10 minute read
Motivating Women to Being Franchise Owners
Motivating Women
to Being Franchise Owners
Sherry McNeil
CEO of the Canadian Franchise Association
Before becoming the CEO of the Canadian Franchise Association, Sherry also worked with restaurants and franchised businesses all around Canada. From Pizza Hut to Dairy Queens, she has been to every corner of Canada. She started working part-time at a Petro-Canada station as a student and now, she is the authoritative voice of Canada
An accomplished executive who is passionate about brand building and business development. A highenergy, dynamic professional who possesses extensive experience in; creating and implementing business development strategies for market analysis, new unit development, real estate selection, project management, and the rebranding of concepts. In addition to possessing executive-level leadership and professional management experience, Sherry worked at the store level for a decade and has a great understanding of all aspects of the franchise business. Key qualities include being able to effectively listen, analyze complicated situations, create win-win scenarios, and provide clear direction. She is a talented and articulate public speaker and has been a keynote for numerous franchise groups, RBC, and the Canadian Franchise Association (CFA) conventions and summits. Sherry has worked with a variety of franchisors as an employee and through her consulting company such as YUM! Restaurants International, Dairy Queen, Boston Pizza, Shoeless Joes, Good Earth Coffeehouse, Little Caesars, Petro Canada, etc. Sherry currently holds the position of President & CEO of the Canadian Franchise Association (CFA).
What are your thoughts on being a female in the franchising business? Do you think women should pursue a career as a franchisee?
Women should absolutely consider pursuing a career as franchise owners.
In the past ten years, there has been a 30% increase in Canadian women-owned businesses combined with a federal government commitment to double these businesses through a $2 billion program. According to a report by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC), supporting women in business ownership and closing the gender gap in entrepreneurship can add up to $150 billion to Canada
’ s GDP by 2026.
While this is a step in the right direction, the pandemic has disproportionately impacted women in the workforce. At the beginning of the pandemic, women between 25-54 experienced more than twice as many job losses as men and have seen a slower reemployment rate by 50%.
With all that being said, and with reopening plans becoming a reality, there needs to be a collective effort to restart the economy with women entrepreneurs at the forefront.
The franchise business model is an attractive and powerful way for aspiring business owners to overcome some of the challenges of launching a new small business. Some of the benefits franchising offers to include: Anyone who is interested in running their own business as part of a franchise business model needs to consider a few key things. They need to do their research or due diligence and really learn everything they can about that brand and the specific market.
It is important to find a brand that you can envision being involved with every day. A brand that suits your lifestyle, your financial goals, and your personality.
Many people don
’t realize that franchisees are local small business owners and operators. They live within the community where their business is located. So understanding the community and the market is key.
And lastly, prepare to work hard! It’ s not an easy task to start and run your own business. Thankfully, the franchise business model does provide additional supports that make it easier for new business owners.
A proven business concept and existing customer awareness of an established brand;
A tried-and-true system of operations, with initial and ongoing training from the franchisor head office;
A stronger position when applying for business loans;
·Ongoing support from the head office team;
An established supply chain and mass purchasing power from suppliers;
Access to the knowledge and experience of a network of other franchisees;
What are some of the misconceptions you ' ve heard about becoming a small business franchisee? And what is do you think the most difficult thing about being a small business franchisee is?
One myth is that franchise businesses are corporately owned. What’ s being misunderstood is that franchised businesses are locally-owned and operated by members of the community. While a franchisee has the support of a franchisor, the business is 100 percent owned and operated by the franchisee.
Approximately 1 out of every 10 people in Canada is employed in a franchised business. If the goal for the #ShopLocal effort is to help keep people employed, then Canadians need to support their local franchised business that is run by one of their neighbours, who undoubtedly needs their help.
What do you think the future holds for franchising as a business?
No business was immune from the COVID19 pandemic, and all had to adapt. However, franchises are naturally better suited to weather economic storms because of the inherent strengths of the franchise business model. Franchises have an existing customer base, standard processes, and strong brand recognition. Due to these factors, franchising will grow.
We
’ re seeing the rise of Gen Z. Franchisors who can appeal to new groups like Gen Z will find success. They need to begin planting the seeds with Gen Z and that means reaching them where they are,i.e., TikTok, social cause-based activities, and rethinking concepts to integrate online/digital into brick-and-mortar locations. If you were looking to buy into a franchise, what would be your top 3 considerations?
