When joining a franchise, the initial training is so important to your long term success. This is one of the big reasons you would invest in a franchise and that is for your initial franchise training because this will speed up your progress in your business… and take away your fear factors of being in business for yourself.
Over the years we have tweaked and changed our training to get better and better and to help our new franchisees more.
I was talking the other day with one of our longer term franchisees (who has won Franchisee of the year multiple times) and we were talking about their initial training… or lack of it ! I spent a day with them on how to work on a roof safely and how to use and look after the machine. On the second day they learnt how to use MYOB and then we went and did a job together. Then that was it… off they went! I don’t know how they made it in business because that was horrible training. We sure didn’t know what we didn’t know when we got started, but the franchisee and I did laugh and decided that this meant that Gutter-Vac and the need for what we did was strong because they have made it – very successfully – even though the training was terrible!
Twenty years on, we have got a lot better at our training and knowing what needs to be done for a franchisee to get the right start to their business.
Our training is now 6 days long and we cover ALL the aspects of the business.
We of course do nearly a full day just on safety and how to work from a roof safely. Our franchisees end up with their Working at Heights certificate and have not only theoretical training but also practical training on how to work on a roof safely.
Marketing is a huge topic for our new franchisees. We do a full day just on marketing, including social media and online marketing. Our focus in local area marketing and it doesn’t matter if you have never done one minute of marketing, but the end of this day, our new franchisees always say that they are walking away feeling confident to find customers for their business. We don’t get fancy in our marketing, we just use strategies that we know will work… some are new technology and some are old school things that work every day, in every territory, plus don’t cost a bomb!
No more going out on site to do one job …. You get two days out onsite with an experienced successful franchisee. These are usually the two favourite days of our new franchisees because not only do they get ‘on the job training’ they are also spending a couple of days with a successful franchisee talking shop and learning lots. We really value peer to peer support and we have a couple of different franchisees come in to do parts of your training, not just our head office team.
You will learn how to run your business from the administration side. Includes how to lodge your weekly sales and how to manage customer flow, but we also bring in a qualified bookkeeper to set you up and teach you the basics you need to know on how to use your accounting package so that you can quote, invoice and get paid!
Quoting is another big topic and we take the time to run you through practical examples on how to quote because no two jobs are the same. What to look for, how to price a job – in a couple of different ways, plus experience on how to handle calls and enquiries.
We also do a session on sales and in particular how to connect, quote and sell large commercial jobs, as well as working with your Mum and Dad home owners.
You will learn all about the machine, including how to service it and maintain it. Plus also hands on experience with additional services you can offer such as solar panel cleaning, pressure cleaning and the use of our products EnviroClean and Gutter Flow.
Our training is held at our head office in Brisbane so throughout your week with us, there is plenty of Q&A time and lots of discussions over a cuppa or lunch!
It is actually a pretty full on week at training, but we know that it doesn’t stop after this week. We pride ourselves on the ongoing support we provide – be that with your quoting, marketing, general business, accounting/bookkeeping, machinery, on the job questions – basically anything you need. We are here to help you!
Training is so important because it will fast track you to success, it will give you the confidence to run your business and it will help you to talk with your customers and it will help you to run the business you want to run. We think training is so important and that’s why we are continually reviewing and tweaking our training. We have it systemised enough to help everyone, but it is also flexible enough that we can tailor it to a franchisee. For example, give them more time in an area if they are not feeling confident with it.
If you want to know more, then give us a call and speak with our Franchise Development Manager.
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