Creating an initial training programme for your first franchisee

Your first franchisee needs more than a tour and a handbook. What comes naturally to you must be something another business owner can learn and carry out independently. A focused initial training programme shows whether they can do this before the outlet opens. It also helps you build a franchise network whose members share the same core skills, without everyone having to copy your personal way of working.

1. Turn your daily work into learning objectives

Start by observing, not by creating presentations. During a normal working week, note the decisions you and your experienced staff make. Pay particular attention to situations where a wrong choice could affect customers, safety, margins or your reputation.

Next, decide what the franchisee must be able to do independently before opening. Distinguish between three types of knowledge:

• Operations: processing an order, delivering a service or closing up the outlet.
• Management: instructing staff, allocating work and spotting departures from expected standards.
• Running a business: monitoring staffing costs, planning for payment commitments and assessing results.

Frame learning objectives as observable behaviour. ‘Knows the till system’ is difficult to assess. ‘Independently processes a sale, a return and the end-of-day close’ gives you something concrete to work with. For a service-based franchise, the objective might be to assess a customer enquiry, prepare a suitable quotation and hand over the job correctly.

Also decide what does not belong in the programme. The franchisee remains an independent business owner. Training in your franchise system is no substitute for an accountant, legal adviser or legally required professional qualification. Specify the prior knowledge and any qualifications needed, so that gaps do not emerge just before opening.

2. Prioritise practice over observation

Use your existing business as a learning environment, but do not make training dependent on quiet moments that happen to arise. Set aside time, appoint a trainer and arrange cover for when that person is busy with customers.

A useful structure has four stages:

1. Preparation: the participant reads a defined section of the handbook and answers a few practical questions.
2. Demonstration: the trainer carries out a task and explains why particular decisions are necessary.
3. Practice: the participant carries out the task, first with guidance and then independently.
4. Review: together, they discuss the outcome, any mistakes and a specific follow-up exercise.

Do not practise only for the ideal working day. Include a complaint, a missing delivery, a staff member calling in sick or an equipment failure. Show when the franchisee should make their own decision and when they need to contact the franchisor.

Test the programme first with someone who does not know your business inside out. Identify where explanations are missing and how much guidance is actually needed. Keep a simple training log recording tasks practised, feedback and outstanding learning objectives. This allows you to improve the programme through experience, rather than relying solely on your own judgement.

3. Agree participation, costs and reassessments in advance

The Netherlands has specific franchise legislation: the Dutch Franchise Act added provisions to Book 7 of the Dutch Civil Code with effect from 1 January 2021. Among other duties, franchisors must provide the assistance and commercial and technical support reasonably needed to operate the franchise business. Initial training can contribute to this, but it does not replace support throughout the franchise relationship.

The law does not prescribe a fixed number of training days or a standard examination. You therefore need to specify what your franchise system requires. Before the agreement is signed, set out at least:

• who will attend the training: just the franchisee or an outlet manager as well;
• which elements are compulsory and where they will take place;
• what guidance and materials are included;
• who pays for travel, accommodation, staffing and any reassessments;
• how withdrawals, missed sessions and additional guidance will be handled.

Include financial obligations in the pre-contractual information. Allow for the statutory standstill period of at least four weeks after the required information has been provided. During this period, you generally cannot require payments or investments connected with the proposed franchise agreement. Do not schedule compulsory paid training as though the franchise relationship were already confirmed.

Ensure that the training arrangements are legally consistent with the franchise agreement. In particular, the consequences of failing to meet training standards should not appear only in a training schedule supplied later.

4. Make opening conditional on demonstrated skills

Prepare an assessment checklist with specific criteria in advance. Assess the same task in the same way for every participant. Do not simply record a ‘pass’: note what the person carried out independently and where they still needed help.

Distinguish between essential skills and areas for development. Unsafe behaviour calls for a different response from a sales conversation that is still a little awkward. Agree who will assess participants, how feedback will be recorded and when a second assessment will be available.

Also set out what happens if the planned opening date proves unachievable. Options might include extra practice days, temporary support or postponement, with clear arrangements for sharing the costs. Avoid giving yourself an unrestricted right to prevent opening based on a personal impression.

Practical takeaway: start by developing one critical task in full: its learning objective, practice exercise, assessment and reassessment. Use this as a model for the rest of your initial training programme. This turns your experience into a transferable foundation for your franchise network.