Schooley Mitchell: The Lean Franchise Advantage

For entrepreneurs who’ve spent time in the corporate world, the appeal of owning a business is obvious. However, the reality of running one – managing staff, juggling overhead, watching a growing client base create an equally growing operational burden – often is what gives entrepreneurs pause. By Tamara Rahoumi

For entrepreneurs who’ve spent time in the corporate world, the appeal of owning a business is obvious. However, the reality of running one – managing staff, juggling overhead, watching a growing client base create an equally growing operational burden – often is what gives entrepreneurs pause. Schooley Mitchell, the largest independent cost-reduction consulting firm in North America, was built with that tension in mind.

For starters, the model is deliberately lean, requiring less than $75,000 to get started. The operational footprint stays minimal by design, too.

“As long as franchisees have a cellphone and computer, they are ready to run their business,” said Mike DeBoer, manager of franchise communications. “This keeps overhead to essentially zero.”

Even more compelling is what happens as the business grows. In most franchise models, scaling means hiring more staff, which in turn brings on additional complexity and costs. At Schooley Mitchell, the infrastructure is already in place. The company’s corporate team handles all client auditing and analysis, allowing franchisees to take on more clients without necessarily needing to increase their headcount. For franchisees who want additional support before the analysis work even begins, there’s an optional department dedicated to fact-finding and document-gathering on clients.

“It’s our goal that if a franchisee never wants to hire, they don’t have to,” said DeBoer.

Of course, a model built to handle growth is one thing. The better question is whether it’s built to drive it. In Schooley Mitchell’s case, the answer is yes. At the core of that growth is the client relationship itself. Existing clients renew at a rate of between 65% and 70%, and those same clients become a reliable source of referrals.

“Spending time building good relationships with clients helps franchisees renew with those clients,” DeBoer noted, “And their clients become an important referral partner to help them acquire more business.”

The result is a business that compounds; the longer you’re in it, the more efficiently it runs.

Schooley Mitchell is designed for entrepreneurs with a builder mentality who want to scale without the added complexity that typically comes with growth.