Divorce Blog

When Karen Stewart, Founder and CEO, started Fairway Divorce Solutions, she initially thought franchise partners would include financial planners and lawyers. Why? Because it was her background of owning and running a Financial advisory firm that gave her a leg up on her main competition at the time: lawyers.

But since then, and although financial planners and lawyers bring a great set of tools and experience to running an FWD franchise, she has been surprised that FWD franchise partners have come, and succeeded, in all shapes and sizes, including teachers, entrepreneurs and even pastors.

But whatever background a Fairway Divorce Franchise Partner brings to the table, it is clear that over her 10-year history of franchising, four distinct traits that make an FWD Franchise partner successful.

FWD Franchisees Need Good financial acumen

Being assertive with numbers was one of the driving reasons why Karen started Fairway Divorce Solutions. “Lawyers typically aren’t good with numbers. And when I started this business, I used this strength to my advantage. And since then, our strength in this area of divorce has become a pillar of our Negotiation system.”

Think about it like this: while couples that have children can and certainly have gone to war over their kids, it is money that is often the most common reason for dispute during the divorce process.

A good divorce mediator needs to understand how to best manage and distribute the assets in a divorce. After all, those assets are oftentimes the largest contributing factor to those long legal wars that divorces have become known for.

Having a good financial acumen can help you see through the talk and understand the issues at hand. From this comes a better idea of what each side needs and what they may be entitled to. And, most importantly, how to best come to a resolution.

Emotional intelligence and empathy

Having a mediation background is an excellent experience to bring to the Fairway Divorce table. But not all mediators make great FWD Franchise Partners. Why? Whether they have a background in mediation or not, a great mediator has a high level of what we call emotional intelligence and empathy.

“We are dealing with high emotions…stuff has been built up over years and years…and now we have to divide the state and figure out how to maintain the relationships for both parents with the kids.”

This is a highly emotionally charged process for a couple to go through. Having a high EQ and empathy gives our Franchise Partners the clairvoyance to see through those crocodile tears. It also gives them the perspective to appreciate potential struggles. Simply put, they listen and understand both sides’ plight and work hard to create the optimal compromise for both.

FWD Franchisees are Great relationship builders

Having the asset of being a great relationship builder is obvious when mediating between two couples who no longer want to be married to each other and now have to divide their lifelong assets and future time with their kids.

But there is another reason why this is such an important trait ingrowing an FWD franchise: It will help you build and scale the business faster. “There are three ways to gets clients in this business,” says Stewart.

One way is to rely on our marketing and led generation systems. You may be able to build a business this way, and let the systems do their work for you. Leads are generated through both paid advertising and organic search optimization. In addition, spending time building relationships in your community, who, over time, will refer clients to you, is key to success. The last and probably the most important is to deliver excellent service so that your clients refer you.

Regardless of how much you spend on advertising or on how many leads you get, building strong relationships will drive results. You need to be a great relationship builder. But the best way, and the way that our most successful franchise partners follow, is to do all three. They spend money on our lead generation systems, and they get in front of their community, build their referral relationships, and do an excellent job for their clients. This is how to build the most successful Fairway Divorce franchise.

FWD Franchise Owners are Tenacious

To be as successful as you can be in building an FWD franchise, you need to be a go-getter.

Some of our partners, after having put the hard work in the early years of building their FWD franchise, now choose to work PT in their business; or work from their cabin and go into the office one day per week. Most become business owners; to dictate the lifestyle that we want.

But to get to the point where you can choose how hard you want to work or not, you have to be tenacious. The Franchise Partners who are tenacious will drive their business; they will keep pushing. They will support marketing and building relationships until they reach that point of success. Our more tenacious Franchise Partners reach that point a lot faster.

Karen Stewart: “The great thing about Fairway is that you can build a great business, make a difference to so many people and either work in the business or on the business. We successful partners in both categories. The best summary of our people and their approach is “disciplined thought, disciplined people, and disciplined actions.”

Ready to open an FWD franchise in your community?

For in-depth details about the FWD franchise opportunity, visit the FWD franchise research site or give us a call at 1-866-755-3247.

About FWD

FWD revolutionized the divorce business when it entered the industry with its new, industry-changing INR process in 2011. Today, the company is on its way to building the only National divorce brand in Canada. With 9 locations nationwide and thousands of divorces settled, FWD is the leader in the divorce industry in Canada.

It is our core values that really define us. Extraordinary client experience, unmatched accountability, and experienced experts, FWD has become the name in Canadian divorce.