Choupette investment franchise as an anti-crisis format.
How did the idea of creating an investment franchise come about?
Of course, we are not the first to come up with an investment franchise, but in the field of fashion it is almost never used. The idea of developing a new format was born from our experiment - a pilot project for franchise management. We brought in Lynn Irons, an international business consultant, to develop innovative methods for managing development processes. In the process of working, we realized that our franchisees feel lonely in their regions, and if at the beginning of cooperation this inspires them to some extent, then later they feel a lack of communication and daily support. Our central office, of course, renders great assistance: training at Choupette University, merchandiser visits, interactive sessions, assistance from managers and the marketing department. But this support occurs in large blocks - it is often difficult for franchisees to assimilate such a volume of information at a time. Upon successful completion of the first phase of the pilot, we concluded that we had placed too much burden on our partners. In most cases, a franchise is bought by people who have no management experience, and therefore they cannot always correctly organize a business. Having reached this conclusion, we realized that the best support we can provide is the daily adaptation of information directly to the daily issues and problems. Our pilot project gave us not only an idea, but also certain algorithms that we have already tested and brought them out as the basic tools of a new format for managing an investment franchise.
What do we mean by an investment franchise.
An investment franchise is understood differently depending on the industry and country. In our interpretation, it is based on the main postulate: the partner invests and bears the investment risks - and the franchisor manages the store. However, our task is not just to take management into our own hands - we want to teach how to manage a store. For several years, we will develop the necessary skills in our partner through the format of an investment franchise, and then we will transfer it to an independent mode. This is our perfect vision of the picture. That is why we do not just manage, but advise and offer ready-made solutions, which we discuss with the franchisee and jointly implement. Thus, the partner actively participates in the process.
Further development of the project.
For us, an investment franchise is a new format that we have used in one store so far, and it has given good results. I think we will have many such examples. The idea that reads between the lines of any franchise, especially in Russia, is to buy a business, get income, but not be "extreme", and in principle, our new format is just in line with this desire.
