March Madness and the Franchise Selection Process
March Madness is fast approaching, and while on the surface, it has nothing to do with buying a franchise, successful franchise vetting and March Madness have a lot in common. It’s undeniable that successful teams understand the ‘give and take’ of the game and long before they have arrived at the tournament; they have looked inward to understand their weaknesses, strengths, preferences and needs. They are prepared, organized and ready. It’s not any different with how a buyer should be when they are ready to evaluate franchises.
The pure approach of allowing teams to ‘knock’ each other out of the game is a genius approach to franchise selection. Franchise buyers can take inspiration from the NCAA brackets. By using this approach when researching opportunities to own, prospective buyers can begin their search by educating themselves on a decent amount of concepts to consider. Then, paring down the list further and further, until the time is right to allow the best companies that match your ownership needs, and knock out the ones that don’t.
Not only is the March Madness bracket approach useful to franchise selection, organization and self-awareness are key strengths in any sport or business setting. Knowing what you are good at, what you need help with, and being thoughtful about choices is critical. These criteria will help prospective business owners thoughtfully choose which concepts make the final four…and which one will win out.
Here are some March Madness tips for franchise research:
Let it play out. Allow the franchise companies to tell you everything they can offer. Speak to as many as you think you need to, so you feel confident in your final choice to move ahead with buying a franchise or not.
Employ careful selection. Teams that make March Madness are carefully selected by a committee and have had to meet specific criteria to be considered.
Seed the choices. Rank each company best to worst to help you sort through the options.
Sequester your committee. Rely on people in your life who you trust to help you choose the right ‘teams’ to vie for the win and base it on a set of criteria that is important to you and your work/lifestyle. Only invite the best to the finals.
Kelly Mangum is the Director of Marketing at Franchise Solutions and Franchise.com. Experienced at lead generation and project management. Mama of 2, wife, runner, triathlete, gardener, living just outside of Portsmouth, NH.
