Company owned locations needed to franchise?

When I created the Franchise Gold 100 survey for Success Magazine one of the requirements was that a company, in order to be listed and considered, had to have at least one company owned and operated location.

The reason for this is simple. 

There are two distinct marketplaces.  The first is the consumer level where a company delivers or provides a product or service.  The one thing I know about any business, before knowing anything about that business, is that business will change over time.  Consumer tastes, demands and needs change as well as external influences from competition, the economny, etc. all contribute to a fluid marketplace and not a static one. 

The second marketplace is the franchise level.  This, as we all know, is where a distributed work force is created to provide more products or services to the end users - the consumer.

If the concept never validates or exists in the consumer marketplace it certainly cannot and should not be franchised. 

Further, I believe that if a company does not operate in the consumer space they will never understand the changing environment and hence, will test, experiment at the franchisee's expense and that is not a good thing to do.

Did anyone read the recent post about how the franchisor they married has changed?  Well, that franchisor has to change.  They have to bend in the wind or they will snap. 

There were a few companies that were considerably upset that they never made it into the Franchise Gold 100 in Success Magazine.  My response was to develop company owned and operated locations to better understand the business and how it is and will change in the future so they can create and sustain a viable franchise offering.

Validate and then franchise. 

Craig Slavin
Franchise Architects
Franchise Navigator
847-465-0111