Janine’s T ips
HOW TO MAKE YOUR FRANCHISE SUCCESSFUL
T
he reality is that there is no magic wand to ensure that you have a successful business, because the only way to ensure your business works is hard work, research, good decisions and a little luck. Well, there is not a lot you can do about the luck, but let’s look at what you can do to put the odds in your favour for a successful business. Retail is detail – that’s how the saying goes - but if you are not in a retail franchise, the same philosophy applies. In any industry you need to look at every aspect of your business, because the little things can affect the bottom line dramatically. For example; if you are in the food business and you are not training your staff or watching your business closely enough, the costs of your raw product and labour (two of your biggest expenses) can blow out by 2-10 per cent, which could turn a good profit making business into a business that is failing and for no other reason than poor management and/or lack of understanding of your customers and your business. Below are some things you can start to focus on to improve your business: 1. Train, Train, Train To avoid blow out of costs you need to focus heavily on training. I remember sitting down with a small business owner and she was beside herself. She told me that her staff did not respect her, they came in late, her cost of raw material and labour was blowing out, and she did not know what to do. My first question was how often do you get together with your team and how much time do you spend on training? Her answer was ‘never’, and that when a new team member started, other team members ‘showed them the ropes’. The business owner was missing out on more than $100,000 a year in missed profit from a blow out of expenses from mismanagement. We put the following plan in place to fix the problem:
• She met with her team leaders every
morning and set the tone for the day and detailed what was expected.
• She set daily and weekly targets for cost
management and sales and incentivised the team to achieve them.
• She took her whole team out for pizza
once a month and during this gathering, she discussed upcoming marketing, expectations, cultures and things that they should know. She got their input into growing the business and she now shares the financial figures of the business to assist with them being engaged in the business. Also during this gathering, she awarded individual awards to the team members that went above and beyond.
• She became clearer with her
expectations of her team and made sure they arrived at work on time and were following the expectation that she set. She moved some staff on as they were poisoning the other team members.
• She became more disciplined herself and lifted the bar in the business.
• She discovered during the process that
some of her team members had skills in marketing and great ideas on how to drive sales.
The end result was an increase on sales and a massive decrease in expenses, which resulted in a further $126,000 to the bottom line. People make and break business; they are your greatest resource or your greatest nemesis, so put the time into them that they and your business deserve. 2. Detail, Detail, Detail Know your figures. These days even the most basic point of sale computer software for your business gives you an enormous amount of information to run your business. The POS system will tell you if there are mistakes in transactions
Janine Allis, Director/Founder Boost Juice
(VOIDS), free cards given out, discrepancies in the cash, how promotions are working, etc. All of this information is critical for security management and also for truly understanding how your business ticks. For example, if you are monitoring a promotion that you are doing, checking how many redemptions you have received tells you whether the promotion has been successful or not. Same with security. Most cash businesses suffer from theft at some point, and 95 per cent of the time it is by staff members. You can avoid this by monitoring your free cards, voids, and put in other systems to ensure that this is minimized. 3. Store or business blindness Store blindness is a fact, just look at your own home with fresh eyes for a second and you will see that mark on the wall that you have been meaning to fix, but you just do not see it any more. Business is like that, you go everyday and you do not notice that bit of paint missing, or the dust on the top of the sign or the fact that your business or office could do with a good clean. Create check lists and systems so that you do this weekly. Also be a customer of your own business and look at your business as a customer. Do a mystery shop on your business to make sure that your business is delivering what you are promising. This is a great way to improve your business and your service to your customers. v Janine Allis, Founder – Boost Juice Bars. Janine Allis opened the first Boost Juice Bar in Adelaide in 2000. Boost is in more countries than any other juice bar in the world. Janine’s company; Boost Investment Group, also runs the exciting new concept Salsa’s Fresh Mex Grill, which they are now franchising. Details: www.boostjuice.com.au or www.salsas.com.au
38
iFY_