The mission of the Peaked Pies franchising department is to create the future of the Peaked Pies franchise system with the use of an objective and structured recruitment and selection process.

At Peaked Pies, franchises are awarded, not sold.  To effectively build a strong foundation for growth and to garner the true power of franchising, Peaked Pies “awards” franchises to establish a proper context for a strong relationship with and between Peaked Pies Head Office and its franchise partners.

The premise that a Peaked Pies is not sold and the franchise partner does not own the franchise license is supported by the following facts:

• A franchise partner cannot incorporate using the franchisor’s name because the franchise partner does not own the name.
• Should the franchise partner want to exit the business, the franchise license (franchise agreement) is not sold; rather, the franchise license is transferred upon approval by Peaked Pies Head Office, the franchisor.  The franchise partner enters into a separate transaction to sell their assets.
• The franchise agreement has a stated term and must be renewed if the franchise partner is to continue in business under the Peaked Pies brand name.  If the franchise partner owned the license, it would not need to be renewed.

Peaked Pies customers, the potential market, the brand name, the operating system, and the on-going support system are “owned” by Peaked Pies.  The franchise partner is licensed the right to use the brand name in a defined market, for a designated period of time, to develop market share for the franchise system.

A Peaked Pies franchise cannot be sold or bought.  However, a franchise partner does own the assets of the business.  A franchise partner has invested in the Peaked Pies brand name, operating system, and ongoing support system in the hope of earning a return on their investment.  This investment is earned by our franchise partners in two ways:

1. From current revenue, as a result of using the brand name, which creates customers, and using the operating system, which gets those customers to come back.
2. From the increase in the value of the franchisee’s assets owning to an association with the Peaked Pies brand name, which increases the franchise partner’s ability to produce future revenue.

The Effect of “Selling” Language

The use of the words sell, buy and owner, when referring to Peaked Pies Franchise Partners, sends a message that is contrary to the real purpose of the franchise relationship – to get and keep customers.

The “Selling” Language.

• If I sell you a Peaked Pies franchise, you have bought it.
• If you have bought a Peaked Pies franchise, you own it.
• If you own a Peaked Pies franchise, you can do whatever want with it.

This message creates an owner mentality.  The impact of an owner mentality is as follows:

• There is a negative impact on the growth of the franchise system.  An owner mentality leads franchise partners to believe they can change the operating system at will.  These changes make the operating system inconsistent from franchise to franchise, and the inconsistency confuses Peaked Pies customer’s experience and expectations.  This erodes the quality of the Peaked Pies brand name.
• There is a perception that franchise partners are competitors of each other rather than teammates responsible for building the value of the brand name.  This perception begins when the franchise partners are told they are “independent owners.”
• Franchise partners believe the operating system is the way the Peaked Pies Head Office controls them, rather than seeing the system as a way customers are retained, and value is built in the brand name.
• Franchise Partners don’t understand why it is important to implement changes in the operating system as the system grows and the market evolves.  The franchise partner does not understand because franchising was never adequately explained – namely, that the operating system is for the customer, not the franchise partner or their staff.  Changes in the operating system are made for marketing reasons – to fulfill the purpose of the relationship, which is to get and keep customers.
• There is usually no context for franchise partners to understand the real purpose of the initial franchise fee and the ongoing royalty fee.  Franchise partners mistakenly believe that the initial franchise fee was for the brand name, operating system and training.  This thinking makes the franchise partner dependent and causes them to ask, “What has Peaked Pies done for me today?”

These are significant examples of how the words “sell” and “owner” adversely affect the franchisor-franchise partner relationship, potentially diluting the franchise partners investment, and preventing the system from capitalizing on its power to get and keep customers.  Many of the problems Peaked Pies will potentially face with franchise partners originates in the way franchise partners think about the relationship based on how they were recruited and selected.  The problems experienced by many franchise systems can, in many cases, be eliminated by encouraging and understanding of the franchisor-franchise partner relationship during the recruitment and selection process.