Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue II, 2016 | Page 76

BY HELEN BOND

Out-Sourcerers
MASTERING THE ART OF HIRING OUT

F

ranchisees of all sizes are increasingly The options are endless
discovering that business goes better Outsourcing is a natural avenue for franwith outside help. Many have found chisees, in many ways mirroring the franthe key to bottom-line success is to chise model. And thanks to technology
focus on what they do best and find the that erases geographical boundaries and
right fit to outsource the rest.
provides ready access to highly qualified
Former corporate controller and CPA professionals, the options for lowering
Joel Karg has the know-how to tackle any operational costs and freeing up time for
financial function at his multi-unit Sky building the business are more plentiful
Zone franchise. He also knows enough to than ever. Outsourcing can be used to
hand off time-consuming tasks to some- serve short- or long-term needs, to foone else.
Karg and his franchise part- Glen Johnson
ner David Beckett have chosen
to outsource the payroll, tax,
human resources, information
technology, and social media
marketing needs of their Columbus, Ohio-based company,
which operates three parks in
Dayton and Pittsburgh, with
a fourth under construction.
Going outside for help has
allowed the duo, who honed
their franchise management
chops as executives at Stanley
Steemer, to spend less time
pushing paper and more hours
strategically growing their indoor trampoline park business.
“We work hard, we don’t
ever take our foot off the accelerator. But you have to
be in tune to see if there is
a better way. Am I doing the
best I can? Should I do this
or have someone else do it?”
says Karg. “We are boots-onthe-ground people, but every
time we have taken a step back
and handed something over it
has worked out well for us.”

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cus on a special project or market, or to
handle daily tasks to keep the office running smoothly.
And these days, the options are endless. Payroll, accounting, lead generation,
social media marketing, and more can be
outsourced through a third-party provider,
often through the cloud (software-as-aservice). Franchisees also are turning to
outsourcing for site selection, legal needs,
sales, vendor negotiations, human resources,
as well as task-oriented work
such as taxes or web design.
Franchisees also can rack up
savings by using trusted third
parties to eliminate the need
to hire additional staff for such
positions as bookkeeping, and
by employing virtual administrative assistants, or even
temporary C-level executives.
“Outsourcing is something
we are always talking and
thinking about,” says Tropical Smoothie Café franchisee Glen Johnson, president
of Little Rock-based Tropical Tango. “Even within the
outsourcing companies we
are currently using, we are
always seeing if there is a better option.”
With 15 Tropical Smoothie
Cafés in Arkansas and Oklahoma and expansion plans for
Texas, he included outsourcing
in his business plan from the
start, contracting payroll services when he opened his first
café in 2011. As his portfolio
grew, so did his outsourcing
needs. Over the years he has

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