Take a look at the Subway operations manual when you are considering which franchise to buy.

The Subway operations manual may seem like an odd place to spy on one of the most successful fast food franchises in the world but think again. The franchise operating manual for the Subway chain has buried in it the secrets to their success.  It is those secrets that make Subway a worthwhile candidate if you are thinking about where you will put your franchise purchasing investment money to start your own fast food restaurant.

There is no question that thinking hard and long about investing in a franchise from one of the top dogs in the fast food franchising world is just plain smart.  The big shots in franchising in fast food such as McDonald’s and Wendy’s got that way because they know the lay of the land in conquering the world of franchise fast food sales and then dominating that world year after year.  Some years ago, Subway sauntered in as the new kid on the block and took over that world.  The Subway operations manual tells the tale of how they staged that revolution in the fast food franchising world and how they did it on their own terms.

The Subway operations manual has the insider secrets for of how Subway changed the game for how to run a very successful restaurant franchise. It details how to run a Subway with lower overhead which means more profits. When you go to a Subway, you will notice that it runs with a bare bones staff and yet the store runs very well. That is one of the many secrets of efficiency spelled out in the Subway operations manual.  It is also one of the big secrets of success that make Subway a sweet candidate to get a franchise agreement from.

Subway sets the bar high for taking good care of their franchise owners and that makes Subway an attractive franchise to own.

What really jumps out when you start to crack the covers of the Subway operations manual is how Subway set the bar high for franchise owner support.  They really pour the tender loving care into their franchise owners. If you think you will fork over your hard earned franchise fees to Subway and never hear from them again, you can forget it.  They are true mother hens about making sure that their franchise owners are happy campers.

That means that when you turn to your Subway operations manual, you have the muscle of the entire home office at your fingertips.  They bend over backwards to be partners with their franchise owners. They are not just there when you are carrying the huge mountains of profits to the bank in wheelbarrows.  The Subway operations manual is a life boat of answers to how to deal with problems at the street level. It provides a huge amount of resources that Subway offers to make sure that they are there with you in the trenches to fix things when they go wrong just as much as they are there to help celebrate your huge success.

The McDonald’s franchise agreement model should be a model for any business that wants to make it big in the world of franchising.

You really cannot go wrong looking at the McDonald’s franchise agreement as a model for how to get it right when it comes to franchising your company.  The McDonald’s people have had such an explosion of success that when you say the word, “franchising”, you almost automatically think of McDonald’s.  So when you begin to get serious about starting your own very successful company out on the exciting adventure of franchising, you do not have to look too far past the McDonald’s franchise agreement as a model for how to grow a business to the empire level and run it like a well oiled machine.

You don’t get to where you are running thousands of franchise outlets and keeping them all profitable and happy overnight. That is why the McDonald’s franchise agreement that they set up with their franchise owners is an evidence of how to do it right. It is a tricky balance to make sure there is conformity in all of your franchise outlets and still give each franchise owner plenty of room to make that franchise outlet his or her own.  But when it comes to a franchise that is a rock solid choice for fast food for millions of customers because they know they will get the same quality of food, service and dining experience from Boston to Seattle to Hong King, McDonald’s pulls it off.

Every aspect of how this massive franchise chain grew up from one store to tens of thousands deserves attention.  From the McDonald’s franchise agreement to their operations manual and their army of field managers, knowing how they got it right over and over again would be pure gold in terms of franchising wisdom. If you are just starting out in planning now to launch your first franchise outlet, it is not too early to think of yourself as a massive franchising success like McDonald’s.  Even if you are not franchising inexpensive fast food and Happy Meals, the principles of running a big chain that are represented by the McDonald’s franchise agreement deserve respect and study.

To say that McDonald’s wrote the book on how to hit it big in franchising is an understatement.

There is an art to running a highly successful franchise chain and the relationship between McDonald’s and their thousands of franchise owners is a modern marvel. Much of that success is in the structure of the documents such as the McDonald’s franchise agreement that set up the franchise to succeed.  But there is no question that McDonald’s has set up a field operation to keep that vast army of spread out small business people operating at peak performance.  It is a network that is so efficient that any modern army would be jealous.

