of wisdom that is in your head and get it all on paper.  It is an ongoing process. Yes, you will need to create a draft that is essentially “done” to get on with the business of launching your franchising operation.  But be prepared to continuously review and update the operations guide. Just as your business evolves and grows, so should your guide to how to run the business.  If it is a living and growing thing as your business expands and succeeds, that operations guide will remain the cornerstone of success for every franchise owner who joins your team.

 

A Pizza Hut franchise agreement can be the start of a wonderful career but look a little closer about what you must to do own be in charge of your own Pizza Hut.

One way to go on the fast track for owning a great pizza restaurant is to invest in a Pizza Hut franchise agreement.  By sinking your time and money into a well established name in the pizza industry, you instantly inherit a legacy of customers and a commodity that is beloved by teenagers and families every were Pizza Hut sets up shop.  That makes a Pizza Hut franchise agreement an attractive route to success and fun starting your own small business.

Everybody loves pizza.  You only have to take the family to enjoy their great product to get your mind moving along about the idea of getting a Pizza Hut franchise agreement for yourself.  To get the ball rolling, it pays to do some research into the steps you must go through to land your own franchise agreement from one of the most well known and popular pizza franchise in the business.  Pizza Hut could be the route to go but first check to see if it is a good fit to where you are in your business life and in your goals for owning and running your own fast paced pizza franchise.

The internet is a great place to start digging in and finding out the insider secrets about how to get your own Pizza Hut franchise agreement.  Pizza Hut is actually owned by a company called Yum Brands and they offer a lot of information about how to become one of those privileged owners of a Pizza Hut franchise agreement.  The actual application form is online as well as other guidelines that you need to start sorting out what you need to do as you get the ball rolling.

There is an investment to make to get your own Pizza Hut franchise agreement but in the end, it will be worth it.

As is true if you begin to research investing in any franchise, your financial ability to buy the franchise and set up shop to fulfill the terms of your Pizza Hut franchise agreement are the first consideration.  Since Pizza Hut is one of the most sought after franchise opportunities, the costs of landing your own Pizza Hut franchise agreement can be pretty steep.  Yum Brands will ask that you can show documentation that you have adequate investment and liquid capital to pull the deal off and still be ready to set up shop on opening day.  That doesn’t mean you have to show up at their offices with a briefcase full of money.  Having the credit resources is also a good proof that you are ready to fulfill your obligations of the Pizza Hut franchise agreement once things are moving in the right direction will do the trick.

Of course money is not all it takes to be the proud owner of a Pizza Hut franchise agreement. Yum brands will actually have you work in a Pizza Hut for a couple days.  That way you will experience much of what is in the franchise operating manual for Pizza Hut. It is those operating documents that are responsible for much of the success of this very large pizza empire.

With all of that preparation, the finals steps will be underway before you sign the final copies of the Pizza Hut franchise agreement and work through the disclosure documents and other details of owning your own Pizza Hut restaurant.  Not only will finishing that race as a  winner give you a tremendous feeling of pride, it will give you a very profitable new business that will keep on growing and pumping huge amounts of money into your bank account for many years to come.

When you write your pizza operations manual for the franchises you hope to open, make sure you keep the focus on running a good restaurant that customers will come to often.

The pizza operations manual that spells out exactly how a pizza restaurant or delivery operation will work is the backbone of the operation.  This is especially true when you make that decision to expand your pizza business rapidly through franchising.  Franchising a business has been proven over and over to be an amazing way to make your business explode with growth.  That is true in every business niche from banking to car washes to grocery chains to fast food. So there is no reason your pizza business cannot become a big time pizza franchise empire if you manage your franchises well. To do that, write a pizza operations manual that can’t be beat.

As is true of any franchise operating manual,  you may have in your head that the primary goal of your pizza operations manual is to keep every one of your franchises looking and acting exactly the same and in keeping with corporate standards. There is no question that you must use the pizza operating manual to pass along to every level of manager who may walk into that pizza place how to handle food so that nobody gets sick, how to manage inventory and even the boring stuff like how to balance a till and make sure the security system is working when everyone goes home.

