1851 Growth Club: The Transparent, Inclusive Hub for All Things Franchising
Backed by the industry’s leading publication, the consultancy is supporting franchisees, franchisors and brokers in doing franchising the right way.
By Morgan Wood, 1851 Franchise Contributor
Franchising can be life-changing — a beautiful way to go into business for yourself with the help of a proven business model. But after nearly two decades spent in the industry, connecting with and learning the stories of franchisees, franchisors and franchise brokers, 1851 Franchise Publisher Nick Powills noticed a huge gap. Franchisors, franchisees and brokers were all being set back from their growth goals as the industry became far less transparent. Thus, 1851 Growth Club was born, reinfusing honesty and transparency into the franchise development space to help industry professionals meet their goals in a more inclusive way.
“The reason we created Growth Club is for full transparency in franchising,” said Powills. “This is a full-circle approach to franchise growth. We are giving franchisees the tools they need to have the best shot at winning; franchisors the support they need to build their pipelines honestly and transparently; and brokers an extra marketing and leads boost to help them scale more quickly.”
Growth Club is here to disrupt, bringing a new level of transparency to the space as it works to support franchisors, franchisees and franchise brokers in their long-term growth goals. Here’s how it works.
Helping Franchisees Find the Right Model, Scale It and Build Wealth
The start of a successful franchising journey is finding the right concept for you. With hundreds of thousands of franchise brands available to choose from, it is important that a franchisee is able to understand the scope of the offerings and fairly evaluate each opportunity with the help of an unbiased advisor.
Growth Club provides coaching without the mandate to buy. By focusing on just doing the right thing, the leadership team is able to guide prospects through the research process with their success front and center. Maybe the discovery process leads a new franchisee to inquire with a brand that they hadn’t previously considered, or they might even walk away from the opportunity entirely, choosing to take the next few years to build capital and re-engage when they’re ready to pursue their dream franchise opportunity.
That is okay. Growth Club puts what is right for you above an opportunity to guide a new franchisee into an incompatible business opportunity for the sole purpose of securing a commission.
“Think about real estate. If you hire an agent to show you a house, they’re supposed to find the right house for you, even if the listing agent isn’t from their company,” explained Powills. “It doesn’t matter which network the listing and purchasing agents belong to because the process is super transparent — each agent gets a commission based on the final sale price. Part of the mission here is to have successful franchise brokers and franchise sales organizations, but we want to up the level of transparency to create a process that is honest about how and how much these entities are being paid for their work.”
1851 Growth Club Helps Franchisors Get in Front of the Right People
Convincing someone to invest their life savings in your business is undoubtedly difficult. 1851 Franchise has grown to be the industry’s leading publication for franchisee education, empowering franchisors to get their stories out in the open and drive lead generation. With Mainland‘s services, franchisors can also take advantage of franchise assessments and other marketing efforts.
Now, with Growth Club, the circle is completed. Franchisors can engage Growth Club to help qualify leads, take on fractional sales and marketing roles, and generate and manage leads through the entire process. So, what’s different? Franchisors have more clarity surrounding fee structures and can rest assured that Growth Club is working toward the perfect match — not just a big payout.
When franchisors are leveraging the help of a broker or sales organization that claims to coach the prospective franchisee for free, they must account for the commission structure somewhere else in the fees.
“Brokers have started dominating a franchisor’s ability to get in front of a candidate,” explained Powills. “Some will openly say that they coach the candidate for free, but it really costs $60,000, for example. The amount is split between the franchisee and franchisor, and the new franchisee’s portion is accounted for in the franchise fee. Franchise fees are skyrocketing, and there’s no difference in the quality of the business model or support the candidate gets — they’re just paying the broker more. Neither the franchisor nor the broker is being transparent.”
This is not to say that commissions are bad. Brokers need to feed their families, too, but there’s a better way: Growth Club leverages universal commissions.
“When the commission is universal, and it’s capped, every opportunity is even,” explained Powills. “The franchisor that matches with that candidate ends up being the right fit for that candidate. We’re not playing games to make sure that the franchisor who pays the most gets the most deals.”
By keeping the process out in the open, all parties are able to understand exactly how the commission structure works and where funds are going, and by capping the commission, Growth Club reduces costs, allowing both the franchisor and franchisee to have more funds remaining to funnel into the growth of the unit(s).
“I tend to believe that people aren’t bad people, but the trend with unclear commissions has become so rampant in the industry, many people don’t have the motivation to break out of that box,” added Powills. “At Growth Club, everyone pays the same fees, removing the financial competition from the equation and allowing us to identify and match scalable franchisees.”
A Resource for Brokers Who Don’t Need to Scale Alone
Every successful broker, consultant and coach has received some help over the years. Sure, you can hustle and dig into your grit, expanding your network and connecting with potential candidates, but you shouldn’t have to do it alone. Growth Club is an exposure resource to help brokers scale their own businesses even more quickly.
“1851 Franchise has established itself as a credible resource for those seeking franchise education, and we’ve even received inquiries over the years from people seeking additional support,” said Powills. “Now, we have the infrastructure to manage them. As a part of 1851, Growth Club will make connections to you, but you won’t be restricted to just our network.”
As a development resource for 100 franchise brands, 1851 can provide connections, but the support doesn’t stop there. Brokers also need a net. Growth Club supports brokers in building a funnel with the help of websites, content marketing, public relations and digital engagement for maximized reach.
With a clear “Why You/Why Now?”, you can encourage candidates to connect with you and your story and get invested in working with you to find the right franchise opportunity. You and your story are the secret sauce for growth, and Growth Club is here to help you identify and solidify that.
What It Means for the Industry
Growth Club was born from a career in franchising. The culmination of Powills’ experiences in the industry over the course of nearly two decades created a flash point; he was sick of the status quo.
Powills decided to do things differently, and by embracing true honesty and transparency alongside the belief that all franchisors, franchisees and brokers can be successful when supported adequately, he built Growth Club.
“We lack this education that goes back to the candidate, education that goes back to the franchisor and education that goes back to the franchise consultant,” said Powills. “The word that we’re putting in front of everything we do, above everything, is ‘transparency.’ I believe that if we put everything on the table and let a franchisee decide, a franchisor decide or a franchise broker decide what pathway they want to go down, that’s how we build up a successful franchise community and industry.”
To learn more about 1851 Growth Club, visit https://1851growthclub.com.
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