The documents that are the backbone of the stunning success of this massive fast food chain include the McDonald’s franchise agreement along with the franchise operating manual and their system of communications that keeps their thousands of loyal franchise owners all marching to the same tune.

The lesson is clear. To launch a franchise operation that targets phenomenal success, the McDonald’s model has plenty to teach any new franchising operation.  That means learning the nuts and bolts of how the McDonald’s franchise agreement helps to set their franchise owners on a path of success. It also means picking the brains of those in the know about how McDonald’s runs this amazing operation day in and day out. This is the kind of field research that will pay off big time because even if you are not setting out to become a billion dollar multinational franchise chain, the people at McDonald’s have plenty to teach us other than what is in their secret sauce.

Your small business operations manual can keep you on the right side of the rules and regulations of running your small business.

A small business operations manual is perhaps even more important to a new franchise owner than to someone running an autonomous small business.  There is a trade off that you get when you land that big deal to open a franchise of a very popular brand name. The trade off that benefits you because when you sign that franchise agreement, you have the rights to hang that highly recognizable franchise name on your building and inherit the massive crowds of customers that will come to you because of that name.

This is not to say that you are going it alone because among the other massive documents that will flood your mailbox will be a small business operations manual that will help you understand exactly how to look, act and smell like every other franchise in the chain. That franchise operating manual  is your bible for how to make your franchise take off like a rocket to huge sales and profits.  It contains the assembled wisdom of an army of gurus who are locked in little rooms back at the franchising company headquarters cranking out documents like your small business operations manual to make you a success.

You are not expected to have been born knowing how to make that franchise a stunning success. But you are expected to read and know well every rule, regulation, guideline and suggestion in the small business operations manual that the mother ship gives you.  Don’t see this as a tedious imposition by the bosses. Instead see it as a lifesaver for your franchise because the people who know very well how to make big piles of cash are passing those insider secrets to you in exchange for your franchise fees.  That is an excellent swap.

Look to your small business operations manual to keep the legal hounds off of your back.

If all the small business operations manual will do is make you rich beyond your wildest dreams because you learned to run a hugely profitable franchise outlet, that would be plenty. But just as important are the legal tips that pop up in your small business operations manual on how to keep your franchise running squeaky clean with the law. Those legal sand traps that your small business operations manual can keep you out of include tax requirements that the city, state and federal government are very interested in seeing you live up to.  They include other quirks of the law like how to run a safe store or how to treat your employees in a way that avoids lawsuits.

These guidelines in your small business operations manual can keep the lawyers and other legal trouble makers away from your door so you can focus on the big job you have of making big money running your franchise outline. Toss in there that there are a rats nest of franchise laws that you have to live with because you signed that franchise agreement.  The franchise relationship is a legally binding marriage so the last thing you need is to have some quirk of the franchise law jump up and bite you on the toe because you did not know about it.  Know about it by making your small business operations manual your best friend in the world.

The store operations manual that you provide to each franchise owner can be a way for you to be part of that store even when you are not there.

The store operations manual that you give to each store manager is much more than just a formality that you have to do as part of the package of franchise documents that you put together.  You already know that if you want franchise operations to function in an orderly way, a well developed store operations manual is a must.  But there are good reasons to go above and beyond the minimum requirements of a store operations manual and make it a document that virtually jumps off the shelf of the franchises in your empire to become part of daily life in those stores.

What makes a great store operations manual is about a lot more than page after page of instructions on how the franchise owner can make sure that franchise live within the structure of your company franchising guidelines.  Yes the rules of the game for being a great franchise of your company must be in there along with long and complicated rules of the road about how to stay within franchise law according to the franchise documents that got the whole shooting match up and running.

