Why Franchising And January Are “A Thing”

For those of you who have been in the franchise industry more than a couple years (like me), you’re used to hearing…

“Things slow down around the holidays, and then really pick up in January”

And while I am still convinced that a lot of what people describing is self-inflicted as opposed to occurring out there naturally, I figured I’d paint the argument this year for why January and franchise sales may truly be a lifelong match.

From The Leads Side…

Winter

When we take a look at the thousands of franchise sales processes that we’re a part of, by far the most commonly cited reason for potential franchisees to not continue the conversation is that it’s not the right time. Let’s face it. There are a lot of distractions in life and leads are always apt to retreat to those as a reason to not take action.

Seasonally, the winter has the fewest distractions by far. The days are short, and people spend a lot of time at home. Frankly, people are often looking for something to do! So why not become an entrepreneur?

The holidays mute the “winter effect” but by January, we see engagement with leads at its highest point.

New Year’s Resolutions

Every time we look at interest in franchising over the course of the year from an online search perspective, you always see the greatest jump from the last week in December to the first week in January:

Opening a franchise is often times seen as a good way to fulfill a new year’s resolution. Want a new job? Want to secure financial security? Want to change your life in any way? Franchising is a great way to get it done.

While it’s unlikely that a lead would cite a New Years’ Resolution as the reason their looking to become an entrepreneur, the data shows that it plays a huge part in what’s going on.

From The Franchise Side…

Budget Resets

Franchises all seem to do budgeting on an annual basis, and the vast majority of them reset on January 1st every year. So the inability to commit to various lead generation sources, techniques, and technologies is alleviated as the year begins.

While it’s not a sudden rush of cash into the market, it certainly is detectable from a vendor’s perspective. Many, many conversations with franchisors are immediately shot down in Q4, as there’s simply not enough money to go around.

Clean Slate On Goals

To go along with doing budgeting on an annualized basis, franchises also set development goals annually as well. “We want to open 50 units this year!” hail zors across the country as the year commences. As we’ve written about before, franchises are not great at actually forecasting the number of units that will be opened in a given year.

Everyone knows that improperly set goals are an absolute zap on motivation. Whether the goals are too low (“why sell any more units if my commissions are capped”) or too high (“we’re not gonna meet our goals anyway, so who cares if I sell another unit”), there’s an issue.

When January rolls around, the goals are reset and motivation returns to a normalized level.

----

So as your franchise prepares for the big January bump, what’s on your mind? If you’re looking for a new source of franchisees ready to open one of your franchises, then see what we’re doing here at FranchiseHelp. We’re ready for January and want you to be too!