WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A FRANCHISEE? FIND OUT HERE
Anyone who is entering the world of franchising probably does not yet know all the terms related to the sector. At the beginning, some of the most common questions are: what does it mean to be a franchisee? What is franchising ? What’s in the COF? Who is the franchisor?
And that’s totally normal! After all, they’re not that popular terms, do you agree? But if your intention is to have a successful franchise and stand out in the market, you need to understand at least the most basic and common expressions in the sector.
In this article, you will understand, once and for all, what it means to be a franchisee and what are the advantages of becoming one!
WHAT IS A FRANCHISEE?
Being a franchisee is, basically, owning a franchise. Or, in other words, it is the person who has the right to use a certain brand .
In the Mr Mix Blog franchise glossary , a franchisee is defined as “ a person or company that acquires the rights to operate a specific business unit of a franchise, following the standards and guidelines established by the franchisor ”.
In other words, it is anyone who buys or opens a store linked to a franchise network. As an example, we can mention our dozens of units spread across Brazil . They are all part of our network, follow our standards and processes, but belong to our franchisees.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FRANCHISEE AND FRANCHISOR?
It is very common for there to be confusion in the definition of the terms “franchisee” and “franchisor”. After all, the names are very similar and easily confused.
As we said, the franchisee is the person who obtains the right to use the brand and operations, under contract. Therefore, having said that, the franchisor is the one who has the rights to the business and transfers them so that third parties can use them.
In short, Mr Mix is the franchisor and all the entrepreneurs who operate the units throughout Brazil are the franchisees.
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF BEING A FRANCHISEE?
One of the biggest myths in the franchise sector is that franchisees are completely submissive to franchisors and have no autonomy to give their opinion on anything. But actually, that’s not how it works.
In fact, to acquire the right to use the brand and business processes it is necessary to follow some important rules, detailed in the Franchise Offer Circular (COF).
However, this does not mean that there are severe restrictions on running your own company. On the contrary! Being a franchisee is usually extremely advantageous and we will show you why below.
ONGOING SUPPORT
Anyone who is an entrepreneur knows that in all areas of activity it is necessary to deal with challenges frequently. And these are not always simple things to resolve.
But when you are a franchisee, these setbacks end up being much less recurrent, after all, the franchisor’s support is continuous and very broad. It will rarely be necessary to deal with a new problem that the network has not yet faced.
In other words, there will always be support and the franchisee will never be alone in challenging times.
PART OF A RECOGNIZED BRAND
Starting a business with a name already recognized in the market is one of the privileges that only franchisees have. Because the brand already existed before and, if it has a good reputation, it will certainly be a huge attraction in attracting customers.
As it is a franchise, people may already be customers of the chain, know the company or, at least, have heard of it. It’s like skipping the “highest steps” of starting a business.
WELL-DEFINED STRATEGIES
Normally, young entrepreneurs and beginners need to build their business little by little. Putting together an action plan, gathering ideas, defining strategies, putting actions into practice, collecting feedback … And all of this can take a long time.
For franchisees, this stage does not need to be so long, as the franchisor usually has well-defined strategies in all areas of the business, whether in communication, marketing, commemorative campaigns, implementation of new units, etc.
LOWER RISK OF BANKRUPTCY
You know that fear that almost all entrepreneurs have of their business going wrong? This feeling tends to be much less for franchisees, since they have the full support of a network. In other words, it would be difficult for a solution not to be found.
The truth is that, as the franchisor is already well established and has experience in the field, they tend to know exactly what needs to be done for the business to be successful and what should be avoided.
EASE OF DEPLOYMENT
Finally, we cannot fail to mention the ease of implementing the business, since the processes are already defined and standardized across all units. Therefore, the opening time of the enterprise is more optimized.
Starting from scratch in other circumstances is usually quite laborious, but with adequate support, operations flow much faster.
HOW TO BECOME A FRANCHISEE?
Becoming a franchisee is certainly much simpler than you might think. Of course, there is the bureaucratic part, just like when opening any company. But, depending on the brand chosen, the process is uncomplicated and, although there are several details to be resolved, support makes the process easier .
The first step, of course, is to choose an area of activity based on your interests and skills. Then comes the time to define the brand, based on previous answers. Finally, it is enough to carefully evaluate the financial and legal viability of starting a contract.
From then on, the company takes action and will take you step by step so that you too become part of the team.
To help you at this stage, we have complete content on the Mr Mix Blog that shows the 6 steps to opening your own business from scratch . It is worth checking!
And if you want to become a franchisee in the ice cream business, register on our page and receive new materials about franchising!
