Business Format Franchise, the Prototype, and the Turn-Key Business

To Michael Gerber, in The E-Myth Revisited; Why Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It. New York: Harper Business, 1995,p. 90, quotes some figures about business success of franchised businesses non-franchised businesses to show the rampant success of the former. "The reason for that success is the Franchise Prototype," he says.

He goes on on p. 92:

To the franchisor, the Prototype becomes the working model of the dream; it is the dream in microcosm. The Prototype becomes the incubator and the nursery for all creative thought, the station where creativity is nurse by pragmatism to grow into an innovation that works.

The Franchise Prototype is also the place were all assumptions are put to the test to see how well they work before becoming operational in the business.

Without it the franchise would be an impossible dream, as chaotic and undisciplined as any business.

The Prototype acts as a buffer between the hypothesis and action. Putting ideas to the test in the real world rather than the world of competing ideas. The only criterion of value becomes the answer to the ultimate question: 'Does it work?'

Once having completed his Prototype, the franchisor then turns to the francisee and says, 'Let me show you how it works.'

And work it does. The system runs the business. The people run the system.

What do you think? I'd like to know. Share your experiences. Post to this blog.

Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. Entrepreneurial ideas are their life's blood. For my ideas on entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for my ideas on writing and publishing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com