If I buy a franchise, won’t I be competing with other franchisees selling the same product?

Brian Duckett writes:

In many cases, yes you will. You will also be competing with franchisees in other networks selling similar, possibly even the same, products and services.

How can this be, you may wonder, when I thought I had an exclusive area? You may well have an exclusive area inside which only you can promote the business or a location from which you can operate, but you can’t stop the customer buying from whoever they want to.

For example, there could be several outlets of a particular food service concept, say coffee, in the same city, sometimes even in the same street. If you’re operating a domestic services business, a customer may live between you and another franchisee or may know or have been recommended to your colleague.

In either of the above cases, the customer will go where they believe they will get the best service, so it had better be you that’s offering ‘something extra’ that may not be an integral part of the franchising system - maybe simply a better attitude and approach to customer service from your staff.

Every network has some franchisees who are better operators than others. The onus is on you to be the best in your area.

Brian Duckett is chairman of The Franchising Centre, part of the world’s largest network of specialist franchise consultants.