Franchising is evolving fast—and if you're not watching the trends, you might get left behind. In this episode, we're diving deep into what's shaping the future of retail franchising and how small franchise owners can stay ahead of the curve. From tech to talent to TikTok—this episode has it all.
If you like this podcast, then check out my newsletter called Xpansion Press. Business content delivered to your inbox. Just click here to sign up.
So I have a question. How are small business owners like us who are spending sixty plus hours a week working in our businesses and are still struggling to make ends meet? We have no time to spend with family, friends, or the things we value most in life. We feel trapped inside of our businesses, and it is consuming our lives. How do we get the freedom to be able to work on our businesses and not in them?
That is the question this podcast will give you the answer. My name is John Nichols, and this is Expansion Code Radio. What's up, everyone? Welcome to today's podcast. I'm John Nichols, and you're listening to Expansion Code Radio.
Today, we're looking ahead. I mean, way ahead. We're driving into the future of franchising. What's changing? What's trending?
And most importantly, how do you, a small retail franchise owner, ride this wave instead of wiping out? Let's kick things off with the big question. What problems are we facing in this brave new world? The problems. One, tech overload and integration issues.
The rapid influx of new technologies from AI driven analytics to mobile ordering systems can overwhelm franchise owners. Integrating these tools can be expensive, time consuming, and confusing without the right guidance. Number two. Consumer behavior is a moving target. Customers today expect instant gratification, personalized experiences, and ethical practices.
Keeping up with evolving expectations is like trying to catch a fish with your bare hands, slippery and frustrating. Number three. Labor challenges aren't going away. Attracting and retaining talent in retail is becoming harder and harder with rising wage demands, challenging employee expectations, and shifts towards remote and flexible work environment. Number four, supply chain uncertainty is the new norm.
From shipping delays to import tariffs, unpredictable supply chains are throwing wrenches into day to day operations affecting inventory and customer satisfaction. Now that we've laid out the main challenges, let me paint you a picture of what it's like when all these problems collide. It was midsummer, and Dave, the owner of two Emerald City smoothies in Phoenix, Arizona, was sweating for reasons that had nothing to do with the heat. An all new AI based point of sale system had just been installed, and promptly, it crashed twice. I mean, it's just crazy.
And meanwhile, his employees were quitting faster than he could hire, frustrated that they couldn't clock in with their phones. Customers were flooding Yelp with complaints, and one guy even said his mango smoothie tasted like betrayal. That's just crazy. On top of it all, a delayed shipment of biodegradable straws from overseas had him handing out old school plastic ones that didn't go over well with his eco conscious crowd. Dave, once an optimistic entrepreneur, now stared at his store counter like it might reach out and solve all of his problems.
He had jumped into franchising for brand recognition and turnkey systems, but suddenly it felt like everything needed upgraded. His tech, his hiring strategies, even his straws. And all this in a world moving faster than ever. But for every challenge, there's a silver lining. If you know where to look, let's flip the script and talk about the exciting possibilities on the horizon.
The possibilities. Number one. AI and automation can solve time and money. When used effectively, AI tools can streamline operations, optimize inventory, and even improve customer service with data backed insights. Number two.
Customer experience is now a competitive weapon. Franchises that embrace personalization, loyalty programs, and ethical branding are winning customers' hearts and wallets. Number three, franchise models are becoming more flexible. Microfranchising, ghost kitchens, mobile units are creating new formats that reduce overhead and adapt to local markets. Number four.
Sustainability and community ties matter more than ever, emphasizing eco friendly practices. Local engagement not only boosts your brand but strengthens your customer loyalties. So let me tell you about a franchise who saw these changes coming and jumped in head first. Maya owned Dementia's frozen yogurt in Denver, Colorado. She wasn't tech savvy by any means, but she was very curious, and the curiosity paid off.
She started off by adding a smart inventory system that automatically recorded ingredients based on demand. Then she ramped up the My Smileage rewards program that let customers earn smiles for every dollar they spent. Business boomed. Customers felt good about supporting their local business and was buying into the rewards program. One day, Maya got a phone call from corporate.
They were rolling out a new award for franchises who had the most customers using the Smollettge rewards program. She was the first winner. She didn't just adapt to the future. She helped define it. And now, she was mentoring other owners on how to do the same.
This is a great example of using a an awards program to really help your franchise out, to really push your franchise forward. Because the thing about it is is that, the, My Smallish program is a great little program. If you haven't seen this, Minches has a great little rewards program, and I really love it. And it really helps you get to where you need to go. It really helps drive your customers in because then because kids all the time are wanting more frozen yogurt.