The real juicy stuff of that store operations manual are the hidden gems of wisdom you know about what it takes to make that store take off like a rocket to make tons of money.  Don’t let that store operations manual become such a dry and boring set of rules that you leave out the hot tips on how to handle problems and insider clues on how to give that franchise outlet a swift kick in the pants to get out of a sales slump and back into the massive profits mode that everybody wants.

That store operations manual touches every employee in your vast franchise empire.

It is easy to feel out of touch with the vast network of franchises that make up your far flung empire. The job of building a top notch chain of knock-your-socks-off franchise outlets does not end when the franchise agreements are signed and you have collected your franchise fees.  The more you do all you can to stay in touch and involved with your franchise owners and the many employees of each franchise outlet, the more success they will enjoy and the stronger the loyalty they will feel which will pay off when the time comes for those franchise agreements to be renewed.

The store operations manual is not just a set of rules that are only for the franchise owner and manager. It can be a bible for how to run that franchise that can help management and employees alike.  You can include vital instructions in the store operations manual that employees of each franchise can use to understand their jobs better, to resolve conflicts and get a vision for becoming very productive members of that store’s sales team.

One great way to make sure that the store operations manual gets used frequently is to write it yourself. Do all you can make that store operations manual the type of document that “connects” with the human beings who are part of that franchise operation.  Don’t be afraid to use a bit of humor and let your own personality shine through even in a stodgy old franchise document like the store operations manual.

If you do that, the store operations manual will not waste away gathering dust on the shelf in the store manager’s office. If anything, the biggest problem you may have with your store operations manual is that franchise owners keep asking for replacement copies because theirs just keeps getting worn out from overuse. That is a good problem to have.

The franchise agreement format is a necessary step toward selling a franchise to a new partner so make it a useful tool as well.

You are required to send a franchise agreement format to any new franchise owner within a week of closing that big deal and sealing another great franchise purchase for your company. So since franchise law is not going to budge on insisting that you provide a franchise agreement format to your future franchise owners, it makes sense to put some thought and TLC into it so it really does help the process along.

For one thing, in the same way that you are not allowed to skip out on sending that franchise agreement format as part of the process of preparing for the final signing of the franchise agreement,  the future franchise owner will be expected to know every paragraph and line of what is in there.  So you can put the guns of the law to good use by using the franchise agreement format as a way to force feed some serious franchise training into the process.

There are a number of franchise documents that must be passed along to the future franchise owner and each of them is valuable even if they are a bother for you to create and for the franchise applicants to have to digest.  By the time you put the stamps on the franchise agreement format to send it along the future franchise owner, that poor soul already has had some time to go over the franchise disclosure document that is a virtual encyclopedia of information about your company and what will happen when the franchise process goes full steam ahead.

That disclosure documents can get very large and involved so the franchise hopeful has to do some serious homework to understand that huge document.  So when they get the much more manageable franchise agreement format, they will have already paid their dues. So you know you have a potential franchise owner who is willing to put in the hours to make this business relationship work.

Using the franchise agreement format to create smart franchise owners.

When that final moment comes that you sell a franchise to a new member of your franchise community, it is a big deal.  It is not all about just collecting that fat paycheck when the new franchise owner ponys up his or her franchise fees.  It is about growing your business and making that work.  You want that new franchise owner to hit it big and for that new outlet of your business to take off like gangbusters.  That can only happen when that new franchise manager knows the score.

Sending the franchise owner a solid franchise agreement format is part of showing him or her the ropes.  By the time the checks are written and that franchise owner must translate all of that giddy enthusiasm into the hard work of creating a world class franchise, there should be no more surprises.  Communication is your magic spell book of turning that franchise owner into the big money maker you want them to be.

The franchise agreement format is just one step of many in the process of creating a seasoned old pro at running a franchise out of a raw recruit.  It is your job to mold that fresh young franchising newbie into a rock solid business man or woman who can handle the challenges and jump over the obstacles like a gazelle to steel that franchise to massive success.

Along with the franchise agreement format, you will support that evolution with a franchise operation manual that will become the bible of what to do in every situation in the life of that business. Armed with these great documents and your phone number to call anytime that franchise owner needs some help, you simply will not let that new franchise fail. That is the stuff success is made of.

