When I was 45, franchising was on my radar. After all, I grew up in a family with three generations of entrepreneurs. But I’ve always liked to do things my own way, so when I decided to pursue a corporate career, I kind of enjoyed being the odd one out. I spent 20 years as a marketing executive for a Fortune 50 company, thinking they’d take care of me and help me build the wealth I wanted for my family.
By the time I turned 45, however, I realized those expectations were an illusion.
Why I hesitated
Don’t get me wrong: the corporate world gave me some incredible opportunities. I worked on amazing campaigns with incredible people, and the skills I learned are what helped me be so successful as a franchise owner. But the grueling schedule, layoff culture, and (eventually) ageism finally got to me.
My problem? I thought 45 was too late to start over. I assumed there was a finite window of time for making a radical career change, and I thought I’d missed it. In my view, I had too many responsibilities and too much too lose. I had a wife, two children on track for college, and two homes. Sitting at the SVP level, I had the paycheck and 401(k) balance to match.
I came around, of course. Within a few years, several eye-opening conversations and some careful calculations had convinced me I couldn’t afford not to become my own boss. But my big regret is that I didn’t make the leap when I first considered it. I could have had five more years of financial and professional freedom, more time with my family, and more fulfillment in my work.
If I could go back and do it all again, these are the things I wish I’d known about franchising at age 45.
Security is an illusion.
Companies lay off or push out senior managers and executives all the time. Sometimes it’s ageism, sometimes it’s simply that salaries for more-experienced workers are too expensive for the bottom line. Other times, the board or a new CEO wants to go in a different direction, and they want to bring in their own people to make it happen.
Particularly in today’s economy, companies and industries are reorganizing and remaking themselves all the time. So don’t count on the same kind of job security your parents or grandparents had. It’s been gone a long time. You’re just one Zoom call away from a locked laptop and a severance package.
You’re not too old.
If you’re in your 40s or 50s, you’re actually exactly the right age. That’s because you have something a 30-year-old doesn’t have: two (or three) decades of pattern recognition and skill-building. You’ve made mistakes and learned from them, and you’ve seen others make mistakes and learned from those, too. You’re at the peak of your knowledge and have well-honed instincts for how to manage unexpected situations. But you’ve still got plenty of time to grow your business to profitability and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
The skills you built for your employer work even better for you.
If you’ve had anything like a regular executive career, you’ve learned all kinds of skills that are useful for managing a franchise. You can probably interpret and manage a profit-and-loss statement, lead large teams and guide middle managers, handle a crisis with a cool head, find solutions and pivot rapidly to what works. And here’s the thing: when you use those skills to grow your own business, instead of a corporation, you’ll finally keep what you create. People talk about company equity all the time. Well, you can’t beat the 100% equity of a business owner.
Fear doesn’t go away – you just learn to use it.
When I worked in the corporate world, all my fears revolved around things I couldn’t control. Would the next reorg eliminate my position? Why hadn’t the CEO announced the year’s bonuses yet? Would the CMO promote me, or want to bring in someone from his last company to nab the corner office? That kind of fear doesn’t motivate, it paralyzes, because you can’t do anything to fix the situation.
As a franchisee, on the other hand, you’re in full control of your business. So even if things don’t happen as expected, or you hit a rough patch, you can make the decision about what to do. You are not waiting for anyone to approve your work or increase your income. If you know it’s a good idea, you can make it happen. Fear becomes a signal that it’s time to seek and implement a solution, not the reason you’re tossing and turning over circumstances you can’t change.
Never trying is worse than failing.
Like I mentioned earlier, my only regret is that I spent 5 years agonizing over a decision I could have made in a month. If you fail, you gain the opportunity to learn and try again. If you never try, you’ll spend the final years of your career wondering if it could have been better.
Now that I’m more than 10 years into my franchise journey, I’ve realized that campaigns I ran and deals I closed for my employers aren’t what mean the most to me. I’m proud of them, sure. But what I’m really proud of is betting on myself when it mattered. Proud of choosing my family and my health over what was familiar. Proud that I’ve built a business that is connected to my community and has created opportunity for hundreds of others.
When you get to my age, you can have the same satisfaction. No one told me this at 45, so I’m telling you now: you’re not too late, and you’re not too old. The window isn’t closing – in fact, it’s wide open. Book a call with me today and learn how I can help you step through. Your best future is waiting on the other side.
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