What separates top franchise owners from the rest

Franchising may offer a proven business model, but success is far from guaranteed. According to business performance speaker and author of The Wealthy Franchisee and Stop the Shift Show, Scott Greenberg, what separates top-performing franchise owners from the rest has less to do with the brand they choose and more to do with how they manage themselves. 

Joining us on the latest episode of Business Trends Today, Greenberg notes that high performers share key behavioral traits, such as the ability to operate with a clear head, recover from setbacks, stay in a continuous-improvement mindset, and maintain a productive working relationship with their franchisor. He describes these so-called soft skills that, in practice, drive hard results. 

Follow the system 

One of the most common mistakes new franchisees make, Greenberg asserts, is believing their local market or prior corporate experience justifies deviating from the franchisor’s established playbook. The franchisor holds the most data, experience, and research, and straying from their model reintroduces the very risks a franchise investment is designed to eliminate. 

In interviews with top franchisees conducted for his book, Greenberg found that none credited going rogue as a factor in their success. The best operators held themselves to higher standards within the system, doing things better rather than differently. 

Culture over compensation

Additionally, Greenberg challenges the assumption that higher wages are the primary driver of employee performance, particularly among the hourly frontline workers who make up much of the franchise workforce. Deliberate culture-building, he argued, matters far more than compensation alone.

Strong franchise operators define a clear mission, articulate values in concrete and accessible terms, and reinforce those values through consistent rituals and daily practices.

He alludes to Chick-fil-A and In-N-Out Burger as examples of brands where a culture-first approach at the corporate level translates into a consistently strong customer experience at individual locations. Critically, he notes, that kind of culture has to be driven from the top down and will never organically emerge from the bottom up.

What to know before investing

For entrepreneurs considering a franchise investment, Greenberg offered several important cautions. For instance, franchising is not a passive investment, he stresses, and owners must be willing to be hands-on, particularly in the early stages. He also urges prospective buyers to go beyond the franchisor’s curated reference list during the validation process, seeking out franchisees who were not hand-picked to speak with potential investors.

"Look in the mirror a lot. Most of your problems and most of your solutions and most of your opportunities are within your control."

Patterns of location closures within a brand can be a telling signal that a franchisor may not be acting in the owners’ best interests. For those eyeing newer concepts with limited locations, Greenberg acknowledges the potential upside of getting in early but warns that the experience would be considerably more unpredictable than investing in an established brand with a proven track record.

The bottom line

Franchise owners, Greenberg concludes, should focus internally. The most effective resources for franchisees are self-awareness and dedication to personal development, as most challenges, solutions, and growth opportunities lie fundamentally within an owner’s sphere of influence.