That is why the pizza operations manual has to become many different documents to accomplish many different goals. To the franchising company, it is a policy manual that will keep every pizza shop from one coast to the other and even overseas operating exactly like the others.  When you consider how well most franchise chains enforce that uniformity, it is clear that a good franchise operations guide is able to do that job.

Along with keeping the pizza franchise store working right, the pizza operations manual can make sales take off too.

As you sit down with your business, legal and marketing gurus to write your pizza operations manual for that will become the Bible to your franchise owners, keep in mind that how that document is written can have a huge impact on sales. Right there in that boring operations manual that is often kept on a shelf in the back office are the keys to turning the franchises of your pizza chain into money making machines.

One aspect to consider when penning your pizza operations manual is how your franchise owners and managers handle employees.  Pizza employees usually make minimum wage and you often run the empire on the back of high school or college kids. To keep them happy, you have to give them plenty of pats on the back and let them enjoy their work.  Even when you must put the rules of employee discipline into your pizza operations manual, do so in a way that results in a happier employee, not a resentful one.

Think about what made your pizza restaurant or take out joint a big success before you decided to become a pizza franchise builder. As it true in most of retail and certainly in the restaurant business, it is all about customer service. You can dictate as a matter of policy little touches that will pass along to your franchise owners and their employees that you must love up on those customers like there is no tomorrow.

From a little thing like a warm hello and a smile when the customer comes in the door to giving them an extra package of cheese when they don’t ask for it, create guidelines in the pizza operations manual that emphasize that the customer is king.  If you do that, those very happy customers will reward your franchises with many repeat visits which means plenty of sales and profits.  That is a pretty good goal for any restaurant franchise.

 

Developing a franchise agreement checklist should be part of your homework before you start accepting applications from people who want to own a franchise.

A solid franchise agreement checklist is one of those great lists that can really save you from a lot of heartache along with legal and financial problems.  Some people are list keepers and others are not.  But a franchise agreement checklist is much more important than that “honey do” list that hangs on the refrigerator at home.  It is a way for you to “check out” applicants for franchising before both parties sign that franchise agreement and you are business partners through thick and thin.

At the top of the list of things to have on your franchise agreement checklist is financial viability. Viability is a 50 cent word for finding out if this franchise applicant has a leg to stand on financially.  Starting a franchise is no place for someone who is in a rebuilding year financially. Those who make it to the finish line and invest in building one of your franchises must have a credit rating to die for and plenty of financial resources.  That doesn’t mean he or has to have hundreds of thousands laying around in the bank. But it does mean that to make the cut on your franchise agreement checklist, there must be an ability to generate income to afford the franchise fees and the start up costs of getting that new franchise on its feet and running like a top.

Moving down your franchise agreement checklist and you should have several pages of questions meant to check out that the applicant for one of your coveted franchises knows the nuts and bolts of how to run a business.  Clearly you do not want someone to buy a franchise who never taken a business from a start up to a booming enterprise. Buying a franchise is for those who are already a success as a way to expand their ways of making even more money.  So check out how well their current business or businesses are holding up as part of your franchiseagreement checklist and the ones that make the cut will be the good ones.

Grading the Franchise applicant’s homework.

It is not entirely accurate to say that franchising a business is not for rookies because everybody has to start somewhere. But it is accurate to put on your franchise agreement checklist that before the ink is dry on that binding and legal franchise agreement, your franchise applicant must know the ropes of franchising.

If the business person who wants a piece of your success is already running a franchise or two, the success of those outlets is a resume in itself. Just as you check out the business savvy of the individual in previous sections of the franchise agreement checklist, check out how well they have done running a franchise before.

