The Structure of Franchisee Coaching Calls Regularly scheduled franchisee coaching calls are a time for your field coaches to check in, help your franchisees move the needle in their business, and hold owners accountable to their action plans. Sound fun? It is! At least we think so Franchisee support is a key element of a successful franchise system. When franchisees are provided both operational and proactive support, they’re better equipped to improve profitability and achieve their goals. Have questions about proactive vs operational franchisee support? Read this blog post for more detai ..read more

Operational vs Proactive Franchisee Support The team here at AC Inc is a little obsessed with franchisee support, specifically the value of strategic, ongoing, proactive franchisee support. And by obsessed, we mean we’ve built an entire brand and mission around getting franchisees access to more proactive support! Why, you may ask? Well… we want more successful franchise systems to create a positive impact in local communities. When we have effective, proactive franchisee support we get more successful, profitable franchisees. Profitable, successful franchisees lead to more revenue, more roy ..read more

The 2023 AC Retreat Recap The AC Retreat is a week of learning, growing, and community in an all-inclusive resort environment where franchisors can unwind, focus on their business, and craft action plans to move the needle. In January 2023, the AC Retreat hit the beaches of Punta Cana with a group of 35 franchisors and event sponsors to focus on franchisee support — and, of course, have a few margaritas! The theme of the 2023 retreat was creating raving fans (not just fans, but RAVING fans) including employees, suppliers, customers, and franchisees.  Raving fans are those who come back ..read more

The 3 Key Areas of Franchisee Coaching To have a successful field coaching program that positions your franchisees for success, you need to use 3 key elements of franchisee coaching – business skills, people skills, and marketing & sales. Wise franchisors want their franchisees to be incredibly successful local business owners – that’s how the franchise system grows, revenue increases through royalties, and brands achieve an excellent reputation.  When your franchisees come on board, you likely have an extensive training program to ensure they have everything they need to build a su ..read more

How to Support Your Franchisees: The First 6 Months As a franchise system, your job to support your franchisees for success doesn’t have an end date. Supporting franchise owners is ongoing and valuable at every stage of growth.  BUT — there is something very important about those first 6 months in business (anyone who has started a business can agree) because it sets up your franchisees and gives them the foundation from which to grow and thrive. When your franchisees feel supported, prepared, and positioned for success in their first 6 months in business, their happiness, engagement, a ..read more

A Guide to Tough Conversations with Your Franchisees Tough conversations with your franchisees are inevitable as you support them for success. Like any coaching relationship, Field Coaches within franchise systems need to build a trusting relationship with the franchisees they support.  However, trusting, positive relationships between coach and business owner don’t eliminate the need for occasional tough conversations, in fact, they require it!  If you as a Field Coach aren’t having those tougher conversations you’re not holding the franchisee accountable and supporting them effec ..read more

DNA of a Successful Franchise Field Coach Walking into my first shop on my very first day as a Franchise Field Coach for M&M Food Markets was nerve wracking to say the least. I knew the business inside and out, and I knew what franchisees could implement to become more profitable. Even still, I was anxious walking in on that first day It didn’t help that I was 20 years old  and the daughter of the founder. I had big shoes to fill and I received many eye rolls in my first year as I bounced from location to location trying to convince these mainly older, male franchisees (who had inve ..read more

5 Steps of Turnaround Management Your franchisee has come to you with their financial statements and you can hear in their voice that they’re panicked. “Um, what do I do now? These are not the numbers I had last year and I’m stressing about how I can fix this.” Here’s the question: How do you avoid having conversations like the one above in your system? How do you support underperforming franchisees?   This week we have Roger Peterson (Franchise Growth Advisor at AC Inc with decades of experience with two of the largest franchises in North America) here to share the answer.  R ..read more

How to Find The Right Franchise Supplier Partner There are a lot of franchise suppliers out there – from attorneys to CRMs to marketing agencies to HR to accountants to portals to brokers to coaches. Phew! So many partners, so little time. No wonder it can all get overwhelming! No really I’m mostly kidding. Not about how many franchise supplier partners there are (there really are a lot) but I’m kidding about how overwhelming it is to build and manage those partnerships.  Finding the right franchise suppliers to work with does not need to be a nightmare – in fact it’s actually pretty aw ..read more

Franchisee Coaching: How to Increase Profitability Question: As an established franchise system, how do you increase profitability? Answer: You invest in franchisee coaching.  Hear me out… the more profitable and happy your franchisees are, the better ambassadors they will be for your brand and the more profitable your system will become. This is not the only answer for increasing profitability, but it’s one that we have seen work over and over again! In this post, we’re sharing step-by-step instructions for how to implement or improve your franchisee coaching as an established franchis ..read more