Why Scalability Matters in a Franchise Business

Grow Your Franchise as Big as Your Dreams

If you’re thinking about a buying a franchise, you likely equate it with purchasing a small business that has a higher likelihood of success. A local burger joint, clothing store, or frozen yogurt shop with a recognizable brand name and a great system for serving customers efficiently and profitably. These models are ideal for multi-unit ownership because at some point, your ability to continue growing the business will be restricted by how much inventory you can fit on your shelves and how many cooks you can have in your kitchen. Soon after opening your first location, it might make sense to invest in a second, third, and fourth location to continue increasing your income and building equity in your business.

At Expedia Cruises, our franchise model is distinct because a single franchise unit is incredibly scalable. One location can continue to increase its sales and team size indefinitely. We have many Franchise Owners in our system experiencing record sales growth after more than 20 years in business! Hear Expedia Franchise Advisor, Jeff Warkentin, explain how it works and why scalability is an important consideration when investing in a franchise.

An Expedia Cruises franchise is built to scale.

It’s one of the things that prospective franchise buyers get most excited about when they start to learn more about our business opportunity. We set our Franchisees up with a system that’s designed for continuous growth over time. With many other franchise concepts, you have to invest a substantial amount of capital to open additional locations in order to continue growing your business. At Expedia Cruises, there is no limit to how large you can grow your sales team of Vacation Consultants who sell travel on your behalf which means the growth potential of a single franchise location is substantial. If you want to take your business to the next level, you increase the size of your team and continue training, motivating and coaching them to set and exceed their own personal sales goals.

Although it’s important for our Franchisees to understand how to sell travel, that is will not be your main role in the business. Our most successful franchisees spend the majority of their time recruiting, coaching and motivating their commission-based sales team.

A low-risk, commission-based model

All Expedia Cruises Vacation Consultants are hired as Independent Contractors paid by commission only. That means there are no salaries to pay and your overhead costs for the business are very low. So the larger your team is and the more well-trained they are, the more business your franchise will bring in!

When you think about it, this is a very low risk business model because your team is only paid commission for what they sell, and they only receive commission once you are paid by the cruise line at the franchise level at the time the cruise departs. When you’re first starting out and ramping up your sales, avoiding this overhead cost is key because you won’t be generating any cash flow until your customers travel either – and that can be six to twelve (or more) months after the day they book their trip. You don’t spend money on your team until you make money from your team.

This is a particularly important consideration in the event of a downturn in the economy. If employee salaries are a fixed cost and your sales start to dip during a recession, this can put even more financial strain on your business because you need to continue paying salaries to keep your franchise in operation. With a commission-based sales force, you only pay those who sell.

Is the Expedia franchise model for someone looking to get rich quickly? No. Is it a chance to continuously build a valuable and profitable business over the course of many years while earning income and enjoying a fantastic travel lifestyle? Absolutely.

Your growth isn’t restricted by walls

A typical Expedia Cruises travel franchise is around 1000 square feet, but the growth of your business isn’t limited by the size of your store. As Independent Contractors who set their own schedule, your team of Vacation Consultants will sign up for desk space in the Center and may choose to come into the office as little as once a month or as often as four days a week. They can do this because Expedia Cruises provides them the freedom and technology to sell travel from home, or anywhere in the world for that matter. That’s one of the things that’s so appealing about becoming a Vacation Consultant with us! You might be wondering why they would come into the Center at all? Besides getting walk-in leads, there are many other reason – read about them in our blog about why it’s worth investing in a retail travel agency.

With agents selling travel in-store or from home, our Franchisees are able to support a very large team, spreading the word about the products and services your franchise provides all over your community! Some of our locations support more than 100 agents from a single Center.

Through Partner Central’s consolidated online platform for marketing, researching and booking cruises, you’ll also be able to keep tabs on your team and the progress they’re making toward their sales goals. At any given point in time, you’ll be able to see how many leads each team member is working, how many have converted to sales and how many have yet to be followed up on. You can also distribute leads to your team as they come in through your local website, and keep an eye on commission payments coming in as your customers set sail. Since Partner Central is web-based, you can also keep an eye on your team and your business from anywhere in the world!

We provide the tools that support scalability.

When you think about managing a team of 50 Consultants working all over the map, it might sound intimidating. And while any leadership role comes with its rewards and challenges, Expedia Cruises provides you with the training and tools to become an efficient and excellent team leader.

During our more than 30 years in business, we’ve learned what it takes to recruit, train and lead a team of Vacation Consultants to success. We know what kind of people to look for, we know what holds them back and we know what motivates them to sell.

When you invest in an Expedia Cruises franchise, we provide you with your own local recruitment website that will help you attract the right sales people and help them learn about our Consultant opportunity. Once they join, our online Learning Center and extensive Navigators Approach sales training will help them to learn about the products and how to not just sell them, but deliver a spectacular vacation experience for each and every customer.

Keeping your large team engaged with the brand and their goals will be essential to your success too, which is why we also provide a kit of tools to help you coach and mentor your Consultants on an ongoing basis. Our Navigators Club recognition program is a huge part of what motivates our agents to take their sales to the next level, while our team meeting presentations are carefully crafted by the corporate support team to help you deliver an engaging, exciting and informative presentation to your Consultants each month.

These tools work for teams of all sizes and will be effective with a team of ten or 50.

Why does franchise scalability matter?

Scalability is key to any company. Imagine you open a business and someone tells you that there is a limit to how much you can sell. Would you buy it knowing there would only be so much value in that business and a limit to the ROI it would generate?

The Expedia Cruisess mission statement is to empower our franchisees with a proven system to grow a profitable and valuable business. Everything we do or create for our Franchisees is in support of that mission. We’re constantly thinking up new and better ways to support the growth and scalability of your local business. Your success is our success.

A franchise business with unlimited scalability is very unique. Pair that potential with the most recognized travel brand in the world, a supportive franchisee culture and an incredibly fun industry and you’ve got a winning combination that will help you reach both your financial and lifestyle goals. What does a scalable franchise business give you in the end? A larger asset in the future, and a greater income today.

What your vision for your business? If you’ve got big dreams, Expedia Cruises could be the right fit to help you accomplish them. For in-depth details about the Expedia Cruises franchise opportunity, including startup costs and financial performance, visit our research pages and download our free franchise report.