Sharing our franchisees success
Laura here, September is upon us, the start of the new school year and another stonking year ahead for our amazing team of franchisees at Baby Squids.
In an economic climate where many businesses are struggling to make things work our franchise team are thriving, month on month, year on year they are growing. What if I told you that the key to their success isn’t just about a great business model but it’s something way more powerful and special. The baby swimming industry is a well trodden path with some highly successful companies heading up the market, Baby Squids is the baby of the bunch, we’ve been franchising for 6 years now and our strategy is super special because it is a simple model. At the heart of everything we do is people, motivation and talent (I’ll talk about the super clever business processes and data another day!).
Right from the early days of my career I have loved working with people and as we’ve grown year on year every single one of the people I work with also love working with people. This isn’t a marketing promise that we make and try to achieve through strategic interventions into our franchisees business, it is the heart and soul of every decision that is made, every teacher we train and employ, every pool we work with and every single customer who gets in the pool with us. Ask anyone who comes into contact with them!
I’m sure there are many preconceptions about franchising, certainly I’ve heard many concerns about taking on a franchise which are realistic and important to relate to. Let’s face some of them!
- There are no pools – simply not true, every franchisee who comes on board has found pools, or we have found them alongside them, and we don’t do this through bullish contact but simply connecting with as many pools as possible AND staying in contact with them. Understanding those who say no or who may not be ready to hire and building rapport and relationships along the way.
- You need a massive marketing budget – definitely not true, building a business around your community is way way more powerful. Each franchisee knows how to build a genuine word of mouth through exceptional customer service, genuine connections with their customers and their community. Community is key – volunteering, connecting with other local businesses and finding teachers who are committed to their local area. In this digital world our human brain is calling for contact and our parents want that for their kids.
- Hard to compete in a saturated market… again untrue! Some think you need to focus on your competitors and challenge them to be successful. So untrue… and is the undoing of many a business. We focus 100% on what we do, and how we offer an outstanding experience with not only our customers, but also our partners, suppliers, and franchisees. It’s a simple mantra treat everyone, how you wish to be treated yourself. We focus on what our franchisees are doing at all times, the ability to tunnel your vision to what you are doing is success in itself. Our franchisees know this, we ignore any noise around us and focus on what makes us successful and that’s different for each and every one of us. We understand how to build strategy and targets around the franchisee – ultimately their success is our success and that is rarely the same.
I’ll use an example – Carly in Baby Squids Cheshire is currently STORMING ahead having taken on the franchise merely 6 months ago. She’s already way beyond any targets we set together because of her strong focus and desire to succeed. Having left her career as a school teacher Carly has thrown everything at her new venture and her focus has been building a community around her through social channels but also locally with building local customer and business relationships. This has come so naturally through her powerfully kind nature and has driven her early successes.
Another example – Jenna in Baby Squids West Dorset – an intended slower and steadier build up of her business. She is nothing short of an absolute machine of hard work and it’s paying off. She has a wonderful connection with her customers and they simply do not leave her. Now that the foundations have been laid, Jenna is ready to grow further. She’s built brilliant relationships with pools in the local area and has won no less than 3 pool contracts in the last 4 months, meaning she is set to grow even further over the coming months.
And as is the way with all of our people I could use every single one of my franchisees to give you similar stories (I’ll have to save them all for another time!). They are all growing, they all have their targets and they are all smashing them!
In this series of blogs coming throughout September I’m going to share the secrets behind our success because ultimately you can’t make or buy what we have at Baby Squids. You can’t reproduce it, if you are the right person that is motivated, hard-working and wants to build a business around your life and ambitions, then we will work well together to make it happen and find ways to overcome any challenges through our values.
Honest, approachable, progressive, positive, exciting and encouraging – HAPPEE to the core.
Laura xx