Young franchise owners—some welcome it, some are hesitant about it, and some are trying to make sense of it.
I am not overly surprised, though, that millennials want to buy franchises at a young age. In Dr. John P. Hayes’ article, he highlights that:
“Millennials want to buy franchises—15 percent of attendees at the 2015 International Franchise Expo were under the age of 30—and franchising makes perfect sense for them based on their values and skill sets.”
Both young people and the franchise industry have something to offer the other.
Franchising offers millennials the autonomy to run their own business, receive mentorship, and access guidance and support.
Franchising also provides a choice for the young entrepreneur. The franchise opportunities are almost endless for new young franchise owners.
Whether it be helping people eat right, organizing homes or providing home care—franchising offers selection and the ability to define one’s purpose through their own business at a young age.
Why Millennials Should Consider Franchise Ownership
On the flip side, millennials have a lot to offer to franchise business operations.
According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s report on millennial generation research, millennials are:
- self-confident,
- optimistic,
- multi-taskers,
- tech-savvy,
- able to learn quickly,
- willing to try new things,
- and have an entrepreneurial mindset.
“We believe other young entrepreneurs should consider franchising as an option because it is a great alternative to starting your own business from scratch. It is, in most cases, an already proven and successful business model with tons of back-end support.” – Nick Pagnotta (Successful Millenial Franchise Owner).
While some negative qualities were noted in the report, we also know that no group or generation is perfect.
Ultimately, many young people entering the business world can bring vital qualities to franchise ownership not seen before.
What stands out to me the most is their pursuit of purpose, as noted in Karl Moore’s article. I can relate to this because before joining Nurse Next Door, I was in search of the same thing.
Joining the team was an easy decision for me because I connected with why this company is doing what they are doing, and I believe in its core purpose to make lives better.
We have a good idea of why millennials in franchising are an ideal fit. And we also know millennials currently make up the largest generation in the U.S. workforce.
They are the next wave of franchise owners.
So, how are franchisors preparing for them?
How are franchisors preparing to connect with them, support them and ensure that they remain engaged?
How are franchisors preparing a training program to excel young franchisees in their career?
How Can Franchisors Prepare Millennials to Be Their Own Boss?
Over the past 18 months, Nurse Next Door has identified areas of opportunities in our system, learned from them and has taken on exciting initiatives to improve our relevance to young entrepreneurs.
Here is how Nurse Next Door is preparing for the millennial franchise owner:
Build a Strong Online Brand Presence
Two years ago, Nurse Next Door’s online brand presence was minimal—we had only 1,078 Facebook followers.
So, we knew that we had to do a better job at showing our story and connecting with the online community if we were going to succeed into the future.
We focused on amplifying our social media presence through videos, blogs and visual content. Today, we have over 21K Facebook followers and growing.
Whether you are selling burgers, home care or cleaning services, it’s important in today’s marketing space that your brand is digitally accessible.
You need to show current (and future) clients and franchisees your relevance, which includes millennials, who are expected to make up the largest online audience this year.
Want to learn how you could finance a new franchise? It’s easier than you think!
Leverage Modern Technology
It should come as no surprise that millennials are tech-savvy.
If you are not using what is currently out there, it will be hard to support a generation of business owners who are ahead of you in terms of technology usage and remain relevant.
At Nurse Next Door, we have been exploring ways to unify our technology and strengthen engagement to engage younger people. One way that we are doing this is through Google.
We recently integrated the Google platform to connect our Leadership Team, franchise owners and caregivers. As a result, Google will allow us to accelerate how we share best practices.
It will also enable us to design user-generated content to equip franchisees and their caregivers with the best training to equip them for success. We consider this critical to our evolving business needs and to ensure that our system is flexible, adaptable and advantageous.
Create Growth Opportunities
Nurse Next Door’s Leadership Team wants franchisees to have a bigger stake in our brand and increase brand standards alignment.
We want our system to be fully connected to who we are and help us decide our future and how we will get there.
We are supporting this initiative by revamping our Franchise Advisory Council (FAC). The FAC is a forum comprised of our most successful franchisees who work with our Leadership Team to foster system growth.
Instead of just hosting four group calls each year, for the first time ever, the FAC will help create our two-year strategic plan and contribute to something greater than themselves.
To ensure that we have a diverse group of leaders on the FAC, we also asked two millennial franchisees to participate. We are excited about this opportunity because our franchisees will discover what is possible for themselves, their business and our brand.
Provide Adaptable Training
We realized that we could do a better job at providing structured training materials to our franchisees to make their lives better. We knew we needed alternative ways to teach our new franchise owners and caregivers.
As a result, we launched an eLearning program for caregivers to boost their knowledge.
This program offers a flexible and convenient way to train caregivers. We received positive feedback about the program, especially because it saves franchisees time and effort that would otherwise be spent on repetitive training.
We believe that eLearning is an attractive platform for millennial franchisees because it’s scalable and adaptable.
As we progress, we will develop more eLearning courses in sales, customer service, and self-leadership to build our eLearning library.
Find out what questions you should ask during franchise validation calls.
Final Thoughts on Our Own Business
To date, approximately 10 percent of Nurse Next Door franchisees fall under the millennial umbrella, and we are seeing more interest from this generation.
We believe this is a result of our brand, our purpose in making lives better and our ability to show, not just tell our story.
Franchising can be an appealing option for millennials when deciding what their first business venture should be. But, only if franchisors give them a reason to be interested.
Has Nurse Next Door done a great job at marketing to this generation? Unfortunately, we have not, but we see this as an area of opportunity for 2022 and beyond.
I, for one, am excited about what millennials can bring to the franchising table.
Are you?
If you’re interested in learning more about our franchise opportunity, fill out the form below to receive our Welcome Package!
Access Your Welcome Package which includes
- Discovery Video – 15 min overview of this opportunity
- Franchisee Testimonials
- The Nurse Next Door opportunity
- Access to our calendar to book a 1×1 call.
