Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue II, 2016 | Page 80

OUT-SOURCERERS
tem. Franchisees also can save time and
money by selecting a single provider that
can integrate multiple services, such as
bookkeeping, accounting, and payroll.
Tropical Smoothie’s Johnson has
switched payroll services to a company
with easier-to-use software and is in the
process of outsourcing bill paying to more
seamlessly handle invoices in three states.
He also is taking advantage of the franchisor’s decision to hire in-house real estate
specialists to help franchisees manage
brokers and assist with site selection and
negotiations. He used to pay an outside
company for that service. “By corporate
bringing everything in house, it is saving
us money,” he says.

Tom Burtzlaff
operational or logistical task is too difficult to integrate into a third party’s process or system, the service doesn’t create
enough value to justify the cost, or if what
you want to outsource is too important to
delegate to someone who doesn’t have a
vested interest in your success, says Tropical Smoothie’s Johnson.

Maximizing the benefits
Outsourcing a previously hands-on task
does not mean the franchisee can be handsoff. It is not uncommon for businesses to
outsource a service without managing
the results.
“You have to trust and verify,” says Alia.
“Trust who you are working with and, every once in a while, verify that they are
giving you the best and most competitive

service in the market.”
“We use the term managing at 30,000
feet, versus managing in the weeds,” says
Karg. “What you are doing is taking
yourself out of the weeds on a certain
task that is time-consuming and keeping a thumb on it. You still have to manage it. You can’t put it on cruise control.
Outsourcing should take you a fraction
of the time to manage.”
He views Sky Zone third-party contractors as business partners. “Even though they
may not be on our payroll, they are very
much a part of our business and we want
them to know everything that is prudent,”
he says. “The devil is in the details. If you
don’t communicate changes, the changes
don’t get made holistically. If you aren’t
keeping everyone in the loop, it ends up
affecting something negatively.”
Getting the most out of outsourcing
means frequently evaluating operations
and making adjustments as needed. Sky
Zone, for instance, added social media
marketing in 2015 and is in the process of
bringing a portion of IT services back inhouse to most efficiently troubleshoot and
serve technical issues inside its parks.

Gary Yarbrough

Finding outsourcing
Once the decision to outsource is made,
Burtzlaff suggests taking advantage of existing business and professional relationships to find the best third party for your
needs. “Our HR partner is also one of
our clients and has referred us to several
other clients as well. In addition, we often
recommend our HR partner to other businesses looking to outsource in that field.
Outsourcing truly can be a win-win for
all parties involved,” he says.
“We’ve found extreme success with
this tactic,” he adds. “Our accountant
recommended our current bookkeeper,
our healthcare broker recommended
our payroll company, and our franchisor’s marketing team recommended our
telemarketing company.”
In addition to referrals from other
business owners, trade associations, and
online marketplaces, franchisors also can
be a source for less-expensive outsourcing than may be found locally, or provide
reliable referrals for contractors who have
worked with other franchisees in the sys-

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