They're wanting sweets and stuff. And so, this is a great way to do this. And so, what it does is that it promotes customers to come back and earn more points. And so, I really do love this program. So how do you build a franchise that's future ready?
It starts with understanding the key principles guiding this new era of growth. The principles. Number one. Adaptability is the new stability. Businesses that pivot quickly to change, whether it's tech, trends, or customer needs, will thrive.
Two, people first, tech second. Technology should empower your team and customers, not replace or alienate them. Number three. Brand integrity over brand popularity. They trigger your core values and missions even when trends change.
Number four. Data informed, not data obsessed. Use data to support decisions, but don't forget the human touch. And I just wanna say one thing about this. This is really huge.
You really have to concentrate on your employees and on your customers. This is a really big piece that we do in our UPS stores. And if we if we're not focusing on, first of all, our employees and second, our customers, we can never ever push our products and services to the next level and increase our sales. So here's a real life example of a franchise owner who lived by these principles. Tina ran a Salves Works franchise in Portland, Oregon.
While others rushed to buy every new gadget, Tina focused on her people. She trained her staff to use their digital tools with purpose, like using data to track customer favorites and recommend new items. She also encouraged employees to suggest new menu items and create a culture of innovation. When a viral diet trend hit sales dip, Tina didn't panic. She adapted her menu and communicated clearly with her customers and stayed true to her mission of real food made fresh.
Her customers noticed. Sales bounced back stronger than ever. Her secret, a clear vision, empowered people, and just the right amount of tech. This is a great story about how Tina seen into the future a little bit. She looked at trends and seen the way things were coming, and then she adapted.
And I think in franchising, at least in my franchises, we have to adapt all the time. This is a big new world changing. And whenever we are hiring kids or or this younger generation, it we really have to adapt on how we do things. And they are all about the tech, and so we really have to cater some of our things to that. This is a great way that what Tina did in her Salads Work franchise, she was able to really dig in and innovate here and use tech in the right amount to really push, her employees and make her customers happy.
Now let's break it down into actual strategies you can implement starting this week. The strategies. Number one. Audit your tech stack. Take inventory of your current tools and ditch what doesn't serve your goals.
Add platforms to save time and reduce manual work. Number two. Create a future ready hiring plan. Focus on flexible scheduling, strong culture, and digital onboarding to attract today's workforce. Number three.
Run trend experiments monthly. Try new ideas on a small scale, whether it's a TikTok ad or menu tweaks, and measure the results. And I mean measure, measure, measure the results. Number four, host community driven events. Reinforce your brand locally by supporting causes or creating small events that align with your values.
And I think this right here is a really great great thing to do. Host community events. In our UPS stores, we used to host Chamber of Commerce events after hours. So after we closed, we would host the chamber, and it it it was an after hours event. And we got lots of people involved in this, and we were able to network with other local businesses during these events.
So check that out in your chamber of commerce. Here's how one smart strategy session turned a struggling franchise around. Brian owned a Your Pizza Pie franchise in Clemson, South Carolina. Sales had flatlined. He had brought his team together and asked, what am I missing?
His teenage cashier said, we need TikTok. Brian blinked then said, show me. Two weeks later, they posted their first video, cheese pulls, customer reactions, and some hilarious pizza making bloopers. The video hit a hundred thousand views in a week. Online orders surged.
Encourage Brian ran a build your pizza night for college students. Live streamed it on Instagram. It wasn't just trendy. It was strategic. He used modern tools to tap into the local vibe, and it worked.
And this is the really cool thing about this story is that I love it that Brian, he lives in a college town, Clemson, South Carolina, Clemson University, big time college town, and he started catering to his customers. He figured out exactly that most of his customers were college kids, and he catered to them. And by doing these things, he really tapped into his core audience, his customer avatar, his ideal customer, which is college kids. College kid eats a lot of pizza. And so I think it was great on how Brian changed his Your Pizza Pie franchise, from not doing so great to really just booming.
Alright. So ready to take your franchise into the future? Here's your four step action plan. The action plan. Number one, block out time monthly to review trends.
Schedule one hour a month to explore tech updates, customer trends, and franchise news. Number two. Train staff on new tools each quarter. Keep it simple. Focus on one upgrade at a time and build your team's confidence.
Number three. Launch a customer feedback loop. Use surveys or social media polls to ask what your customers want more or less of. Number four. Set one futuristic goal every six months.