: It could be that your gym operations manual will be the key to success or failure in running your own gym.

Few people know how crucial a gym operations manual is to how well run a private gym runs. But few patrons actually think very much about what it takes to open your own gym and then to keep it running well week in and week out.  That is why, whether you are looking to open your own gym by entering into a franchise agreement with a larger chain or going another route, taking some time with the gym operations manual before you buy a single bar bell or exercise bike  is essential.

Starting your own business is a gutsy step. If you have a real love and zeal for fitness and exercise, opening your own gym just makes sense.  For anyone who is launching out to become an entrepreneur, picking a type of business that you already love is key to your success.  But just as important is knowing how a facility like a gym operates. To customers, you make it look easy.  But for the owner and manager of your own gym, that gym operations manual is a lifesaver and very much your bible for how to deal with the many issues that come up in operating a facility like yours.

Maybe investing in a franchise to open your own gym has some merit.

It is smart to set aside some time as you decide on how to become a business tycoon running your own gym to review a gym operations manual or two because it will shape your attack plan.  The start up costs of getting your gym on its feet can be steep. Your gym operations manual will help you start to get a cost evaluation checklist going so you can do some basic shopping for the right site and for the many kinds of equipment you will need to offer a top flight gym experience to your customers.

Going the franchise route has plenty of benefits to offer.  For one thing, you won’t have to write your own gym operations manual out of whole cloth.  The company selling you the franchise will have a franchise operating manual that has evolved out of many hard years of experience including mistakes made.  You can tap the wisdom of that gym operations manual while running a gym that has plenty of name recognition as well.

It is that name recognition that is one of the biggest values for anyone who decides to start a small business by buying into a franchise of an existing gym.  When someone decides to join a gym to whip themselves into shape, they will be drawn to a well known chain of gyms.  One of the things that draws people to go to a gym is that sense of trust that you will maintain a well run facility with top of the line equipment and be there for them if they need help with their exercise plans.  The gym operations manual that the franchise provides can help you offer exactly that to those eager customers who come to you to turn them into athletic gods.

While you will still have plenty of start up costs when you open your own gym, by going with a well known chain, the gym operations manual will help you sort out what you need day one and how to grow your gym adding equipment and resources as you go.  You will pick up customers who come to you from other franchises in your chain and your partners will be old hats at running a great gym so you will have resources coming out of your ears to give you advice on top of that great gym operations manual on how to run a top notch facility and make a top notch profit as you do so.

 

Examine the franchise contract example that you get from the franchisee carefully so you can be certain that you agree with every line of it before buying into that franchise.

In the last weeks before final papers are signed, the franchising company will send a franchise contract example to you as part of disclosure.  To the prospective franchise buyer, these franchise disclosure documents are not optional to how the tricky negotiations to buy that franchise roll out. So when that franchise contract example shows up, pay attention to it because you will find there a laundry list of what the franchising company expects of every small business owner who wants to hang that franchise corporate logo outside their business.

When a company sells franchises to grow fast, there is a huge priority on making absolutely certain that every franchise they sell looks, smells and operates exactly the same as every other franchise. The franchise contract example is their way of sending up that flare to you that if you sink your teeth into running one of their franchise operations, you will pony up whatever it takes to live up to that uniform image of the brand.  By sending you a franchise contract example, they are laying down the rules of the game. You need to know the lay of the land because if you don’t play by their rules, the results spelled out in the franchise contract example can be pretty harsh.

If you have been curious what you are getting yourself into, the arrival of that franchise contract example is there to answer that question.  Give this document some serious and concentrated attention.  When the final version of that same document shows up with the option to sign on the dotted line, it is assumed you know every paragraph in line backwards and forwards because you have studied and agree with everything in that franchise contract example.

The franchise contract example is the prototype of a franchise agreement that is more binding than the marriage contract so take it seriously.

