Franchise Update Magazine Issue II, 2015 | Page 50

GROWING YOUR SYSTEM

Challenge
the pros

“HOW DO YOU CREATE A CANDIDATE PROFILE
AND USE IT TO SUCCESSFULLY IDENTIFY AND
RECRUIT WINNING FRANCHISEES?”
Steve Lajiness
VP of Franchise Development
Service Brands International
As a franchise development leader with
more than 20 years of support and ownership experience, I have
seen many people choose
a business suited to their
personal and professional
makeup and achieve phenomenal success. Part of
my responsibility is to
understand the operating models and success
stories of our brands (Mr.
Handyman, Molly Maid,
ProTect Painters) so I can
effectively assist our team
and franchise candidates
into the right business
opportunity.
Part of that process includes creating a candidate profile, which begins by
identifying a business profile. Answers to
the following questions provide a tremendous amount of information for prospective franchise candidates: What does the
business entail? How do you generate
customers? Who does the work? Where
do you do the work from (home-based or
facility-based)? What is the investment
opportunity?
The next step is to identify key characteristics required to be successful within
the business model and among our successful franchisees. If the concept is newly
launched, the founder’s results are essential to understand.
These considerations can then help
formulate a candidate profile, which may
include some of the following traits: management experience, business-to-business
networking, marketing experience, people
skills, self-driven, team player, project
management, comfortable with financials,
and leadership.
Finally, these descriptions help our
development team partner with consul-

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tant groups across the country to identify
candidates with similar characteristics,
ambitions, and preferences. When our
expert team begins working with a candidate during the investigation process,
it’s our responsibility to
reinforce how these successful traits help owners
of our brands perform at
a high level.
I firmly believe it’s the
franchise development
team’s responsibility to
help educate candidates
about our profiles for
success and to ensure
they reach out to existing owners who live
and breathe the model.
Having candidates who
perform their due diligence and speak to
a diverse group of owners about their businesses
is the ideal scenario. At
Service Brands, we always want our candidates
to learn everything they
can about our opportunities so in the end, when
the candidate makes their
final decision, there is no
doubt in their mind that
they made a great choice
to join the franchise. Then
it simply becomes a win/
win for everyone involved.
Terry Jennings
Director of Franchise Development
Costa Vida Fresh Mexican Grill
Costa Vida is a unique brand with our most
successful franchisees coming from very
diverse backgrounds. Selecting the right
partners is key for our brand’s continued
growth in new markets while maintaining
a cohesive brand and consistent customer
experience.

As we target new franchisees to join
our growing system, it is important to
look back at what has made our current
franchise partners and overall system
a success. What these franchisees have
in common is what we call, “Costa Vida
DNA.” Simply put, that DNA is a tremendous appreciation for amazing, genuine
food, and a great passion for teamwork
and service.
By identifying the core characteristics
of the franchise partners who are already
in our system, we’re able to evaluate the
foundations of our mutual success. As
we learn from them, it helps us to more
accurately identify our ideal franchise
partners moving forward. Once we have
identified the qualities and personalities
we are looking for, the profile of our ideal
candidate becomes clear and it is easier
to determine that a prospective franchisee possesses “Costa Vida
DNA.”
Once we have identified a potential partner
with Costa DNA, bringing them on board with
our brand is easy, as there
is a natural fit between
parties. With this, we are
also able to bring in likeminded partners who will
work collaboratively within
the system and create the
consistency necessary for a
strong franchise brand as
it grows across the country. Since we serve
a menu of entrees prepared entirely from
scratch, the quality of the raw ingredients
and dedication to the recipes is paramount.
For someone with “Costa Vida DNA,” the
commitment to preparing uncompromising
food is coupled with the ability to select and
develop outstanding team members who
share the passion for making every guest
smile. Overall, being passionate about food
and people is the key to being a successful
Costa Vida franchi