February 2007 - Over 50 franchisors got the year off to a good start when they attended a research briefing presented by the Franchise Research Institute in Auckland last month.

The meeting, for franchisors only, was hosted by Franchise New Zealand magazine & website, and updated attendees with the latest findings of Greg Nathan and his team on the traits that help predict franchisee success. Among the invaluable findings presented by FRI associate Debb Rowe were:

• 13% of franchisees should never have been selected.
• The bottom-performing third of franchisees take up two-thirds of the franchisor's time and resources.
• Franchisees who cite 'Wanting to work with family' as a reason for buying the franchise are more likely to be bad performers.
• However, having high levels of Family & Social Support is an important predictor of good overall franchisee performance.
• Women perform significantly better than men on franchisor ratings of customer focus and cultural fit but not financial performance.

The findings of this research have been incorporated into the latest version of the Nathan Profiler , a suite of sophisticated franchisee assessment tools available to franchisors.