If you do not agree with everything in the franchise contract example, now is the time to bring that up, not after the franchise agreements have been signed.  This is also the time to get your legal eagles on the case to look that franchise contract example over in detail to make sure your interests are well protected and that you are not agreeing so something that is outrageous.  So do not be shy about getting some high powered franchise lawyers in on the game so they can watch your back long before the time to write that check and buy that franchise comes along.

There are a lot of details buried in the franchise contract example that should give you a very clear vision of the future once you own and operate a profitable franchise small business.  That future will include keeping that franchise name squeaky clean and living up to the financial obligations of running that franchise so it lives up to corporate standards. It is true that being a franchise owner is not the same as working for that company but it is the next best thing.  You are expected to keep your facility clean and in good repair. By signing that final franchise agreement, you are saying loudly to the franchise company that you will live up to every tiny detail in the franchise operations manual. So be sure you get a crack at reviewing that document in intense detail as well.

There are a lot of documents involved in buying a franchise so you can become a very successful franchise owner.  But there is plenty of disclosure given about what those documents mean and the franchise contract example is one of those crucial disclosure pieces of literature.  Sure, the fun of running a franchise is in operating an exciting business and finding ways to store all of the big profits you will make.  Look on this review of the franchise contract example as part of paying your dues so you can have that fun once your franchise doors are open.  That will make this tricky process of looking at, tweaking and signing franchise agreements a lot easier to put up with.

 

 

You can develop your small business operations manual to assure that the experience you develop in running your business becomes part of that document.

It is easy to overlook that a small business operations manual is just as important to a small business starting out as to a larger business with a ton of offices and all kinds of employees. As the owner and manager of a small business, your quest in life is to standardize how your business and the employees of that business deal with various aspects of what goes on each day.  If your small business is a franchise of larger organization, living inside of the restrictions of a franchise agreements just goes with the territory.

But whether you are part of a franchise or not, there are some big time values to drafting a small business operations manual as early as you can find time to do it. In fact, if you have an early draft of your small business operations manual already in place when you begin to staff up with new employees and that procedures guide is the law of the land the first day you open the doors to customers, you are way ahead of the game.

Perhaps the hardest part about putting together a small business operations manual is knowing where to start.  You actually have a fairly precise idea of how you want your business to run that you have never written down.  It is buried in your own body of experience combined with your own philosophy about how you want your business to relate to customers, to suppliers and how you want your employees to conduct themselves each day.  All you are doing when you begin to hammer out a small business operations manual is to take that significant repository of wisdom that is in your head and turning it into a document that will serve to standardize how things will be handled day in and day out in your own small business.

Getting started is half the battle in drafting your small business operations manual.

The biggest obstacle to drafting your own small business operations manual is getting started.  Sometimes all it takes to kick start the process is a structure or a format to give you a direction to go to start writing your own guide to how you want your business to operate.  The good news is that it is not difficult to find an excellent operations manual template that will provide that structure for you. By downloading a format to use as your jumping off place, you can be writing your small business operations manual in no time flat.

Once you begin to uncork the treasure trove of ideas you have inside your brain for how you want things to happen around your office and how you want to see your customers handled, it will be amazing how quickly that small business operations manual begins to take shape. An important ethic to keep in mind as you organize your first draft is to just get it all down on paper. You can refine it and edit it after you have your thoughts out of your head where they can stand on their own and be examined by others.

The second big tip to keep in mind as this first draft begins to shape up on paper is that your small business operations manual will always be a work in progress.  As you launch your growing business, you should always be ready to revise and update your small business operations manual.

In that way, anytime you resolve an issue, find a better way of doing things or learn about a new and exciting way to make your business hum, that can become part of your small business operations manual and be captured forever for everybody to benefit from. That is a small business operations manual that grows with you and with your business until before long, it is big business operations manual to serve that very successful and prosperous business of yours.

Making the hotel operations manual a part of every standard operating procedure you employ to keep your hotel running great is just smart business.

