4 Tips for Building a Business Plan for a Successful Health Food Franchise

At the heart of every successful business is a business plan. These important business documents outline much of your future business’ planning and strategy and while they aren’t always easy to understand, with the right guidance, these can be very straightforward documents to outline and put together.

It’s official: healthy food is on the rise in the UK. As we all emerge into the post-Covid era, many of us have taken the decision to eat better as the norm. That means, for ambitious franchisees, there are plenty of opportunities to be had in the healthy food sector. 

But there are so many successful healthy food franchises - so how can you start your own franchise business? How can you choose the right franchise for you and how do you build the right business plan? In this article, we’re going to cover exactly how you can build the perfect business plan for your healthy food business in 4 simple steps. If you’re the next budding franchisee, here’s what you need to know. 

The growing adoption of healthy eating habits is one of the leading factors significantly fueling the growth of the health food market across the globe. For boosted immunity, supported muscles, and strengthened bones, people are adopting healthy food throughout the world
- PR News Wire

How to build a business plan for a successful healthy food franchise

First of all, what is a business plan? These are documents that you’ll start putting together before you even open your doors. You’ll continue amending it based on what your backers and franchisors are looking for and this will continue even after you’ve opened. Essentially, these plans are changeable summaries and forecasts for what your healthy food franchise does, represents and - fingers crossed - will be. They’ll need the following details as standard:

• Executive summaries
• A business description
• Product/service descriptions
• Management summaries
• Market analysis
• Operational details/business premises details
• Sales and marketing plans
• Financial projections and requirements

Each business is different from the last, but through including many of the above details, you’ll be able to highlight the unique selling points of your organisation. So, with this all in mind, here are some key tips for building your business plan.

1. Build the foundations of your business

It might sound obvious, but approaching this exciting new opportunity from a position of strength is vitally important. Long before you get around to talking to specific franchises, you’re going to need to do a comprehensive amount of research into the healthy food market. 

Think about some of the biggest healthy food franchises you know, what you like and dislike about each, what you want to do differently, how you intend to do it and what some of the big trends are in consumer habits. Coming from a broad base means that when you come around to pitching yourself to a potential franchisor, you’ll be in a great position to point out exactly why you want to start your own business. 

2. Know your customers 

A business is nothing without some loyal customers. So, make sure you have a good idea of who your customers will be. Why will they be coming to your business rather than some of your competitors and why are they a growth source for the healthy food industry as a whole? 

This will quickly lead you on to the next point: Marketing. Once you’ve nailed the fundamental details about your target audience and why they’ll be coming to you, you will already have the basics of a marketing strategy laid out for you. Your franchise’s relationship with its customers is the way to build sustainable growth and achieve long-term success, so prioritise your ongoing relationship with your customers and highlight how you’re going to build your business around them. 

Understanding your customers requires you to put yourself in their shoes and take a hard look at the points at which your customers have contact with your business. These include your website, phone calls and emails as well as meetings, visits and deliveries
- Marketing Donut

3. Let’s talk about recruitment

Organisations are only as strong as the employees within them and, with the backing of your franchisor, you will be fully supported when it comes to recruiting, onboarding and ongoing development. Among the many and varied advantages to running a healthy food franchise, you’ll be able to count on dedicated support when it comes to:

• The interviewing and onboarding process
• Initial training
• Ongoing development 
• Career prospects
• Employee satisfaction and well-being 
• Uniforms 

Your employees are the face of your healthy food franchise, so make sure you tackle this issue head on in your business plan. Talk about what kinds of employees you’ll be looking for, what kinds of qualities they’ll ideally have and what kinds of training and support you personally will be looking for when it comes to recruitment. 

4. Consider your sustainability commitments

Ten years ago, your franchise’s sustainability credentials would not have made a big difference to the overall fortunes of your business. Today though, you need to pay close attention to your sustainability, carbon footprint and sourcing solutions. 

The good news is that healthy food is perfectly placed to commit to long-term sustainability. So much healthy food can be sourced locally and seasonally, so why not consider sourcing some foods from local producers? More and more food franchises are looking to minimise wastage, so think about how you can recycle both food and packaging. If your franchise will be delivering healthy food to customers via delivery, can it be delivered by an electric vehicle? 

There are lots of ways to tackle sustainability head on, and while your franchisor will ultimately have the final say in some of these business processes, show your environmental ambition throughout your business plan and be sure to mention how it will draw customers to your health food franchise. 

Health food is booming, so why not get in on the action? 

Health food is set to become a vitally important part of the restaurant and food industries. If you think that after reading the above advice, you’ll be able to put together a watertight business plan, you might just be the ideal healthy food franchisee. If not though - don’t worry. There are still lots of available franchising opportunities open to you on the UK franchise directory.