When you’re thinking about expanding your portfolio or beginning your entrepreneurial journey through franchising, you’re likely to hear quite a lot about multi-unit franchises. Most franchisors offer you the opportunity to invest in either single or multiple units, and many even prefer franchisees to enter multi-unit agreements. It’s not hard to see why: not only do multi-unit franchises grow the footprint of the franchisor’s brand, but they also create more opportunities for franchisees to build a profitable business.
Let’s explore the opportunity of multi-unit ownership!
What Is a Multi-Unit Franchise?
Let’s start with the basics. In a nutshell, multi-unit franchising is a franchise concept that allows entrepreneurs to operate multiple locations of the same brand. The specifics of your multi-unit agreement will depend on your franchisor. At Lightbridge Academy, we offer multi-unit franchisees the opportunity to open multiple locations within a single development area. These areas have been thoroughly researched by our franchise team and have the demographics needed for a Lightbridge Academy center to be successful.
Pros and Cons
Advantages
There’s no question about the upside to owning multiple franchises. First and foremost, it creates more revenue streams for you, which increases your chances of profitability and success. As an added benefit, spreading out your investment and operating costs across multiple locations keeps your costs lower. Since you’re able share staff in back office departments like accounting, marketing, and operations across multiple locations, multi-unit ownership helps you decrease your overhead.
Operating multiple locations means you can use lessons you’ve learned at one location to improve the others, and you may also have successful locations to keep you afloat when other units are weak. Your bigger footprint allows you to grow a larger customer base. Multi-unit owners also tend to have more influence with their franchisor, and in time, you may be asked to help out on a system-wide level.
Challenges
On the other hand, there are some drawbacks that multi-unit owners need to be prepared for. It’s a bigger commitment of your time and money than operating a single unit. This can be especially stressful for first-time franchisees, and some franchisors only allow multi-unit agreements after the first franchise location has been opened.
Because the investment is higher, it may also take longer for your franchises to turn a profit. It’s important to understand that all of your units may not break even or become profitable at the same time. You’ll also need to put a great deal of effort into time management, prioritization, and delegation. Business ownership involves keeping a lot of balls in the air, and if multitasking isn’t one of your strong suits, you’ll need to be honest with yourself before pursuing a multi-unit opportunity.
How to manage multiple franchise locations?
This is often one of the biggest questions facing multi-unit owners. While you might want to take a more hands-on role in your franchise, multi-unit agreements ask that you delegate the day-to-day responsibilities of operating your business. This could mean entering your multi-unit agreement as part of an ownership team, where each owner oversees certain areas of the business, or hiring managers to operate each individual location. Whichever option you choose, make regular visits to each location a part of your routine. Taking the time to visit your franchise locations in person is the ideal way to make sure processes are being followed, locations are meeting KPIs, and your employees are motivated.
Franchise with Lightbridge Academy
Lightbridge Academy is one of the best multi-unit franchises in educational child care. We encourage our franchisees to pursue multi-unit agreements – in fact, over 75% of the early childhood education centers in our franchise system are owned by multi-unit franchisees. At Lightbridge Academy, we make it easy for multi-unit owners to manage their teams effectively. Our systems are structured so that administrative teams – including your center director and support staff – can keep your centers running smoothly on a day-to-day basis. With help from our business coaches, Lightbridge Academy’s franchisees have the resources they need to create and grow relationships, provide young children with a solid foundation for a lifetime of learning, and make the most out of the thriving child care industry.
Contact us today to learn more about what makes Lightbridge Academy a great franchise opportunity.
