Tutor Doctor, like many successful franchise concepts, provides a well-established formula to drive success across the entire system. The franchise-model playbook, covering critical business functions such as operations and marketing, is one of the main factors that sets our industry apart from independent businesses – that is, franchisees don’t have to go it alone.
But the importance of following protocols also extends to living out your company’s core values. Let’s explore why it is essential for franchise leaders to create an environment where everyone conducts business in accordance with your most deeply held beliefs.
Your company’s mission statement serves as your North Star, guiding everything from big-picture strategy to daily customer interactions. It’s why the company exists and why you do what you do. This mission and the foundation of your brand, informs your core values, the fundamental beliefs and philosophies that shape your culture, behaviors, and decision-making processes.
Leaning into your mission and authentically living out your brand’s values fuels long-term success. When the entire system understands and exemplifies these values, everyone has the tools they need to perform their duties and make decisions, big and small, that align with your company’s goals.
At Tutor Doctor, for example, one of our core values is understanding. We believe everyone can learn but understand that everyone learns differently. This comes to life across our entire network, from the tutor who goes above and beyond to uncover the unique way each student learns, to our unparalleled coaching program that ensures new franchise owners have the support they need to overcome initial obstacles.
While every brand must look within to develop their own mission and values, here are some overarching tips that franchise leaders can follow to put their core values into action, based on my nearly 20 years of experience in franchising:
Recruit Intentionally
The success of a business begins with your team – from the corporate level to each franchisee. These individuals must express a passion for the brand and embody this every day. Look beyond business acumen and financial standing to test prospective owners on this in the recruitment process and during discovery days to ensure their level of commitment.
For example, Tutor Doctor’s recruitment process is intentionally slow. We aim to make sure that franchisees not only have the competence to perform the job but also the emotional connection and commitment to live our mission. Our Tutor Doctor family consists of people from various backgrounds from all over the world. With more than 700 locations spanning 16 countries, our franchisees are unique and varied as the students they serve, but they all share two very important things: a head for business and a heart for service.
Being intentional in recruitment is crucial to ensure that your team has the capacity to embody your company’s core values. Through a slow and thorough recruitment process, you can build a franchise system where everyone is aligned with your brand’s purpose.
Encourage Open and Transparent Communication
As a leader, you must stay close to your business. Employees and franchisees need to feel comfortable communicating with you and your team and have trust in you. To build and maintain this trust, keep an open line of communication where you can consistently remind them of the overall mission and provide resources on how they can further implement your values into their day-to-day roles. Document your learnings and feedback from the network along the way, so you can evaluate and optimize what’s connecting and what’s not landing. This archive can also help you build a playbook to handle issues that might arise in the future.
During the difficult days of the pandemic, when our at-home tutoring model was essentially upended overnight, our franchisees did an excellent job of responding to challenges. As a result, Tutor Doctor embraced the mantra “Speed to Change.” We encouraged franchisees to openly share their successes, no matter how little, with leadership so that they could be cascaded across the whole system and be of benefit to all and inspire like-minded actions.
Motivation is Key
Providing ongoing motivation and investing time and resources into your team can fuel or reignite the passion that’s required to live out your core values. One way of achieving this is by reinforcing achievements and recognizing efforts in a public way, such as through awards programs, which not only celebrates the individual who performed the action but also energizes others to reach higher.
Tutor Doctor has created several recognition programs, including our “Tutor of the Year” award, where we celebrate tutors who positively change the trajectory of students’ lives. We also spotlight successful franchisees through our annual “Franchisee of the Year” award, which honors the owner who leads our company to outstanding business success and upholds the Tutor Doctor brand. These programs inspire individuals and create a culture of excellence across the system.
Additionally, leaders can provide ongoing training and development opportunities where employees and franchisees learn new skills and further develop their understanding of the company’s goal and how to fulfill it.
At Tutor Doctor, we’re committed to the long-term success of our franchise owners. Our coaching program spans at least 15 months, if not longer, to ensure franchisees are equipped with the knowledge and tools they need to deliver top-quality tutoring programs in their communities and reach their objectives.
To support new franchise owners, we assign a Business Coach who works closely with them during their first year of operation. The coach’s main role is to help franchisees set short-term goals, market their services within their local communities, recruit qualified tutors, find local students, and provide guidance through the Tutor Doctor journey.
The success of a franchise system hinges on the commitment of all stakeholders to embody and exemplify the core values. As a franchise leader, it is your responsibility to foster a culture where everyone is united in the pursuit of your brand’s purpose. By implementing these strategies, you can empower your team to make informed decisions that align with the company’s goals, resulting in long-term success for the entire system.
Frank Milner, President of Tutor Doctor, the leader in one-to-one private tutoring.