Community Franchising Insights - Success Factors

In January-March 2011, the Cinnamon Network conducted research into Community Franchising. Several thousand Churches in the UK were contacted as well as franchisors/ees of 9 ‘ministries’. We had responses from 190 churches/ministries. Results are as follows:

What internal factors make a Full Franchise* successful?

We asked Franchisors and Franchisees what internal factors (within the church or town churches) in their experience have made a franchise 'successful'. We asked them to pick 5 factors from 15 in priority order. The key 7 factors are follows:

Internal factors that make a franchise successful

Franchisors’ Perspective (weight)

1. Church leadership support (13)
2. Relevant skill background e.g. legal, financial, hospitality, etc of your people who are involved (13)
3. Management ability of your people who are involved (11)
4. Ability to use methods and materials by your people who are involved (11)
5. Ability to gather volunteers (9)
6. Good relationships with Local Council, etc (7)
7. Oversight of the Franchisor (6)

Franchisees’ Perspective (weight)

1. Church leadership support (267)
2. Pastoral gifting of your people who are involved (148)
3. Management ability of your people who are involved (141)
4. Ability to gather volunteers (128)
5. Oversight of the Franchisor (94)
6. Co-venture with several churches in an area (81)
7. Able to afford costs without outside funding (76)

From this we can see from a Franchisee’s perspective that Church Leader support is an overwhelming factor. The weight given is nearly double that of factors following.

Then comes pastoral and management gifting and the ability to gather volunteers.

Then comes oversight from the Franchisor.

Putting these together, the key things are permission and empowerment, leadership of the Franchise and support. Then can come all the other factors; partnership, finances, operating detail, networking, etc.

From a Franchisor point of view, there is a similar list but more emphasis on relevant skills and ability to use the processes and materials.

What factors of the Franchisor make a Full Franchise successful?

We asked Franchisees what external factors (within the Franchisor and their network) in their experience have made their franchise 'successful' We asked them to pick 4 factors from 9 in priority order. The top 6 factors are follows:

External aspects of the Franchisor that make a franchise successful

Franchisees’ Perspective (weight)

1. The training offered by Franchisor (191)
2. The support services offered by Franchisor (179)
3. Knowledge of Franchisor's people (144)
4. The materials offered by Franchisor (101)
5. Contacts of Franchisor's people (68)
6. The methods/computer tools offered by Franchisor  (64)

From this we can see from a Franchisee’s perspective that training, support, knowledge and materials are key with much higher scores than other aspects.

*The Full Franchises reported on were; Christians Against Poverty, Street Pastors, Black Boys Can, Care Confidential, The Lighthouse Group, Romance Academy and Trussell Trust Foodbanks.

What factors make giving a Course** successful?

We asked churches what factors in their experience have made a course 'successful'. We asked them to pick 4 factors from 10 in priority order. The key 6 factors are follows:

Factors that make a course successful

Churches’ Perspective (weight)

1. Quality of the Materials (150)
2. Experience of Marriage/Parenting (96)
3. Pastoral gifting of your people who are involved (90)
4. Ability to use materials by your people who are involved (64)
5. Church Leader support (45)
6. Able to attract enough attendees (39)

From this we can see that many of the factors of a Full Franchise are downgraded as the investment needed; time, money and commitment is much less. Quality of the materials becomes the dominant factor. Prospective Course Providers should note this.

**The Course Franchises reported on were; HTB's The Marriage Course and Care for the Family Parenting Course.