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Home-Based Franchises
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Article 5: Use Technology
Franchising’s strength is its systems. Those systems would be impossible without technology, especially when the franchise is run from home.
Systems Paving Inc., has many home-based franchisees who design and install patios and driveways using interlocking stones. The franchisor has developed a proprietary software system to manage marketing that identifies potential customers in their franchisees’ territories and then generates the direct marketing campaign if the franchisee wants it.
Another proprietary software program tracks the progress of individual jobs for franchisees. A third program gives potential customers a three-dimensional simulation of their residence with the stone patios installed. It is a powerful sales tool that a home-based franchisee would have difficulty creating on his own.
Many franchisors help their franchisees monitor and analyze financial performance with computerized spreadsheets. These systems often provide timely profit and loss statements for each franchisee so he can see how the business is performing at any given moment. A home-based franchisee would be hard-pressed to create such reports with off-the-shelf accounting software.
ServiceMaster Clean, most of whose franchisees are home-based, has maintained computer records of their work on thousands of disaster recovery projects for decades. The franchisor has used this computerized database to persuade nationwide insurance companies of the ServiceMaster system’s effectiveness and recommend its franchisees to local insurance adjusters.
The individual franchisees can also use the national track record, which they could never compile on their own, in marketing on the local level. Successful restoration projects over a long period of time in many different markets have brought many jobs to franchisees without a long bidding process.
Snappy Auctions is another franchising company that relies on technology for success. The company handles eBay auctions, payments and shipping for individual consumers and companies. Founder Debbie Gordon developed proprietary software that streamlined the entire process to manage inventory, auctions and customer relationships.
The software also tracks customer demographics, such as age and income, for use in marketing campaigns. It also provides franchisees profit-and-loss information.
The software even manages sale of franchises. “Most prospects find us online,” Gordon says. “They fill out our form online. We get the information immediately and e-mail back the information they want. Everything is done electronically so it doesn’t require a lot of salespeople.”
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