Sticker Shock: It cost how much?!?

The last thing you want your franchisees experiencing when going through their buildout is sticker shock. The buildout process can be long and complicated.

Emotions are high.

Tension is thick.

As a franchisor, you want to support your franchisees however you can. Managing expectations is one of those ways. It can be hard to set realistic expectations for your franchisees, though. You first have to understand where their expectations are starting from and how to realign them.

But what if your expectations are unrealistic too? Without hands-on construction experience, it can be challenging to land on realistic numbers.

We've seen it before. The client's FDD said the cost would be one thing, but they actually came out much higher on average. Many FDD cost estimates were put together years ago and never updated for inflation. Material and labor prices keep climbing, but the number in the FDD stays put, and that's the number your franchisees plan their financing around.

Not only does this add frustration, it can start to break down the trust between a franchisee and a franchisor. It can start to feel like they've been tricked.

Once that happens, they stop feeling like part of a bigger team. They start pulling away and trying to manage more on their own, and they miss out on the support you built your system to give them. That trust is crucial to their success and to yours.

Skip the sticker shock. Set realistic expectations before the bills come in.

A preferred buildout partnership with Realm helps on both sides. We manage buildouts across the country, so we see what projects actually cost today, and we can share that with your team so the numbers you give franchisees hold up.

On the franchisee side, we run the bidding process, compare contractor bids, and catch cost problems during design before construction starts. Your franchisees save money along the way, and their trust in you grows more.