As we enter a new decade, it’s fun to look back on the companies that have stood
the test of time. Despite a few well-financed chicken-focused start-ups, mounting
pressure to reduce our dependence on meat, and our growing addiction to fancy
coffee, McDonald’s has managed to thrive. This year McDonald’s is celebrating its
80th anniversary with a market capitalization of around $150 billion—up roughly
10% over last year.

McDonald’s started when Maurice and Richard (Mac and Dick) were invited by their father, Patrick McDonald, to help flip burgers at his diner, the Airdrome, which the brothers rebranded in 1940 as their namesake.

The two spent almost ten years tinkering with their business before they
introduced the “Speedee Service System”—techniques that were pulled from the
factory assembly line to serve customers quickly.

The McDonald clan ran their single-location hamburger stand for almost 20 years
before Ray Kroc came along, asking to...

I often get asked whether a particular business is good enough to scale by franchising.

So today, I will list seven important attributes I look out for in the business to give you an idea. Your business does not need ALL of them, and when we work on the scalable business model, often some of the attributes are created.

12 Months Trading

It is a great idea before you franchise that your business has been trading for at least 12 months. Reasons for this are three fold.

First, you understand the seasonal ups and downs a franchisee could experience, so this may be important when you are looking at how much working capital is required by the franchisee. I have also seen commencement dates change to fit around any quiet patch or super busy patch. Damage from opening when it will be super busy is just as bad as a lack of customers for the franchisee.

Second, by operating your business for 12 months you get to understand your customers problem the business solves....

If I was a betting man I would bet you want more profit.

We all want more profit… well, most of us anyway.

Today I’m going to begin to write a small series of simple ways to grow your profit.

This first one is on your “average dollar yield”.

Average dollar yield is the value of each transaction in your business on average.

Example: If today’s trading revenue was $2,000, and this was spread over 10 sales throughout the day, then your average dollar yield is $2,000/10 = $200.

If your revenue was $2,000, and this was spread over 200 sales, then your average dollar yield is $2,000/200 = $10.

Every business has a different average dollar yield. The amount is not important.

A simple way to increase your profit is to increase your average dollar yield from each customer.

This increases your revenue and more profit drops out the bottom for you to spend on yourself or business investments.

Using the two examples above:

Let’s say your average dollar yield...

Tomorrow my youngest daughter starts her first job.

It is working in a cafe.

She is a little nervous, but the business has done many things right to help her on her new adventure.

First, the Manager told me they like to employ local people. She said they feel as a local business they have a responsibility to support local people.

I really liked that.

Then she said to me they like to always have a local school young adult new to employment in training. “We do it to give a leg up to help someone start their career, even if it isn’t in the cafe scene. Getting a first job opens the door to other opportunities”.

I really liked that thinking too.

Here is the welcome process my daughter has experienced so far…

She had a meeting with the Manager who took the time to sit down and explain the induction process and what the expectations are.

Then, my daughter was introduced to everyone in the team who was working at the time.

And during the introduction everybody...

Franchising and Licensing creates leverage.

What does leverage mean in the context of leadership?

My definition is “the ability to use a small amount of energy to gain a very high return in relation to the original energy spent”.

So how do we do this?

For a start a big advantage of franchising is the franchise partners all share a common goal. This goal is to use your secret sauce, your business model to serve their customers.

They require similar knowledge on your secret sauce and operating your business model. Training can be the same for every franchise partner.

If training is the same for everybody, then they can all access the same content.

Now you have the opportunity for scale leadership.

Scalable Leadership Tip #1

Ensure everybody uses the resources available to solve their problems.

If you find they are skipping the resources available because it’s easier to send you an email or call you on the phone… reply “where did you look in the...

Yesterday my son bought his first car.

It’s been a long time coming while he patiently saved away, waiting for this big event day to arrive.

He found the car on the web.

First we visited and inspected the vehicle, and to take it for a test drive.

Then we arranged for a professional inspection to ensure he wasn’t buying a lemon.

All good… pass.

Time to make an offer. We were ready to buy.

This part he asked me to do. My son is sixteen and didn’t know how to buy.

He wanted to talk price on the first visit. But we were not ready I told him.

We offer when we are ready to buy. This gives us power at the time of doing a deal because we are ready to buy.

I often see this in business.

The business owner is ready to cut straight to the chase and talk money… often discounting before the buyer is ready to buy. Often the price is not the objection but the seller has given away the margin.

Only talk money when the seller is ready to sell and the buyer is ready to...

This is a hot question I often get asked.... and I first start with my own questions in reply

So why franchise? What is your driver to travel this journey?

I ask these questions first because it matters. Look at the following replies and see if any of them is you:

• I love creating and it's time to expand.
• I want more money.
• I want to share my passion with more customers.
• I want to build a legacy that keeps going long after I'm gone.
• For the challenge.
• To create more time and financial freedom.
• To feel more secure from competitors.
• It feels natural as the next step to take.
• I want to make a bigger positive difference to people.
• My existing business isn't really working so by franchising I can keep making money. (Yuck yuck yuck I stay away from these people)

Franchising can certainly deliver on all these reasons.

So when is it the right time to franchise your business?

• Maybe you are struggling to keep up with demand for your products or services.
• Customers keep telling you...

The Power Of Benchmarking

Business data is very important, and reviewing this data is crucial to business success.

An example of this happened to me this week. A client had lower than expected sales for last month. Why? He had no idea. 

For me, this is no good, we need to know why. Is it a trend? To solve this I suggested he looks at the following data.

Benchmark Period.

• Last 12 months compared to the same period a year earlier.
• Last 6 months compared to the same period a year earlier.
• Last 3 months compared to the same period a year earlier.
• Last month compared to the same period a year earlier.

Benchmark Data.

• Revenue
• Number of Jobs
• Average Dollar Sale Value
• Top 20% Invoices
• Who were the Customers?
• Are they still buying?
• Frequency of ordering for these Customers.

The result was more Orders were being received, so the business was busier, but the Order value was lower. Why? Looking at the top 20% Jobs from the previous periods showed a decline in Orders from the top...

A Simple Planning System To Get Results

This simple system can be used for all types of projects to help get your desired outcome.

Developing internal business systems is also why franchising works so well. It turns a desired outcome into a system, and the people work the system. 

I break project work into five steps:

1. Determine what the desired outcome is? This is the goal.
2. Map the steps out in a flowchart that can be followed.
3. Timeline each step.
4. Confirm where the project milestones are to use as check points.
5. Track progress of each step to the timeline.

As the person ultimately accountable for the project to be delivered ontime, you may be involved (or at least approve) the five steps at the beginning. Then use the milestones and timeline to help manage the project.

The exciting thing here is all team memvbers involved have complete transparency and can see where additional support may be required.

As an example... I have recently created a 29 step 10 month plan for a...