I was asked a while ago a very simple question by a franchisee of an international system; a system with all the resources and experience of a major player that has been in the business for over 50 years.

The question was, “Why am I not doing as well as the  guy down the road who is in a similar store to mine?”  Pretty simple question with no simple answer. I didn’t want to give him a glib corporate answer so instead kept my mouth shut for a while and said “I’ll get back to you.” I asked a few questions had a look around and went to see the guy down the road.

On the way to see the other store I remembered a franchise system where I had worked many years ago that had similar problems. A good portion of the business was in growth while the remainder was down on the previous year.

Now this system was unusual in the fact that it was a small country (Belgium) that had one master franchisee and many individual single or double unit franchisees. The split was about 40% of the stores owned by the master f/zee and the rest individuals. Close to 80 stores in total so both were a good mix of locations and demographics.

Usually, in most systems it would have been the smaller or individual owned stores that would have been the ones in growth, but in this case it was the opposite. The majority of the master f/zees stores were in positive growth while the majority of the others were not.

When I arrived at the store down the road and talked to the franchisee I had expected this owner to have the same mind set as the Belgian master franchisee.  Now neither of these guys was likable, almost bordering on arrogant (I hope that this is not the factor that makes them successful) but the one thing they did share was persistence and attention to detail. Be it LSM, training, implementation of policies and procedures whatever, both of these f/zees never cut corners where it mattered.

Training was a step by step process that was monitored and evaluated. All steps were signed off by management and nothing was missed nor shortcuts taken. The excuse, “we got busy” was not acceptable, even if it meant going back to the start. Fact was, his team were some of the best I have seen. LSM was planned and costed with back ups ready to go if something didn’t work and all LSM was evaluated on a cost and customer basis. These guys were investing in their future.

They also did this day after day, month after month never failing to follow there own procedures. Most small business owners look for ways to cut corners, save money, do things quicker. I understand that, I have been in the same situation but what I have learned from these two QSR owners is that you cannot do that with the important things. Training, marketing your business, food quality, service, cleanliness and the overall image of your business and team are paramount to the ongoing success of your business.

Fact is, I did not like either of these two guys…..but I sure did respect them and the way they ran their businesses.