Les Stewart writing about successful franchisee organizations makes an important point, an uncharacteristically short post. Can you tell what the important point is?
I was in downtown Toronto, Canada this morning, meeting with an old MBA classmate and a commercial litigator associate of his.
Very nice meeting.
We all agreed on one thing:
a professionally managed and funded franchisee group is critical in defending your economic interests.
Everyone needs a group to work on their behalf and +90% of all association work is not in conflict with the franchisor.
To me, budget $7 per day per year ($2,000 per store) to get it going.
Any less is a license for failure.
You might think that the $7/day fee is important, but it is not. A professional executive director of an IndFA is going produce through vendor programs or other services more value than the membership fee.
No, the important point is this: a lot of the association work has nothing to do with resolving legal disputes with the franchisor.
This is the dilemma: franchise groups come together over serious distrust issues with their franchisor, but in order for the group to become an association they have to find, succeed, and continue doing all of the other hard work which has nothing to do with franchisor conflict.
