Franchisor Puts Franchisee in the Fairway

Long day today. I volunteer with the Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation. I was brought in to help launch a new initiative (which I can’t yet tell you about), which meant a meeting late yesterday, and also serve on the standing Marketing Committee, which meant another meeting this morning. Add to that a day of reviewing site options for Parmasters Kitchener-Waterloo, communicating with prospective investors, and many other sundry activities, and it’s soon time for a little reading and the close of the day.

Someone asked me about my blog title, “Franchising from 100 Yards In.” First, if you’re a non-golfer, it may not be clear. And second, if you’re not familiar with franchising, you may also struggle. It’s really just an attempt to capture both.

As any golfer will tell you, the real difference in your golf game happens from “100 yards in.” It’s from within 100 yards that you hit your “scoring” shots. Those include wedge shots, chips, pitches, greenside sand play, and putting. These are the shots that will ultimately make or break a round of golf. These are the finesse shots. This is where you score, or not.

In franchising, the franchisor does a lot of work for the franchisee. The franchisor delivers systems, guidance, training, volume purchasing, marketing support and a myriad of other services. But in the end, it’s up to the franchisee to execute, or to score, if you will.

So, the franchisor hits the tee shots, and puts the franchisee in the fairway. But from “100 yards in,” it’s all up to the franchisee. He/she may “go low”, or the scorecard (aka the profit and loss statement) may get ugly.

So as I proceed through my first months as a franchisee, I am finding it really nice to be in the fairway so consistently. And while I bring a lot of finesse to my short game, I will never stop honing those scoring skills, from “100 yards in!”