If this is the first franchise purchase for a hot prospect, they should be ready to gain an encyclopedia of information about franchising from the various franchise documents such as the franchise disclosure document and the franchise operating manual.  Don’t be shy about checking out the applicant to make sure that their level of knowledge will make them able to hit the ground running when they buy a franchise from your company and turn that franchise into a money making machine. If they can do that, you want them on your team and their score when you finish the franchise agreement checklist will be very high indeed.

 

The decision to franchise your company always starts with a question about what to do first so developing that project plan is a perfect way to get the process moving quickly.

If you have kicked around ideas about how to franchise your company, that means you have seen success in your current corporate structure and you are ready for some rapid expansion. The concept of franchising a business is an exciting one because once you have that franchising structure in place, you can see your business begin to grow by leaps and bounds as you bring on more franchise owners who will open new outlets of your business all over the place.

One of the big steps that will accelerate you toward making that transition to franchise your company is the simple act of laying out a plan of action.  This is not a shocker because anything good you do in your business starts with a well crafted project plan.

Two big parts of that plan are how you will protect your brand and trade secrets and revising your business plan to take into account your new plan to franchise the company. When your start selling franchises, your corporate brand, image and logo as well as the trade secrets of your products will go into the hands of franchise owners.  So take the time before you launch your program to franchise your company to protect anything that is proprietary or might be considered “intellectual property” so it doesn’t get away from you.

Once you feel that you have covered the value of your secret stuff, think about how you will go about rolling out your franchises in a step by step way. Just as you had a business plan for how you grew from an idea to the successful business force you are today, make a plan for how you will from one franchise to thousands.  Here is where buying a cup of coffee or a beer for a successful business associate who is an old hat at franchising could be the best investment you will make.  That plan for how you will franchise the company will grow and evolve of course as reality teaches you a lesson or two but at least have a jumping off place to get the show on the road.

Documents and tests

With those two steps nicely done, you should take a few days or weeks to draft some of the critical documents that will become the backbone of your quest to franchise your company.  A good place to start to have a firm foundation to franchise your company will be your franchise operating manual which will become the bible for your franchise holders on every detail of how to make their new businesses work.  That operations manual should grow naturally out of your business plan that you just put on ice. From there move on to the franchise agreement and any other documents you wish to provide to your future franchise owners to help them along their path to greatness in your company.

Once you have what looks like a pretty terrific plan to franchise your company, you can set up a test franchise in a corporate owned branch to step through the process.  Select some courageous manager to be your guinea pig franchise owner but make sure he or she will be empowered and have the backbone to tell you what is great about your plan to franchise the company and what doesn’t work at all.

With all of that preparation under your belt, your hopes and dreams to franchise your company are close to becoming reality.  Put together a knock-your-socks-off marketing plan and a few killer presentations that will have future franchise owners eating out of the palm of your hand and you will have your program ready for opening night. Just stay loose and flexible and ready to make changes as you roll out your plan to franchise your company.  Reality has a way of reshaping great plans like yours.  But if you know how to roll with the punches, reality will only make your program to franchise your company even better.

The Subway operations manual is a masterpiece of simplicity which means as a master franchiser, it easy to find new buyers to expand your empire

One of the big reasons for the success of the Subway sandwich restaurant chain lies in the Subway operations manual. When you walk into a Subway, you might not notice it but the store runs like a top.  Usually using only a few employees who always seem to be enjoying themselves, Subways run like well oiled machine. This is no accident. It is a carefully crafted concept that is laid out for Subway franchise owners in the Subway operations manual.

The secret weapon that Subway has in its franchise operating manual is something Subway has used to gain competitive advantage in the rough and tumble fast food market.  The company combines three potent selling points to earn a reputation as one of the sought after franchises to own and operate.  The first big selling point is the product which is healthy food that is easier to offer to customers than fried food.  The Subway operating manual lays out the way fresh foods are simply put out where they can be seen so that employees do not have the fuss of frying things which is expensive and messy.

