FranX: The Future of Franchising

In 1970, NASA’s mission control received a transmission from the Apollo 13 astronauts that would later become a go-to line to communicate impending crisis: “HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM.”

It was a big problem. 56 hours into their mission to the moon, there was a large bang! followed by damaged oxygen tanks, lost oxygen and lost control over the command module.

With the command module damaged, the lunar module became the astronaut’s lifeboat, and the mission to land on the moon turned into a mission to get back home to Earth.

We all know the ending to this heroic story ends, which is now seen as one of our country’s greatest successful failures.

In many ways, we’re all bound to fail. To win, we need to make our failures successful ones.

As you sit at the mission control of your franchise system, what are the steps you need to take to bring your brand back home for accelerated growth in 2021?

It depends, of course, on where and how you are failing. Is it validation, Item 19, digital story, team, core values, broker connections?

We’re all failing at some level. So let’s identify those failures and make the necessary course corrections.

And let’s do it together.

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The Falcons Group and its managing partner Shamsu Charania expanded their enterprise last November by opening two new Checkers drive-thru restaurants, bringing Athens and Jonesboro, Georgia residents some “crazy good” food.

Charania got his first taste of the fast-food industry when he worked at Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen every summer and winter break while he attended the University of Arizona. After graduation, he decided to leave the desert and move back to his hometown of Atlanta to open his very first franchise, a Dunkin’. Over the next few years, he turned a single franchise into a franchising group comprising over 50 locations and four brands.

Charania is continuing to expand and has plans to reopen a Checkers drive-thru in Athens near the University of Georgia campus this year, and is currently building a new location in Jonesboro.

Have you ever Googled “Franchise Broker”? We did.

• A few ads — from FranchiseSalesExpert.com (fair, brokers are marketing themselves first because, well, they should intercept deals, too. Why? ‘Zors pay them a boatload).

• More ads — for Bristol Group (they give you the resources to become a successful business broker, they say. Makes sense: they are showing people a pathway to be in businesses for themselves and by themselves).

In franchising, just like Apollo 13, we are always fighting to get the boys home. We are always battling for more leads, more deals, better franchisees and more success for our franchisees. Why? Well, if you are reading these bottom thoughts, it’s probably because YOU LOVE FRANCHISING.

We all do.

It is a challenge. It is a pain. It brings tremendous successes and no shortage of failures.

When scientists are faced with the challenge of bringing the boys home, they dial in and focus — they get it done.

That’s what we do. We get it done all day, all month, all quarter, all year. And frankly, there is no stopping the franchise hamster wheel.

But as long as you can find moments of joy in the challenges of franchising, there’s no stopping the rewards either.