While funding requirements and financial performance are important, there are other crucial aspects of franchise ownership that you must consider. In three minutes, I will share priceless insights gained from decades of experience as a franchisee, franchisor, and independent business owner.
TRANSCRIPT:
“Hey there, Phil Harvey. I want to give you a little glimpse into the mind of someone who’s been in and around franchising for 30-plus years as a franchisor, franchisee, and independent business owner, and seen a lot of mistakes, made a lot of mistakes and experienced a fair amount of success and I have some perspective that I think will add value to your consideration of franchise business ownership.
So, thought number one. You have to be comfortable acknowledging and embracing that someone else created the formula, the system, the model, the technology, the marketing strategy, the tools that are successful and proven to be successful. And that’s important because if you’re the type of person who feels like I have to create, I have to be the one whose DNA, who’s thumbprint, who’s the architect of whatever it is I’m making.
Franchising may be challenging for you because you have to use someone else’s model formula systems platform. So second thought, you need to be comfortable, and most importantly, you have to be accepting of coaching. Part of the value proposition of being in a franchise system is that there are people who have already done it and done it before you.
And in fact, there’s probably a role inside the franchise system called coaching. And those people are tasked with looking at your key performance indicators, how you’re using the toolset, what you’re doing day in and day out, hopefully giving you a heads up before you fall into a particular pothole or pitfall and help you to navigate to get yourself back on course.
Lastly, one of the greatest and least valued, and clearly, there isn’t a price tag put on it, and important parts of any franchise system is your peer group. You have to be comfortable working with a peer group of other owners who are aligned because you’re in the same role, owners, and yet at the same time, you’re independent, you’re responsible for your own destiny, and you are individual business owners.
Collaborating, supporting, giving to them, and at the same time, getting from them their insights. Imagine having someone who’s been there before you six months, 18 months, 36 months before you went down that path. Imagine the things they can share with you, the questions you can ask them, the insights you can gain from them, and how much that’s going to save you in hard cash, in heartache, and simply put in helping you to be more successful.
Those are important things to consider when thinking about whether franchising or being a franchise business owner the right place in space for you. I hope you found that helpful. Have a great day.”
