If you’re a franchisee, your franchisor is there to help. However, you and your franchisor have distinct roles.
The franchisor’s role is to:
- Build a strong national brand
- Provide systems to enable you to grow
The franchisee’s role is to:
- Build a growing base of happy customers
- Run a profitable business.
It’s not the franchisor’s job to figure your business out. You have to do that. To do that, you need further training.
Like every business owner, you have learning options. You can:
- Piece it together for free using YouTube
- Upend your life by taking expensive, formal, university classes
- Engage in online e-learning
The advantage of e-learning is that you can study on your own time, from anywhere, at your own pace. You will learn from industry professionals instead of theories out of books.
So, here is our list of five great e-learning courses that are relatively short (between two and three hours), certificated, affordable, and very practical:
Course #1: How to hire A-players
Hiring is one of the most important activities any organization engages in, and one of the least understood.
The team you build around you in your franchise is absolutely key to your success. But do you have any training in how to do it?
This course covers the entire hiring process, from sourcing, screening, interviewing and reference checking. It also includes cheat sheets and templates.
You can see more about the course here:
https://learning.professionalleadershipinstitute.com/courses/hiring
Course #2: Dealing with underperformers
If you’re a franchisee, you’re going to have to have talks with underperformers. Some of these talks feel scary at first.
In this course you will learn to diagnose the reason behind the underperformance. You will also learn how to prepare for and conduct difficult conversations. This is a key skill that every franchisee needs to have.
In addition, you will learn a variety of possible responses you may receive from underperformers and how to respond to them effectively.
Learn more about dealing with underperformers here:
https://learning.professionalleadershipinstitute.com/courses/109-dealing-with-underperformers
Course #3: Coaching based performance reviews
The traditional performance review is dead and dying. Managers hate doing them, and employees hate receiving them.
Managers are tired of the lengthy preparation required to do a performance review. By the end of the process they feel that nothing meaningful has been accomplished.
Employees dislike them because the idea of getting a pass/fail grade once per year just doesn’t cut it in the age of social media where instant responses are expected, and feedback is taken for granted.
Plus, your business is moving way too fast to take days out to conduct old school performance reviews.
Coaching is a much more effective and useful way of seeing your underperformers pick up their game and your best performers get even better at what they’re already good at.
In this course, you’ll learn how to use a very simple one-page coaching form called “coach and connect.” The idea is to learn how to have frequent, informal, coaching conversations with employees, and address the important issues that get lost in the process of conducting traditional performance reviews.
The course comes with cheat sheets and templates. Find out more about coaching based performance reviews here:
https://learning.professionalleadershipinstitute.com/courses/108-performance-reviews
Course #4: Enhancing your career through delegation
Unless you want to work in your business every minute of every day, you’re going to have to learn how to delegate work to other people.
This isn’t something that comes naturally. It’s a still that you have to learn. And to learn, you need training.
This course teaches the 3 simple steps to effective delegation. It’s quick and comes with downloadable templates and cheat sheets. Read more about it here:
https://learning.professionalleadershipinstitute.com/courses/how-to-delegate
Course #5: Discovering and implementing core values
The most powerful culture tool you have in your franchise isn’t your brand, and it isn’t your product offering either. It’s discovering and implementing core values in the business.
This course teaches how to discover your core values, how to make them memorable, and how to make them come alive in your franchise.
It’s a quick course and comes with downloadable templates and cheat sheets.
Find out more about it here:
https://learning.professionalleadershipinstitute.com/courses/core-values
In summary:
It’s the job of the franchisee to build a growing base of happy customers, and to run a profitable business. So, you must continually upgrade your skills, because building your business is your job, not your franchisor’s job.
Online courses are a simple, affordable, and effective way to build your skills without the cost and time required to attend formal schooling.
The top 5 courses for franchisees are:
- How to hire A-players
- Dealing with under performers
- Coaching based performance reviews
- Enhancing your career through delegation
- Discovering and implementing core values
Additional resources
Thanks for reading this article on The Top 5 franchisee courses. Below are additional resources from Professional Leadership Institute, the global provider of online human resources and leadership tools:
- Four questions to use to assess the effectiveness of your team
2. Understanding and managing employee turnover and attrition https://www.professionalleadershipinstitute.com/resources/understanding-and-managing-employee-turnover-and-attrition/
3. Redundancy and leadership: How to become superfluous https://www.professionalleadershipinstitute.com/resources/redundancy-leadership-how-to-become-superfluous/
The four basic steps to delegation https://www.professionalleadershipinstitute.com/resources/the-four-basic-steps-to-delegation/
