Choosing a franchise business opportunity is a serious thing, but casting your mind back to the places and events that have brought you joy in your life can certainly help you make the right choice.
For many of us, camp is the source of some of our happiest memories, whether we were attending a camp, working as a counselor, or both. Sport camps, like those that Skyhawks, franchisees own, operate all over the country at all times of year, bringing camp time fun to kids — and to franchise owners.
Skyhawks, a sport camps franchise, is a great example of a franchisor whose main goal is to see their franchisees succeed.
Franchisee Support from Day One
Support should start from the moment you sign on as a franchisee. Skyhawks’ support starts with a two day training session off-site (you might call it a camp) where franchisees learn everything and anything there is to know about Skyhawks and how to run a camp. The focus in the training session is to give franchisees all the tools they need to complete a camp from start to finish.
Camp programming is more involved than you’d think at first. Here are some of the things franchisees need to know how to do:
- schedule the camp
- find and hire counselors
- advertise the camp
- process registrations and payments
- answer any questions parents might have
All of these steps take place before the camp even starts. This applies to all franchises—they’re more difficult than they first appear, and there’s a lot to do behind the scenes. Support and training at the beginning should spell out everything you’ll need to do to be successful once you start.
Start-up training
Once you’ve completed your beginning training, it’s great to have support directly in your location so you can apply the principles you’ve learned in your own work environment. For sales training, Skyhawks provides their franchisees with two days of sales meetings in their own territory. Skyhawks helps new franchisees get the first camps off the ground. They’re a great example of start-up support that successful franchisors provide for franchisees.
On top of that, Skyhawks trains all their franchisors on the software they provide for managing the franchise. The right software can streamline the process of managing camps, and Skyhawks has perfected their software through years of refinement.
The first Skyhawks camps started in 1979 so the system has had plenty of time to be perfected to fit the specialized needs of camp management. When looking at a franchise, ask questions about any specialized software and the amount of training and support that’s provided to learn how to use it.
Ongoing Support
The best franchisors keep in close contact with their franchisees to make sure that they are successful. If you’ve ever run a camp before, you’ll understand that answering the phones usually isn’t a priority when you’ve got three different camps with 30 children in each group to manage. That’s why Skyhawks also has a unique call center support system for franchisees. The incoming and outgoing call center can take care of customers and coordinators, meaning franchisees have more time to manage other aspects of running camps.
What’s more, Skyhawks provides ongoing support for human resources and risk management, accounting, and marketing—some of the most worrisome and troublesome tasks of running a franchise. Every step of the way, the franchisor is there for the franchisee, supporting them with expertise on how to best run the franchise. There’s also personalized support for day to day questions with an account manager on top of conferences, manuals, and programming resources. This proven method and guidance for the business model and operations is part of the difference between a franchise and an independent start-up.
