If you’ve decided to become an executive franchise owner, I’m sure you want to do everything you can to be a successful executive franchise owner. After all, no one goes into business hoping they’ll fail. Here’s the challenge: In order to succeed, you’ve got to get out of your own way. And that’s not always an easy thing for experienced executives.
Whether on hit TV shows or in the real world, prosperous companies often struggle with succession. One leader departs, another comes on board, and the business or division struggles. Often, this is because the first leader had trouble letting go, long before they actually exited the stage.
The same thing can happen in franchising. My wife Lauri and I, who work together as co-consultants in our business, have seen executive franchises stall out and even teeter on the brink of failure when the owner has trouble “hovering up.” Here’s how to avoid that pitfall in your own business.
Know Thyself
We sometimes get candidates who try to choose their franchise based on their hobbies. For instance, if they like golfing, they think they’ll be successful with a golf-themed franchise. In reality, you need to choose your franchise based on how you interact with others and your business interests and skills. So start with a very honest self-assessment.
To assess what type of franchise ownership is right for you in the first place, here’s the key question you need to answer: What do you prefer, and what are you good at?
- (A) Business strategy or (B) Running a business day-to-day
- (A) Overseeing big-picture financials or (B) Making individual sales and winning accounts
- (A) Building teams and mentoring employees or (B) Meeting with customers yourself
- (A) Delegating the details or (B) Doing things yourself
There is no right or wrong answer here. But if you want to be an executive franchise owner, you need to be oriented mostly toward (A) options. If you’re more interested in the (B) options, executive franchise ownership might not be right for you. You might be happier–and have a better chance at success–as a franchise owner-operator.
Learn, Then Lead
Any successful entrepreneur needs to understand their own business. I always recommend that new executive franchise owners dig into the franchise business system, read the operational manual, and attend any training provided for them.
But once you’ve learned the business, it’s time to lead. A successful executive franchise owner starts building their team early, starting with an accountant to keep the books and a manager to handle day-to-day operations. You may need to work very closely with these people at first, but your ultimate goal is to lead (not work) yourself out of a job.
Remember, one of the key benefits of executive franchising is earning a full-time income without working full time. You can’t do that if you’re always in the weeds. Hire the right people, and you can go sit on a beach somewhere while the checks come to your mailbox.
Delegate, Don’t Do
The Empowered Franchisee is all about, well, empowerment. And to be a successful executive franchise owner, you can’t just empower yourself. You’ve got empower your team as well. This is the key difference between a franchise owner-operator and an executive franchisee. The executive owner delegates the day-to-day decisions and work to their team instead of doing it all themselves.
Do you ever catch yourself thinking, “It won’t get done right if I don’t do it myself”? That’s not an executive mindset. An executive thinks, “I need to teach my team so they can do it right.” Put another way: focus on doing only the work that only you can do. The rest can be delegated. By delegating, you tap into added resources–your business can expand beyond your personal capacity for work. And remember: if your employees don’t get a chance to make decisions, they won’t learn how to make smart decisions.
Know Where the Knowledge Is
This may be the requirement that trips up executives the most. It requires humility–a quality that doesn’t always come easily to people with big vision. You can easily fall into the trap of thinking that you know the most about your business. After all, you started it, you have the relationship with the franchisor, and you sit at the top of the decision-making pyramid.
In reality, though, once your business is up and running, the knowledge is in the organization, not your head. If you’re playing your role correctly, your team will be the ones working in the business day in and day out. You won’t be on site every day, or even every month (especially if you own multiple franchise locations). Your employees will be the ones with on-the-ground knowledge about the business’s strengths and weaknesses and whether the customers are happy.
This area, more than any other, is where you need to get out of your own way. Talk to employees during site visits. Be open to suggestions and ideas, and invite your team to contribute solutions to issues. By including them in the mental work of running the business, you harness more brainpower. It’s the mental equivalent of delegating day-to-day tasks: your business can grow beyond your personal capacity to ideate and problem-solve.
If you’ve read to the end of this post and are thinking “That sounds like where I want to be!”, I’ve got good news for you: Lauri and I can help you get there. And we can do it at no cost to you. Book some time with one of us today to find out how you can get take the first step toward becoming a successful executive franchise owner.
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