Before the Franchise Business Plan Comes the Vision Plan [With Free Template!]

Every great franchise company has one thing in common – a crystal clear vision that everyone in the entire organization shares. However, as a franchisee, you should also have your own vision. It's easy to “hitch your wagon” to the brand’s vision, but you may end up frustrated and disengaged a few years down the road.

When you look at the top performing franchisees within any system, it is not a shared vision, prior work experience, specialized skills, or personality that sets them apart – but a clear, personalized vision for their own business and where they want their business to take them.

Personal goals drive and motivate each of us to do what we do every day.

Download the Free Vision Plan Template

Linking personal goals directly to business goals, and then creating a clear vision for how to attain those goals requires careful thought, but when done correctly, the results can be powerful.

Below we’ll discuss how you can create a vision plan for your business and offer a free and actionable, step-by-step vision plan template that you can use to get started.

What is a Franchisee Vision Plan?

A franchisee vision plan is a tool to help you, as a franchise owner, achieve both your personal and business goals. It’s a clear, personalized blueprint for what you hope to achieve, and where you want your business to take you.

Different from a business plan, which focuses on the specifics of getting a business from point A to point B, a vision plan is a higher-level description of what the business will look like, feel like, and act like in the future.

Business plans focus on the day-to-day, whereas a vision plan provides the big picture details of what the business owner hopes to achieve. While both plans are important, having a longer-term vision plan in place will guide the shorter-term business plan and help ensure both plans are successful.

A good vision plan will incorporate both business and personal goals, and include several pages of written narrative, as well as detailed financial projections. You’ll want to consider the following:

Lifestyle
Culture
Core values
Size of the business
Number of employees
Work performed
Hours worked
Community involvement
Personal goals (short-term and long-term)
Your desired day-to-day role running the franchise in the future

Business projections should include:

Capital requirements
Gross sales
Net income
Debt service
Cash flow

On the personal side, outline projections for:

Income
Discretionary owner benefits (e.g., retirement savings, insurance, car, club memberships, etc.)
Personal debt repayment
Savings and other asset appreciation
Accumulated equity (estimated business value)

A well-written vision plan will create a vivid picture of the business you hope to build, and it will define exactly what “success” looks like for you. While franchisors can provide their franchisees (and candidates) with templates and outlines to make authoring a vision plan easier, it is critical that the plan be prepared only by you, the franchisee, specific to your personal vision and goals.

Get the Franchise Vision Plan

Benefits of Franchisee Vision Plans

Creating and maintaining a vision plan offers many benefits for you individually as well as the franchisee community as a whole.

Franchisees benefit in the following ways:

A greater probability of achieving success by putting your vision down on paper
Constructive outside feedback from individuals that see/hear the plan
Sharing the vision creates more accountability to the plan
Improved self-confidence in achieving defined goals
Easier access to 3rd party capital
Greater overall performance, profitability, and return on investment
Higher levels of engagement, satisfaction, and enjoyment of the business

The franchisee community benefits in the following ways:

Better overall franchise relations
Greater transparency and sharing of best practices
Greater brand competitiveness in the marketplace
Higher long-term business resale valuations

See This Year's Best Franchise Based 100% on Franchisee Satisfaction

How to Create Your Franchise Vision Plan

Ready to get started? Linking your personal goals directly to business goals, and then creating a clear vision for how to attain those goals requires careful thought and consideration; however, the time invested will help ensure you have set realistic expectations and defined a clear path to success.

Your franchisee vision plan should inspire you and define your guideposts for your business. To help you create your vision plan, we created the Vision Plan Template, which you can download for free here.

To begin you’ll want to think about what’s important to you and where you want to be in the next 5 to 10 years. From there, you can start to create your plan using the template provided.

If you have already decided on a franchise brand, your franchisor can be a valuable resource as you begin to fill out your vision plan. Set aside some time to review your current financials and goals, discuss how to bridge the gap between these and your future goals, and understand what they think you need to monitor and review on a regular basis.

And remember, this plan should be a living document. Revisit it regularly to evaluate your progress and reassess your priorities.