How Much is Too Much Flexibility for Multi-Unit Franchisees? Multi-Unit Franchisees have the Responsibility to Protect the Brand by Operating Inside the Franchisor's System and Brand Standards (Multi-Unit Expansion‪)‬

When rapid growth is the goal, selling and encouraging multi-unit development contracts with specific quotas and timelines is an imperative strategy. Franchisees and their staff practice your system standards on a daily basis, serving customers and demonstrating the brand. Selling multiple franchises to one person or group reduces the amount of time spent during both the sales and training processes. Multi-unit franchisees are essential to your expansion; accordingly, they should receive appropriate benefits and advantages. When awarding area development agreement contracts, there are several areas that allow for flexibility. Building an area development agreement should be specific to the local area in which the franchises will be located. In terms of daily operations, standards must be instituted. System and brand standards manuals mandate specific guidelines for compliance with and usage of the franchisor's trademarks, policies and procedures. Franchisees are educated on those circumstances when flexibility may be awarded. Many franchisors struggle with the areas and extent of flexibility that should be afforded to their multi-unit franchisees. Excessive leniency may potentially place the entire system at risk, while too little may cause franchisees to feel controlled and under-valued. Identifying these areas of compromise in advance will allow the franchisor to offer specific alternatives to multi-unit franchisees without jeopardizing the system's credibility or decreasing the value of the brand.