A major consideration is understanding the franchisee-franchisor relationship within that franchise system. Do both parties have a history of working together for mutual success? It’ s important to understand, personally, what level of support you ’ re looking for from the franchisor.
How do you feel about the people you met from the franchise support team? Are you comfortable working with these people, especially as you navigate any challenges?
Above all else, follow your passion! There
’ s a franchise in almost every industry at every investment level. Do you have enough passion for this brand and its offering to act as a brand ambassador for the years to come?
Mutual understanding and better alignment is needed between middle market businesses and their software vendors to create better outcomes
By Chandrashekar LSP, Canadian Evangelist, Zoho
Business headlines are often dominated by enterprises and small businesses, but there exists an entire sector of business between those two which contributes significantly in terms of revenue and jobs generated to the Canadian ecosystem: middle-market businesses.
Definitions of what exactly classifies as a middle-market business vary greatly, but in Canada, it is generally accepted that a middle-market business is a firm with between 100 and 499 employees.
And while middle-market firms only make up about 1% of all Canadian businesses, they account for about 16% of all jobs in the country and generate 12% of our national GDP and 16% of the value of our exports, according to statistics from BDC.
Despite making up such an important sector of Canada ’ s economy, middle-market businesses are currently dealing with many challenges that are keeping them from keeping up with or leading the pack in the Canadian business landscape.
A combination of sector-specific challenges such as middle-market businesses inability to generate revenue quickly or their often unique company cultures - and software vendors not properly understanding the needs of the middle market, has left them lacking the tools they need to modernize their businesses and looking to alternative means to streamline their operations.
Before we dive into the software needs of the middle market and the divide between those needs and what software vendors are currently offering, it is imperative that we point out some of the factors that make the middle market so challenging at times.
First and foremost, due to the fact that a majority of middle-market businesses are private firms, a majority of the time they do not have access to funds from the public market. Coupled with a history of reluctance from investors to invest in middlemarket businesses, this leaves these firms without the ability to quickly and easily generate revenue as they need it.
And as many businesses of all sizes across the country are seeing their software budgets cut following a very tough 18 months, this has only compounded the financial constraints that middlemarket businesses have when trying to get the software tools they need. Another important factor to note is that middlemarket businesses tend to come with their own unique company culture traits - often operating with a longterm outlook, a willingness to invest in their own people, and an ability to make quick decisions with a lean hierarchy - and when they look for a software vendor, they are looking to find a vendor of a similar size with similar values, of which there are not currently many in Canada.
As so much of the world’ s businesses have undergone digital transformation to modernize how they operate - spurred on by the pandemic but already trending beforehand - they are most often doing so with some of the many new and innovative software solutions being brought to market for the purposes of digitizing businesses of all types and sizes.
But due to its unique challenges - some of which we just spoke about - as well as a divide in mutual understanding between them and software vendors, middle-market businesses are finding it very tough to get the tools they need to create the modern operations they and their customers need.
While needs can vary from business to business, across the board within the sector of middle-market businesses in Canada there exists a great need for software with pricing plans tailored to the middle market, connected platforms capable of integrating with and managing their wide range of devices, and solutions that are designed to be scalable to their unique needs.
And yet, despite there existing a great need for such software solutions, software vendors seem to have a disconnect with this sector of Canadian businesses and many of them are not meeting these needs.
Bridging this divide to understand the unique challenges and needs of middle-market businesses, will be essential for software vendors to be able to better align their offerings with this business sector, and will be greatly mutually beneficial to both sides.
Until that divide can be bridged, what can those middle-market businesses do to make up for their software shortcomings?
Until the software market is able to catch up to the news of the middle market, these businesses should be looking to other areas they can innovate in to try and make up for the software deficit.
One area they should be taking a hard look at is lowcode/no-code development platforms.
With just a little reskilling or upskilling, you can have members of your team creating the apps your business needs - tailored exactly to them - without the large amounts of time usually needed to design them or the money usually needed to purchase them; all of which is very beneficial to the middle market firms in Canada who are struggling to generate the revenue they need to jumpstart the post-pandemic recovery of their business.
GovernmentProcurement–Modernizing ForaMoreAccessibleMarketplace
The Government of Canada is one of the largest purchasers in the country, spending on average $22 billion annually on a wide variety of goods, services, and construction. Wondering if this marketplace is right for you? Interested in adding the federal government to your client list? Want to learn how to pursue these opportunities and grow your business?
Procurement Assistance Canada (PAC) can help!
PAC, as part of Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), is here to help increase access for smaller and diverse businesses to federal contracting opportunities.
