On this blog, I often focus on how franchising will benefit you and your family. I know those benefits are the most compelling reason for most people to choose franchising, so I highlight franchising’s wealth-building potential, the freedom of being your own boss, the opportunity to avoid boredom in retirement, and more. There’s one benefit I don’t mention quite as often, but it’s just as important for some people–in fact, it’s one of the benefits of franchising that I personally love most. It’s the ability to give back through your business.
If you’re an experienced executive, you know that some companies engage in corporate philanthropy or provide opportunities for their employees to give back. You may have even led some of those activities yourself. But I think the give-back options through franchising are much better. Here’s why, and some specific ways you can give back through your franchise.
Why Buying a Franchise Is Better
As a corporate employee, you may work for a company that helps others. Perhaps your employer hosts an annual day of service, does canned-food drives at Thanksgiving, or matches employee contributions to charity. Whatever shape they might take, though, these activities likely have two things in common: they don’t happen often, and employees have little to no say in the nature of opportunities to give back. A small committee of people sets the policies around giving and decides which charities go on the “approved list,” or chooses the beneficiaries and arranges all the details for service projects. It’s very impersonal, with limited opportunity for you, specifically, to make a lasting difference and build meaningful relationships with those in need.
When you own a franchise, however, you’re the boss. If giving back is important to you, you get to decide when, where, and how it happens. You get to choose the recipients and be as generous as you want. You also have far more flexibility to adjust your giving to the needs of your community. Corporations often make philanthropy decisions at headquarters. The projects they choose may have nothing to do with the circumstances in the communities where their offices are located. As a franchise owner, though, you’ll be plugged into the pulse of your community and can tailor your giving to fit the area of greatest need or impact.
Giving Back to Your Employees
Another thing I really love about franchising: giving back starts right in the business. As an owner, you get many opportunities to give back to your employees. Aside from providing jobs, you can offer benefits, professional development, and a level of compensation that improves employees’ lives. You can also engage in mentoring to help your employees grow as individuals. It’s extremely rewarding to help an employee improve not just their job skills but also their confidence, leadership, and hope for the future.
Certain franchises provide even more opportunity to give back by enabling you to mentor a new generation of entrepreneurs. For instance, I own salon suite franchises, which provide a location where individual salon professionals operate their own businesses. Some fitness, health care, and tutoring franchises work the same way. When you own a franchise like this, you get to give back in a radical way. You’re not just creating jobs. You’re creating the opportunity for individuals to become business owners in their own right, with all the freedom, personal development, and wealth-building potential that entails.
In addition, giving back to your employees has a ripple effect. I’ve seen it happen more than once. The stability and choice that come with steady income or entrepreneurship can enable people to change their family’s entire trajectory. They can go from struggling to make rent to buying their own home. Where they previously worked long hours to pay the bills, they can now have more time with their families. Especially for single parents or individuals who grew up in poverty, these opportunities can help them break a negative cycle and set their kids (and future generations) on a better path.
Giving Back to Your Community
As a franchisee, you’re part of the community you serve. Your customers and clients are your neighbors, the people you worship with, or the families whose children go to school with yours. Those relationships create emotional investment in the community and give you better insight into the community’s needs. They also make it easier for you to give back in a meaningful way.
Here are just a few of the many good service ideas I’ve seen in action:
- Give your employees a bank of paid time off to use in volunteering with local organizations, or match their donations to local charities. If resources are tight, put a cap on what you can do and raise it as your business grows.
- Partner with a local charity that serves needy families in the community. At least once per quarter, work with them to meet whatever need is most pressing at that time (e.g., coats, school supplies, or food).
- If you have a commercial cleaning franchise, donate your services to clean the offices of local nonprofits.
- If you have a home renovation or maintenance franchise, donate your services to help local families. For instance, install a wheelchair ramp for a disabled homeowner, help elderly shut-ins with repairs on their properties, or freshen up the soon-to-be home of a military family relocating to your area.
- If you have a restaurant franchise, donate unused, still-fresh food to a local food bank or soup kitchen.
- Partner with an under-resourced school in your area by sending employees to read to classes, hosting a fun event for school families, or stocking teachers’ supply cabinets.
- If you have a tutoring franchise, work with the local school district to identify low-income students who would benefit from free tutoring services. Offer whatever level of free support your business can sustain (e.g., free tutoring in math one night per week).
- Use your franchise owner network to coordinate bigger service projects, like disaster relief or a school-supply drive for a whole district.
- If you have a health care-related franchise, offer regular events where individuals in need can obtain free or low-cost services. Or offer paid volunteer time for certified providers who work at your franchise, so they can help out at local clinics.
Leaving a Legacy
When you own a franchise, you can also increase your ability to leave a legacy for both your family and your community. The wealth you build can be used to create endowments or bequests to charities. And by seeing you give back through your business, your children will learn the importance of being generous and community-minded. You can even involve them in your business’s service activities–an option that’s often not available to corporate employees. Instead of being just another anonymous resident who commutes to work at a faceless corporation, you can be a force for good right where you live.
If this sounds like your kind of opportunity, book some time on my calendar to start the conversation about franchise ownership. It just takes 20 minutes, and it truly can change your life. In fact, as I’ve explained in this very post, it can change not just your life but also the lives of others.
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