Another selling point few people know is how much support Subway offers its new franchise owners.  They give their new franchise applicants plenty of tender loving care from the franchise application stage right on through to when the franchise opens and the excited new owner of that franchise starts to make that Subway operations manual come to life.

The third selling point is the efficiency of running a Subway. The clean and friendly atmosphere and people to people touch to getting lunch at a Subway brings customers to their stores in droves.  What new franchise owner would not want that kind of customer base? The Subway operations manual lays out in a step by step fashion how to achieve that atmosphere that customers love

Tapping into the money making potential of Subway.

Looking at big numbers can be fun and fascinating. There is one little statistic that few people know about how the Subway gang has gone about franchising a business.  Seventy percent of new Subway franchises are sold to existing owners which means that master franchise gurus are tapping into the wealth of selling subway franchises too.

It makes sense. The master franchise retailer has seen the powerful way the implementation of that Subway operations manual has put money in the till which means money in his or her pocket. The natural next step is to run a network of sub-franchises using the master franchising concept. It is easy to “sell” to sub-franchise candidates that the Subway operations manual is the secret weapon to big success running a Subway restaurant.

Because of the phenomenal franchisor support that Subway offers, they have learned to encourage master franchisors to expand the business even faster implementing the innovative ideas they find in the Subway operations manual.  If it works for Subway, it can work for regular people too so why not tap into that geyser of profits and share the wealth and the fun with Subway?

A McDonald’s franchise agreement may be the gold standard in franchise opportunities because the chances for making big money are so great.

For a franchise opportunity, the McDonald’s franchise agreement is one that dominates the fast food landscape. So the idea of getting a McDonald’s franchise agreement and becoming part of one of the most successful chains in the world is appealing to say the least.

Even if you are not out to land your own McDonald’s to own and manage, the McDonald’s franchise agreement is a model that sets the standard for all of the franchising industry.  With thousands of successful franchises, the McDonald’s operating manual is one that is well thought out with contents to cover every possible franchise issue that has come up in the operation of such huge franchise network.

Part of the appeal of winning a McDonald’s franchise agreement is the knock-your-socks-off name recognition of the McDonalds brand.  That means that once you open your own McDonalds will inherit an amazing customer base that will flood your fast food store from the minute you open the doors on the first day.  The profits that a very busy McDonalds can generate are nothing short of astounding. Any small business person who is temped about that kind of big money operation would look at the possibility of owning a McDonald’s franchise agreement as a dream come true.

It pays to consider the investment before jumping into a McDonald’s franchise agreement.

With any business opportunity, there are costs that balance out the big time profits to be had. That is certainly true of a McDonalds franchise agreement.  A franchise agreement with McDonalds is going to come with a pretty hefty price tag.  The costs of buying any franchise is going to based on the existing success and appeal of the franchise chain. And since McDonalds is one of the most successful franchise chains of all time, the costs of getting into a McDonalds franchise agreement and then starting up operations is going to be out of this world compared to many other smaller franchises for sell on the market.

The work of running a fast food chain and living up to your McDonald’s franchise agreement are demanding. Most franchise owners and managers find themselves working virtually day in and day out to maintain those standards not only to satisfy the franchisee but to keep the customers rolling in. McDonald’s customers are notoriously spoiled by clean restaurants, McDonalds that are consistently stocked and ready to serve those familiar menu items hot and tasting exactly the way they expect them to taste no matter which McDonalds franchise they are in.

That is a high standard to hit.  In addition, because it takes such an army of low cost workers to keep a McDonalds running like a top around the clock, to staff a McDonalds is going to mean high turn over and some serious management challenges.  These are some of the issues that any small business owner who is the proud holder of a McDonalds franchise agreement will have as part of his life every week.

None of these issues should be s show stopper from keeping you from being the owner of a McDonalds franchise agreement. But as is true of any big business move, knowing what you are getting yourself into is the first big step on that road to success and wealth owning your own McDonalds franchise.

 

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