đź•’ Estimated Reading Time: ~3 minutes
After you decide which franchise you want to purchase, you must choose a location.
For retail franchises, finding a location means finding the right fit that meets your customer demands, your needs, and your franchisor’s demands.
That seems daunting, but once you are sure of your industry, the site selection process for your franchise goes through multiple steps.
Pandemic-related business challenges have created more opportunities for new franchisees. More locations are available, but not every location will satisfy you, the franchisor, and potential customers. Even with many options, be diligent in your evaluations and how each site will satisfy everyone involved.
<div class="_form_1"></div><script src="https://franchisedirect52345.activehosted.com/f/embed.php?id=1" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>
Franchisor Wisdom
Part of your franchise selection was based on the franchisor’s success and wise support. Helping choose an appropriate site is one of the things that many franchisors will include in their support services.
The franchisor knows the business, knows what site characteristics make up a good location, and have the experience and data to provide reasonable selections.
More importantly, franchisors often can negotiate excellent commercial real estate rental rates. A franchisor’s contribution will include analyzing profit projections based partly on the expenses of location and overhead. Even a high-traffic location might not be a good solution if revenue goes to paying a landlord and not you, the franchisee. Affordability is important to profit, and a franchisor can project a financial scenario for each possible site.
Trust Yourself
Most franchisees open locations close to home and the neighborhoods they know. You have a deeper level of understanding that a franchisor doesn’t have.
As a local resident, you know the local landscape better than the corporate franchisor. From avoiding unsafe areas to knowing which shopping centers are hard to enter or exit, your knowledge is important in the site selection process. If you feel a location is a good one, present it to the franchisor.
Give several options if possible, and let the big guys run the numbers. Your job is to ensure it works in your locale and for your own needs.
Customer Needs
We all have favored vendors for our needs—favorite dry cleaners, tax preparers, restaurants. Your customers will let you know if you are their favorite vendor.
However, even the best service may not overcome a poor location.
If you are too far from the city hub, customers may never find you. Or, if you are too entwined in the city hub-bub, parking or access may not be worth the extra time to support your business, no matter how many customers like you or your franchise.
--
Matching each party’s needs with a franchise site location is not always easy. It will take time and patience, and choosing never seems to happen quickly enough.
Just when you think you have found something that looks perfect, the landlord will become difficult. Or you’ll have a great location, but contractors will have supply issues, delaying your opening date. Some things will go awry, but with patience and attention to detail, you and your franchisor will find the best possible location for your new franchise.
Anne Daniells is a co-owner of Enterprising Solutions, a professional services firm specializing in corporate communication and financial improvement for businesses where she shares decades of corporate and entrepreneurial experience—including franchise ownership—in her writings on business culture. She has authored hundreds of articles for publications including AllBusiness.com, TweakYourBiz.com, and MSN.com. Reach out via her website for more on where corporate culture, communication, and human architecture collide.