Dare I say franchising is the panacea for all retail woes? Too often Franchising is used to expand rapidly a new concept in order to achieve economies of scale that are required in todays competitive retail world!
Too often too the Franchising route is used to finance international development plans in times that a bank finance is relatively difficult to come by!  

Franchising as a means to an end

Use franchising for your retail expansion and / or international development ...

My own experience has been that Franchising is a  great  model to use in the launching of a concept if one sticks to a number of rules :

1. Build a solid and profitable retailing model first
2. Select Franchising only after you have developed and matured your model
3. Use Franchising only if you have the financial ability to ensure compliance of your Franchisees.
4. Make sure that your selection of Franchisees is well founded and reflects the core values of your concept/company .DO NOT COMPROMISE YOUR SELECTION CRITERIA...
5. Accept that you can and will make mistakes in the selection of your Franchising partners.
6. Prepare to eradicate any mistakes as soon as they are visible.

Only if you are willing and able to follow these rules will Franchising as a model for growth be worth while .
Be prepared that Franchisees (and especially in Europe) are no Entrepreneurs but at best entrepreneurial in desire. Notwithstanding what they say when you lead them through the selection process.
My experience has been ,that the first carefully selected and nurtured bunch of Franchising partners was and still is succesful and above all dedicated!

Act Decisively
After number 10, it became much more unyielding and the newer group started to form cliques…..as soon as the first problems arose. This was / is the moment to act….and act decisively!  Don’t hesitate and above all don’t compromise.

Any system is a strong / good as its weakest link. If you are the weakest link the chain will collapse before it is even expanded!

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