The Story of FranChoice
Jeff Elgin is the founder and CEO of FranChoice. He spent many years successfully developing franchise companies by recruiting top quality new franchisees to build their brands. Whether in specialty retail or fast food or hair care, the process was basically the same. He designed systems to facilitate the gathering of information between the company and the prospective franchisee so that both parties could make an informed business decision about the desirability of joining forces to build a business together.
Though this process produced results that were very gratifying, the process itself could also be frustrating. Jeff often found that he was working with wonderful people who would be great franchisees, but not in the system he was representing at the time. He had no option but to tell these people that they didn’t match well with his franchise and should go search elsewhere.
After spending the better part of a decade ramping up the huge growth engine at Great Clips, he found himself once again thinking about all of the people he had turned away in the past. The more he thought about this situation, the more it became clear that there was an unfulfilled need in the industry and he should set out to address it.
A Vision for Better Franchising
Jeff's vision was to start a company that would be able to help virtually everyone looking for a great franchise. The secret was to have his new company represent many different high quality franchise opportunities. This would ensure that no matter what characteristics a candidate was looking for, the company would have some interesting options. Having an inventory of outstanding franchise opportunities in many different categories to choose from was the key. That way the candidate, with assistance, would have more opportunities to find the business of their dreams.
Launching The FranChoice Concept
In early 2000 Jeff developed a new approach that brought huge value to the candidates. To this day we use the same process and it can save candidates a lot of time and effort. They don’t have to go chasing after concepts that don’t match up with their goals. They get multiple franchises to consider so they don’t have to compromise on quality. Best of all, the entire service is free to the candidate because franchise companies respect the processes Jeff created, and they recognize the high quality and fit of the prospective franchise owners that are referred to them.
Building a Team of Franchise Experts
The next thing Jeff did was to build a team of veteran executives who had learned about every facet of the franchise industry. These professionals created the systems for vetting franchise opportunities for FranChoice. They also developed and documented the processes that would be used by our consultants to gather information from candidates. These systems were designed to help our consultants find franchises that could be a wonderful match with the candidate's goals.
It was an easy decision to have FranChoice use experienced franchise business executives as the consultants who would work with candidates. These pros take the time to determine what candidates want to accomplish through business ownership. They then find franchise companies that might fit the bill for each unique candidate. The consultants have proven to be great listeners and they spend several hours on average with each candidate asking questions and gathering information before they ever get to the point of suggesting companies.
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Franchise Locations PlacedGreat Results for Franchisees
It is more work to do it this way but the results speak for themselves. Over the years we have made introductions that resulted in over twenty thousand franchise locations placed. Best of all, the entire process is free to the candidate since FranChoice is paid by franchisors to provide this service.
The vision that started FranChoice has continued to develop and grow over the years. At FranChoice it is truly all about choice. The frustration of only having one brand to represent has been replaced with the satisfaction of being able to give each candidate the best suggestions for franchise companies to research and perhaps select for themselves.
The vision has become reality!