Supporting our franchise network through COVID

Guest blog by Rob Sherr, co-director of Musical Minis

At the beginning of February 2020 I established an incident response team to tackle my growing fears for the coronavirus. This was not however for Musical Minis but for my “full time employer” where I am Chief Operating Officer. At the time, the options for Musical Minis seemed a lot more limited and we focused entirely on ensuring that anyone who attended a class could do so safely, based upon what we knew then. Once this seemed impossible, we shut classes down.

At Musical Minis we were not alone, it seems that franchisors of children activity groups were all in the same boat. We joined a number of communication groups and we were able to discuss possibilities. Many franchisors were looking for ways to avoid providing refunds (something we found morally wrong), others recognised immediately the benefits for going online. What we didn’t agree with was when franchisors put their interests before that of their franchisees and their members.

Musical Minis has been in business for over 30 years. We have sought to remain a small business that can genuinely support every franchisee to the extent that the franchisee wants. So we didn’t insist that fees paid should be refunded, but did insist that everyone who had paid in advance did not lose out, including offering free online classes as a substitute. We also deferred payment of that term’s royalty and extended the period of the franchise agreement by 3 months (subsequently 6 months) so that the franchisee was not disadvantaged contractually because of the lockdown. Furthermore, we absorbed the entire cost of moving Musical Minis online whilst giving the franchisee all the income less direct costs (i.e. PayPal fees) and the royalty.

Once we were ready to come out of lockdown, in partnership with our franchisees, we undertook a significant amount of research and put in place additional policies and assessments to meet the new COVID world. We have been able to share these with hall hirers and the local Public Health England, all of whom have complimented us on the thoroughness of our preparation, which in turn has made it easier for our franchisees to recommence classes.

Whilst it has been financially difficult, we are proud of the way we have supported our franchisees through this difficult time. COVID 19 was nowhere in sight when they chose to invest in the Musical Minis business and to our mind, as a responsible franchisor, it is for us to weather the storm for them. Having done so (although a further national lockdown is threatened) the strength with which the franchisees’ business has bounced back has surprised and delighted us all.

2020 has underpinned for us why franchising is such an excellent model. Running your own business is tough and lonely. Franchising takes the edge off of this and a good franchisor will encourage co-operation and collaboration amongst its network to add strength and to absorb risk when the unexpected happens. Musical Minis, both Head Office and the franchise network, has shown itself to be both resilient and supportive during this difficult time and in a strange way we see this as being a standout moment in our long history.

If you would like to find out more about a Musical Minis Franchise, click here.