Exactly 12 months ago, we launched our free franchisee membership scheme. Starting life as an initiative to promote free franchisee membership to all franchisees of our accredited franchisor members. The aim was, and still is, to grow the franchising community and to truly represent all stakeholders in the sector.
One year on, the scheme has grown, and we are delighted to be launching an entire dedicated area of our website that is specifically designed to service this element of our community, ‘The Franchisee Member Area’.
In the Franchisee Member area, you will find relevant news items, industry updates, events, training and learning materials, a complete archive of all our newsletters and educational videos, PR opportunities and special member-to-member offers.
One of the things we are most excited about with this launch is the ‘Franchisee Champion’ initiative, which will allow franchisees to be nominated by franchisors to showcase outstanding performance. This will carry several benefits for both parties, from PR and speaking opportunities to a heightened industry profile, but for us here at the bfa, the biggest benefit is seeing how we can all work together in a way that benefits the entire franchise community.
Long journey
From taking the decision to be more inclusive almost a decade ago, it has been a long journey to reach the point we are at today. Historically seen as a franchisor only association, we have made huge efforts to build on that and be more representative of the entire franchise community.
As a sector, franchising continues to evolve year on year, and we don’t think there is another sector that supports and collaborates like ours. The global pandemic has highlighted that we are stronger together and we feel that initiatives like the franchisee membership scheme, help us all to pull in the same direction.
Uptake
We have already started building a strong franchisee community, and we’re delighted to be able to say that we can now have 117 network brands contributing, with 776 fantastic franchise owners. Franchisees are engaging with the bfa and their peers through the Facebook ‘Franchisee Hub’ group and via our weekly online Power Hours.