{"id":3087,"date":"2020-01-10T23:55:27","date_gmt":"2020-01-10T23:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thefranchisemaker.com\/learningcenter\/?p=3087"},"modified":"2025-01-09T18:50:35","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T18:50:35","slug":"things-to-do-before-franchising-your-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thefranchisemaker.com\/learningcenter\/things-to-do-before-franchising-your-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"Things to Do Before Franchising Your Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"

You are super excited because you have a great idea for a business. You believe that your idea is revolutionary and may even be a paradigm shift. You have researched your idea and realize it is something no one else has ever thought of doing. Maybe your idea came to you while you were driving, in your sleep or perhaps the idea came to you as a result of something you experienced. Regardless you figure your idea will be a great new business. You aren\u2019t sure where to start, but you know that your end goal is to end up franchising your idea. So you jump on the Internet to try and figure out what is the next step. Let\u2019s explore some of the things you really should do before franchising your idea.<\/span><\/p>\n

Get the Business Started<\/span><\/h2>\n

All great businesses have started from someone\u2019s idea. Before even thinking about franchising your idea, the first step is to make sure your idea will actually work! The only way to know if your idea will work is to implement it. In other words, turn your idea into an operational business which means making the investment to get the business up and running (check out our article that explains in more detail why it is important for a business to be operational prior to starting a franchise<\/a>). If your business idea is centered around a product that you wish to sell; then we encourage that you open up a shop that features your product (this would include identifying your product mix, merchandising strategies, etc.). Selling a product online without<\/em> having any type of physical presence does not count (find out if franchising makes sense for just a product<\/a>). If your business idea is centered around performing a service; then we encourage that you bring all the pieces together that are necessary to do such work (such as buying equipment, products, supplies, vehicle, etc.) and start doing it. Once your idea is implemented, ask yourself if the reaction to your idea that you turned into a money-making business is as great as you thought? Is what you thought would work, actually working as you envisioned? As you are operating your business you may find that your idea has changed a bit from what you originally conceived. Your idea (now turned into a business) may have to be tweaked or enhanced due to consumer demand, feedback or simply what is realistic. The bottom line is your idea needs proof of concept before franchising and the only way to accomplish this is to turn your idea into an operational business.<\/span><\/p>\n

Getting Operations Figured Out<\/span><\/h3>\n

Once you have turned your idea into a business now every element (in other words the \u201chow to\u201d) of your business needs to be figured out. The \u201chow to\u201d of operating your business is every task, best practice, and process that surrounds the product or service that you are offering and makes your business come together. This includes everything from the minute you start your day, until your day ends. Often times you will be forced to start defining the \u201chow to\u201d because you realize you cannot operate the business on your own and need to hire people to help. As you hire talent, you are automatically going to teach these people the \u201chow to\u201d of your business (for example the first interaction with a customer or client may be an entire set of processes in itself). The difference is when training a franchisee, you will take things one step further and teach franchisees intricacies of your business that employees are not privy to in their day-to-day activities\u00a0 (learn more about the importance of training your franchisees<\/a>). Think of every part of your business as having its own pocket of processes or best practices. To illustrate here are just a few<\/em> examples of processes or best practices that make up the \u201chow to\u201d of your business:<\/span><\/p>\n