Franchising in Colombia: reducing dependence on the founder

A business can sell well and still depend too heavily on its founder to be ready for franchising. If only you can handle exceptions, authorise spending or maintain key relationships, growth will multiply requests for your input rather than the business’s capacity. Before bringing new members into your franchise network in Colombia, it is worth checking one specific condition: that day-to-day operations do not depend on your constant involvement.

1. Identify where you are indispensable

Dependence on the founder does not always show up on the organisation chart. It may be hidden in a personal password, an informal negotiation or a decision that nobody dares to make without consulting you. The first step is not to write more documents, but to observe how work actually gets done.

Over a representative period of business activity, record the situations that require your involvement. Include ordinary working days as well as period-end processes, complaints and unexpected events. For each intervention, note:

• What prompted the request for your input.
• Who was initially supposed to handle it.
• What information or authority they lacked.
• What the consequences of waiting for your response would have been.
• Whether someone else could make an informed decision.

Classify the results into strategic decisions, tasks that can be delegated and personal dependencies. Setting the direction of the brand may remain your responsibility; approving every routine refund probably reveals an unnecessary concentration of decision-making.

The useful question is what grinds to a halt when you are unavailable, not how many hours you work.

2. Turn your judgement into clear responsibilities

Delegating does not mean asking the team to “use common sense”. For someone else to be accountable for an outcome, they need to understand their decision-making authority, have access to information and know when to escalate an issue.

Create a simple matrix for the existing business’s critical processes. Each row should identify a decision, the person responsible, the limits of their authority and who covers for them when they are unavailable. Add the circumstances that require approval at a higher level.

For example, a routine complaint can be resolved under an established policy. By contrast, an incident that puts customer safety at risk requires a specific procedure to be activated and the appropriate person to be notified. These should not be treated as equivalent exceptions.

Also check that your tools support this allocation of responsibilities: individual system access, appropriate permissions and records of approvals. Sharing the founder’s account is not delegation, and makes it harder to identify who carried out an action.

This review prepares the franchisor’s internal structure. It does not mean that its employees should manage future franchisees’ staff on a day-to-day basis.

3. Replace personal relationships with business capability

Some businesses appear to offer transferable value until it becomes clear that a commercial term, a major customer or access to technology depends entirely on the owner’s personal relationship.

Review essential resources and ask whether they are available to the business or only to you. Check whose name the contracts are in, who administers the accounts and whether another authorised person can deal with a problem. Do not assume that existing agreements automatically extend to outlets operated by third parties.

In Colombia, a franchise agreement is an “atypical” contract: there is no comprehensive franchise-specific law or general mandatory pre-contractual disclosure regime specifically for franchising. The Commercial Code and the Civil Code apply, among other relevant rules, including duties of good faith and the general rules governing obligations and contracts.

Where these resources include trade marks, Decision 486 of the Andean Community is also relevant. The founder’s ability to use an asset does not, in itself, establish that the company can authorise franchisees to use it. Have ownership, licences and the authority to grant rights reviewed before offering rights to third parties.

4. Set a verifiable condition for moving forward

You do not need to disappear from the business. You need to distinguish your role as a business leader from indispensable involvement in every operation. Assess delegation using evidence from the existing outlet: decisions resolved by the designated person, response times, recurring errors and issues that keep landing back on your desk.

Set internal conditions for moving forward, tailored to your business: every critical process should have a person responsible and someone to cover for them; essential access should be under company control; and common exceptions should be resolvable without improvisation. There is no universal percentage of independence that guarantees readiness to franchise.

If a task constantly comes back to the founder, investigate the cause before blaming the team. They may lack authority, information, capability or a clear rule. Address that gap, then observe how the business operates again.

Practical conclusion: before selling a franchise, identify the decisions that only you can make and reduce those that should not depend on you. A franchise network needs an organised business behind the brand, not just a founder who is always available.