Too often the hotel operations manual is considered a big nuisance when you have a big hotel franchise to run. While the policies and procedures of running a prosperous hotel franchise are very unique to this exciting industry, the format of the hotel operations manual will often follow a common operations manual template that is frequently useful in running a money making franchise.

Running a hotel can be a frantic situation. But with the help of a good hotel operations manual, you will have prepared ways to deal with the many unusual situations that spring up when you are running a money making hotel franchise operation.  A hotel operations manual is much more than a dusty book you pull out once in a blue moon just to say you reviewed it.

This book is often referred to as a SOP or the big book of standard operating procedures. But whatever you or your employees call it, the hotel operations manual for keeping your franchise running like a top is an essential tool for you to be sure your customers are happy, your employees are happy and that you keep those rooms filled which makes your bank account very happy indeed.

The hotel operations manual is a book with a purpose.

Like any good tool you will use to run your hotel, the hotel operations manual has many reasons for existing and many ways it pays its way in your operation.  Because you will get a template for your hotel operations manual from the franchisee, the hotel operations manual’s first purpose will be to give you franchise information that you need to keep your nose clean with the people who own the logo that you hang on the building.

The hotel operations manual should also become the bible of how to handle just about every situation imaginable in a busy hotel on a daily basis.  You don’t have to be in the hotel business long before you know that you can all kinds of situations that come up because of all that goes on each week in your hotel. Your employees need to know what to do if a guest fall off a chair and breaks her pink finger or if there is a more serious emergency such as a serious storm or a terrorist attack. While some emergencies may be a little far fetched, a good hotel operations manual will give you the standard operating procedure so you, your staff and your guests will know what to do.

Above all the hotel operations manual is written to be sure you are providing the very best service on the planet to your guests.  If you can make sure you provide the best service imaginable to those paying hotel guests, they will come back and send you tons of referrals as well. That is how you find yourself dealing with a hotel that is constantly booked to the rafters with happy customers with lots of money to spend. Those happy customers mean a happy hotel franchise owner and happy franchise partners as well because you took the time to know your hotel operations manual inside out. That will always be time well spent.

 

How to Write a Franchise Operations Manual

The franchise operations manual is one of the most important documents for any franchise business. It can make the difference between a successful and profitable franchise and a poor performing one.

Writing your franchise operations manual can be a frustrating task, especially if you are new to this business. Here are some tips that can help you throughout the process.

Franchise operation manual tips:

• Get ready. If you have never written a franchise operation manual, you will need to get familiar with the document prior to writing one. Of course every business is unique and there are different business procedures in every company. However you do not need to get into details at this stage. All you need to do is to get familiar with this type of documentation. Find as many operations manuals as you can and read them carefully. Pay close attention to their structure, the information listed and make notes about the most important details. Try to get franchise operations manuals of successful franchises and such that have businesses similar to yours.

• The first draft. After you have an idea what a franchise operation manual is you can proceed to writing the first draft of your own manual. As you have already noticed, the manual can be a bulky document so you will probably need a lot of time outlining all the information and even more time writing the details. This is where a specialized franchise tool can help you. There are some great software products that can provide you with the main frame of your manual. If you choose to use such software, all you will need to do is to customize the ready template.

• Get the draft reviewed. Once you have your franchise operations manual draft ready, you can get it reviewed by other members of the management team. Your management team is the people who know most about the business and each member of the team can contribute to the writing process. In addition, having the manual read by many people will help you a lot in refining it and making it better.

• Get the second draft reviewed by professionals. Once you have an almost ready version of the manual, get a legal professional to review it. This is very useful especially in cases when you are aiming to get franchisees from many different countries. A legal processional specializing in franchising will be able to point out any weak sides of the manual as well as fill any holes that may arise from a legal point of view. You can also get a franchise consultant to review the manual. This step is recommended especially if it is your first franchise business and this is the first time you are preparing such document.

• Make it official. Once you have the second draft ready, apply the final corrections and make the official version of the franchise operations manual. Remember that you may need to review it and change it on a regular basis as your business develops and the market changes.

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