Whether it's installing new tech, improving sustainability, or launching a new product, Make future thinking a habit. This is kinda hard, folks. Future thinking about the franchise is a pretty difficult thing to do and pretty hard to implement in your own thinking. In order to have futuristic thinking, you really have to, take some time to to study trends and to look at the new technology coming out and and look at different areas to where you might be struggling within your franchise. And so I really, really implore you to take the time and look at what's coming new that your franchise is rolling out and what can you add into your franchise that will help make you a better franchise owner and make your franchise more profitable.
So let's wrap this up with one last story about putting an action plan into motion. Karen managed a total nutrition in Miami, Florida. She felt stuck. Nothing was wrong, but nothing was exciting either. So she made a plan.
First, she blocked out time to research trends and found out that gut health was blowing up. Next, she introduced probiotic series and trained her team on how to pitch it. Now probiotics is a great gut health piece, and the thing is is is that she was really correct in doing this. I love this idea that she did. Then she launched a feedback wall in the store where customers could write what they loved or what they wanted to see.
The ideas flooded in. One customer wrote, host a wellness q and a night. So she did. The turnout was huge. And by the end of six months, sales had jumped 22%, and Karen wasn't just following the future.
She was building it. And I love this story because the thing about it is is is that she went and did some research. She did some studying. She was looking at trends. She was trying to figure these things out, and then she implemented.
I think in our franchises, implementation sometimes is the hardest part. So just do it. That that's the that's the big thing I can say about all of this, is that whenever you are doing anything inside your franchise, you just need to jump in head first and just do all of this. That's kind of the things that we've done in our UPS stores. Whenever we start rolling stuff out, we we roll stuff out in a little different way than most people do.
We normally start rolling out stuff about every two weeks, and these are the these are, like, really small changes. So an example of that is that if I'm introducing a new talk track for, answering the phone. So we roll it out and we give people anywhere from two to four weeks to get it down pat, and then we'll roll out something different too. And it's only small pieces or small things that people can really comprehend and really dig into. And I really think that's highly important in what we're doing nowadays as franchise owners.
We have to see all these things, and we really have to look at where the franchise is going. So it doesn't matter whatever franchise you have, but look at where the franchise is going. So future proofing your franchise may just be to sell your franchise and get out and move to something differently. But no matter what it is, you really need to figure out where this franchise is going, look at the trends, look at the economy, look at your hiring practices, look at how what kind of people you are having to hire now, and figure out what they need, especially with your employees. Because when I am hiring a lot of this Gen z, the this younger group, they don't care anything about insurance.
Most of them are still gonna be on their parents' insurance until they're 25, 20 six years old. And so they they don't want a whole lot of benefits. They just they actually want more pay. And then, when they're off, they they wanna be off. They won't they want more paid time off.
And so the thing is is that instead of me having to provide insurance or other major benefits, for me, I focus on paid time off, how how to give them more paid time off because that is what they've been asking for, and also ways to increase their, their their paycheck. And the one thing that I figured out that in this younger generation is is that if they have control over how much money they make an hour, then they will work harder. And so so we've created a bonus plan around around that. If they meet these certain goals, then at the end of the month, we'll calculate up how many hours they worked and we depending upon what goal they met, we will add, you know, 50¢, a quarter, a dollar, whatever it is, and pay them a bonus based on how many hours they worked. So let's say it's a dollar the bonus is a dollar an hour, and this person worked eighty hours last month, so he's a part time person.
Well, their bonus would be $80 that would be paid out the middle of the next month. And so, you really need to be looking at all of these different trends and and figure out what's really gonna work for your franchise. Franchise life isn't about sticking to the past. It's about shaping what's next. Embrace the change, take action, and trust your gut and your data.
Thanks for tuning in today. If you found this episode valuable, subscribe and share it with another franchise owner. If you like this podcast, then check out my newsletter called Expansion Press. You can get great business content delivered directly to your inbox. Just go to expansionpress.com or click the link in the episode notes.
Have a great day, and I will see you guys on the next one. Thanks a bunch for hanging out with me today. This episode was jam packed with golden nuggets to fuel your business journey. If you found this episode helpful, why not share the love? Pass it along to a friend who's on the same journey as you.
And speaking of sharing, have you checked out my free newsletter yet? It's chock full of valuable tips and tools to boost your business and save you time. Trust me. It's worth checking out. Go to www.xpansionpress.com.
The link is in the podcast folder. Catch you later and have an amazing day.