Johnny Franchise: The Franchise Expert

The Franchise Lifecycle: What Stage of Growth are You In?

Written by John Francis | Jun 26, 2018 11:16:40 PM

What Stage of Growth are You In?

I spent a few days with the Sport Clips system last month at their annual huddle in San Antonio, Texas. I’ve worked with Sport Clips for over 10 years and they’re on a great path to success.

I was invited to give a workshop on my franchise lifecycle, which provides an overview of the four stages of franchise growth: infant, toddler, teenage, adult and master (rockstar). The point of this session is to help franchise owners understand where they currently are - what good and bad looks like, feels like and sounds like as well as what needs to happen within their business if they’re going  to reach that next stage of growth. We’ve talked about these stages of growth in the past: you can read more about it here and here.

Because it was a breakout workshop, I hosted three sessions - each time to a group of about 100 franchisees. The sessions were well received and seemed to resonate well with those who attended. In fact, I could overhear franchisees talking casually that night during social hour about which stage of growth their business is currently in.

Having spoken at their first Sport Clips multi-unit owners conference 10 years ago, it was fun to see the growth that Sport Clips is achieving. With over 3,200 people including franchisees, corporate staff, vendors and franchisee employees in attendance at the “Huddle” annual conference this year, there are a lot of people gaining success around this brand. It truly is franchising done well. It will be interesting to see them continue this growth, as I expect it will continue for a long time.

Sharing with them the information I had in my workshop, it gave those owners better perspective on where they are and what’s next, also what they can do to help themselves and other franchisees move forward to the next level of success for growth. If you’d like to consider this for your own brand, please connect with me at your convenience.