BECOME THE EXCLUSIVE FRANCHISEE OF CODERS LAB

Maybe it’s good to start by reminding how franchisors usually begin their international expansion. If someone has successfully created a chain in one country by signing contracts with dozens of franchisees, why shouldn't he now repeat this success by signing similar contracts with entrepreneurs abroad? Well, it is not that simple. One reason is that, for instance, other countries may have completely different legal standards for franchising. Or because the franchise concept will require many adjustments (different customer preferences, different commercial habits, etc.). Therefore, when developing their franchise brand, most franchising companies decide to find an "agent" who will lead the charge on a new market.

This is where master franchising (also called subfranchising) steps in. Based on such an agreement, the franchisor grants the franchisee (in this case called a master franchisee) exclusivity to use his franchise package to run the business on a given territory. However, such a master franchisee is not only responsible for setting up and running his outlets. He also takes over many of the franchisor's duties, as he has the right to resell the license on the target market. He can recommend changes in the franchise agreement and the franchise package. However, the franchisor retains full control over the system thanks to the right to finally approve changes proposed by the master franchisee. Subfranchising is mainly used to create franchise systems in countries where the conditions of conducting business activity differ significantly from those in the country out of which the franchisor is based.

Some franchisors decide to cooperate with an area developer. It is a person (or company) whose role is to search for new franchisees on a given territory and provide certain services to them later on. He does not have the right to sign franchise agreements - they are concluded directly between the franchisor and the franchisees. All the license fees are paid directly to the franchisor. The responsibilities of the regional representative include local advertising, training, and supervision of the franchisees.

Perhaps due to the great popularity of both of these development methods, the consulting companies find it difficult to understand that Coders Lab does not use any of them in its foreign expansion. So how do we develop a franchise network abroad?

The answer is simple. We use an exclusive franchise. As in the case of the master license, we also try to find a strong partner that will launch the first school in the target market. However, he does not obtain the right to sub-license but undertakes to expand his chain of IT schools country-wide. Why so? The reason is that would like our partners to focus on the core business, which is running the IT school. Our partners are existing companies who already run some businesses and adding coding courses to their portfolio is already a challenge that requires much focus.

However, there is also another reason. Master franchisee needs to be taught not only how to run a business, but also how to sell a franchise license. While we do very well with the former, the latter - selling individual franchise licenses – is simply not something we do on our domestic market. All our offices in Poland are company-owned! It wouldn't be very honest on our part if we threw our partner in at the deep end of selling licenses, not having any know-how in this respect. Yes, we know how to expand through franchising but just abroad and only using the exclusive franchise. And yes, we know how to do our business, in which we have been around since 2013. We train our franchisees best we can.

Coders Lab's franchisees get the exclusive right to run programming schools in the agreed territory. They have our full support and a guarantee that he will remain the exclusive school network operators in his country (or another administrative territory, in case of larger countries). That is why, at Coders Lab, we are looking for cooperation with strong entrepreneurs, ready to expand their business country-wide.