I became a franchise owner 12 years ago. And 5 years after that, I became a franchise consultant. I’ve built out a highly successful franchise business with 6 locations, and I’ve worked as a consultant with more than 100 candidates and counting. Through that experience, I’ve learned a lot of lessons. Here’s one of the biggest ones: your resume is not the most important factor in determining your franchise success. When I have my first meeting with a franchise candidate, I don’t start by asking about their professional background. I ask the one question that predicts franchise success: “What will you do when it stops being fun?”
When Franchising Isn’t Fun
If you’ve been reading my blog or following me on LinkedIn for any length of time, you know that I love my work. And yes, I’d say it’s been fun in many ways.
When I was building out my salon suite business, for instance, I got to meet hundreds of independent salon professionals whose stories were incredibly inspiring. Single moms who were finally able to provide financial security for their kids. Young, up-and-coming manicurists and aestheticians who decided to bet on themselves. Hairstylists who were saving for their future for the first time.
They were all funny, optimistic, and creative. Being around them gave me energy and put a smile on my face.
But there were also times when the work was stressful and not very fun. The same will be true for any franchise.
You’ll have a month where you don’t make your revenue target, or where occupancy falls below the ideal level. The market might shift temporarily away from your core product or service, or if your business is seasonal, you might find it challenging to even out the hills and valleys at first. You might lose a core employee, or discover that you’ve made a bad hire.
The Answer I’m Looking For
But all these challenges are temporary, and I’ve found that my one question predicts franchise success when the chips are down.
When I ask, “What will you do when it stops being fun?,” the answer I’m looking for might surprise you. I’m not looking for a candidate to say, “I’ll keep my chin up,” “I’ll push through,” or “I’m a grinder, I’ll make it work.” Those are vague responses that reveal nothing about a candidate’s actual ability to overcome challenges. They don’t point to any specific skills that help a business survive.
The answer that predicts success looks more like this: “I’ll look at the numbers, I’ll figure out what’s broken, and I’ll fix it.”
The reason I’m looking for that answer? It shows a specific kind of mindset that’s crucial to entrepreneurial success. Thanks to the depiction of lone-wolf entrepreneurs in our culture, a lot of people think they need bravado to be a successful business owner. They think they need to muscle through things, trample over the competition. But when you own a business and want it to succeed, what really matters is problem-solving.
Who Succeeds and Who Fails
Successful franchisees – the ones who are thriving five years later – are curious. They have a bias toward asking questions and diagnosing problems. When things go wrong, they’re willing to dig through the data and do some deep thinking to ferret out the root cause. Then they’re willing to make changes to fix it, even if that means admitting they did things wrong the first time. They also have a teachable mindset: they accept setbacks as a normal part of life and view them as learning opportunities. Problems are puzzles, not personal failures.
Ultimately, the franchise owners who succeed don’t necessarily love every single day of their work. They just don’t let a bad month become a bad year.
On the flip side, the ones who fail are often those who are dependent on corporate infrastructure catching problems for them. They have the mindset of an employee, not an entrepreneur. And when something breaks, instead of asking, “What’s causing this, and what can I learn from it?,” they blame others or expect someone else to step in. Or they just freeze. Unfortunately for them, ownership doesn’t work that way.
Other Factors That Matter
When I first meet with franchise candidates, they don’t expect me to ask my one question right out of the gate. Instead, they expect me to ask about their resume, their balance sheet, or their leadership skills. I do ask about those things eventually, along with other factors that can help bolster a candidate’s success.
These are the other key factors I ask about, and why they matter:
- Finances. Although some options are more affordable than others, every franchise is a significant investment. I want to know that you have a good amount of capital on hand and have a solid plan for managing your money (both personal and professional) as you launch your business.
- Leadership experience. Whether you want to be an owner-operator or an executive franchisee, you’ll need to lead a team. And whether you gained your leadership experience in the corporate world, the nonprofit world, or the military, the important thing is to understand your leadership style and find a franchise to fit.
- Business skills. Franchisees should be financially savvy, familiar with core concepts of branding and sales, have a strategic perspective, and be good at executing on a plan (or hiring people who can do that for you). With the diversity of the franchise industry, we can find a business that fits your particular strengths in these areas.
- Collaboration. As you probably know, there’s one key difference between franchising and traditional entrepreneurship: traditional entrepreneurs do things entirely on their own, while franchisees work with a franchisor that establishes the business model and provides branding support. So franchise owners need to be willing to collaborate with the franchisor (and other owners) and follow the playbook. Someone who insists on always going their own way is going to have issues.
So, how would you answer my question? If you feel you’ve got the right mindset for franchising, but you’d like help finding just the right fit, book a free call with me. I can walk you through your options and cut through the clutter to match you with a business that works for your dreams, goals, and resources.
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