By Colin Taylor – Franchise New Zealand:
Motivation is always an interesting topic, particularly to franchisors. How to select motivated people – and keep them motivated – is perhaps the most burning question in franchising. Over the years, I have found a number of interesting little ways which work for us at Stirling Sports, and which have helped us all to achieve a greater level of success.
Of course, greater commitment and, as a result, greater motivation are some of the often-quoted benefits of franchising. I have commented before that sales can be as much as 50% higher at a franchised outlet compared to a company-owned and managed store. Yet although the financial rewards to be gained from owning a successful business might seem to be enough in themselves to keep franchisees motivated, in truth they are not.
Ask yourself whether you honestly go to work just for the money? I know that if money were all that motivated me, I would certainly not be in sporting goods because it is such a small market in New Zealand. But I enjoy it – and franchisees are motivated the same way.
When we started franchising, we found that people were either naturally motivated, full of enthusiasm and with a strong, hard work ethic, or they were not. If they were not, and if we were not able to motivate them quickly, the prospect of more money – or the threat of ruin – would not be sufficient to cause them to do the right things. We had to arrange for them to sell.
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