One of the biggest concerns when it comes to franchising your business is losing control of your brand. Josh Malik, CEO of Joshua Tree Experts, headquartered in Stockertown, Pennsylvania, says when he shared his dream of franchising, his team was afraid of this exact thing.
“It’s actually quite opposite of that,” Malik says. “I’ve worked for a lot of different national companies in the tree care industry, and every office is different. The culture is different, how well they perform quality service, their safety, everything is different, and it’s the same in franchising.”
The difference from a branch structure is that when franchisees are non-compliant, you can apply fees for not following brand standards. Malik says he’s built a very good franchise team that is strict on compliance and ensures each location provides quality service. They visit their franchise partners once a quarter to ensure compliance.
However, it’s important to strike a balance where franchise owners don’t feel micromanaged but there is enough consistency to protect your overall brand and system.
Establish Your Non-Negotiables
Mike Andes, founder of Augusta Lawn Care, headquartered in Bellingham, Washington, acknowledges you lose some control as a franchisor when it comes to quality and brand reputation, which is why strict compliance guidelines help ensure brand consistency and longevity.
Determine your non-negotiables from the start and hold franchisees accountable. Lori Johnson, president of The Grounds Guys, a Neighborly company, headquartered in Waco, Texas, says The Grounds Guys’ non-negotiables include the customer experience, safety standards, brand guidelines, operational processes, and compliance requirements.
“Customers should receive the same professionalism, quality, and reliability regardless of which The Grounds Guys location they choose,” Johnson says.
Malik says one of their non-negotiables is the launch of their additional service lines. He says in order for their system to work properly, franchise partners must offer tree care, lawn care and pest control.
Andes and Ken Hutcheson, board member and senior board advisor of U.S. Lawns, headquartered in Orlando, Florida, say their core compliance requirements relate to following the brand standards and providing quality service to customers.
Create Buy-In, Not Just Rules
One key to encouraging compliance is proving your business model works so franchise owners are willing to follow your set systems. Andes says he built one location from scratch in 2023 and is launching another one this year and scaling it to $1 million before handing it off to a general manager, all to prove his systems work.
“The corporate locations are being started up to demonstrate these things, so that in addition to training, showing them the numbers, we also demonstrate exactly what that looks like, so they don’t get distracted, and they willingly opt into the systems that we talk about, instead of it being forced down their throat,” Andes says.
Andes says because he wants to encourage his franchise owners’ entrepreneurial tendencies, he tries not to have too many restrictions. With every market being so different, Augusta Lawn Care offers 10 different service lines across the system so it can be viable across the country.
“If I was really strict or hard line on what services they can offer, how they needed to run their business, it would actually be very difficult in lawn care and landscaping,” Andes says.
Andes says franchise advisor councils and voting can also be used to make sure the voices of the franchise owners are heard and acted on.
“If the owners are not financially successful, the franchise will fail, and so you have to act in the best interest of the owners,” Andes says.
Malik says they are open to receiving constructive feedback from their franchise partners and have adopted many recommendations to make their overall system better. He is also open to making exceptions for specific locations.
“When you think it’s the best for the brand, and we have partners who are like, ‘I want to try something different,’ and it’s in a market where it’s viable, I’m not going to hold a franchise partner back from making more money,” Malik says.
Johnson says their franchise owners have the flexibility to lead their teams, build local relationships, and operate their businesses, but there are certain brand standards that must remain consistent.
“We provide clear expectations, training, and support while recognizing that local owners are often best positioned to make decisions within their markets,” Johnson says.
Setting Franchisees Up for Success
How well you bring franchisees up to speed can also play a factor in their willingness to follow your set standards. Malik says when they bring on a new franchise partner, they go through 120 days of onboarding.
“They’re working with my director of franchise support, and they’re getting their vehicles set up,” Malik says. “The marketing is getting set up. The recruiting is getting set up. They’re finding an ops center. They’re getting their licenses to be able to run the business properly.”
After the onboarding, Joshua Tree spends six weeks prior building a backlog and selling the service before the operational launch of a franchise location. Malik says they require three weeks of backlog in general tree care work before they’re allowed to launch.
Malik says when a franchise does their operational launch, his team is there for three days helping train on various aspects like operating equipment and how to use the CRM for crews.
Hutcheson says they also have an intense startup period where they help sell the work through their centralized sales support for a new franchisee.
Another consideration when planning out your franchise system is what tasks will be the franchisee’s responsibility and which will you handle on the backend. Malik says when they first started franchising, many of their employees were playing dual roles, but now, they’ve built out a team of 15 to 16 employees who specifically work only in the franchise system.
Andes says building out the infrastructure that can scale with franchises is one of the most difficult aspects of franchising.
“We operate seven days a week around the clock,” Andes says. “We answer the phone, having AI behind us being quality control. That’s been the hardest thing to scale up, because almost every year it’s going to double, and so gauging what that demand is in terms of phone calls, thousands every single day, emails, texts, payroll being ran for owners, all of those are admin tasks, which our goal is for them to be able to focus on growing their team, training their team. We are taking the brunt of trying to double every single year the back end, and almost every year means reinventing those processes.”
Andes says with their first few locations, they only had a couple people working their command center and now during peak season, they have 87 agents across different time zones.
Malik says with their franchise model, they handle all the talent acquisition.
“When franchise partners come in, and they’re launching the business, and franchise partners that are already in business, when they are adding new crew members, or they’re looking for a general manager, a salesperson, we’re posting all the jobs,” Malik says. “We are handling everything on the backend, and we do the first phone screening. We pass them off and say they got the culture, they got the knowledge, and then it is up to the franchise partner to do the initial interview, and then actually offer them the letter.”
Malik says they are also responsible for the marketing, handling everything from Google ads to updating the website. All calls are directed to their contact center, which is at Joshua Tree’s main office.
Malik says you should also have strong vendor relationships to be able to negotiate rates for your franchise partners.
“How is a franchise partner going to trust this vendor when they have one down the road?” Malik says. “You have to bring in a vendor to say we need better pricing and we need quicker shipping. We need to get it to our franchise partner, so we need to be a priority on your list. How do you build that relationship to be able to get that priority?”
By setting standards that protect the brand, while being flexible enough for local owners to respond to their markets, and building out support systems, you can create a strong franchise brand that others want to be a part of.
