There is both personal and professional fulfillment in owning a franchise.
But for first-time franchise owners, as well as most first time business owners, there are many growing pains associated with actually operating and successfully running a business.
Personally, I’ve known many of these growing pains from my own experience of running a franchise.
The bad news is that are growing pains no matter what business you are in.
The good news, at least for franchisees, is that they can rely on a system and a network of other franchise owners who can guide and mentor you to overcome any issue or challenge you may have.
This is in good contrast to the single, non-franchise business owner, who is pretty much on his or her own.
What’s the biggest growing pain in owning a franchise?
Number one, I would say, is actually mastering the franchise system and applying it in the real world on a day-to-day basis.
Why?
A lot of franchisees think they have a better way to run things or they try to short-cut the system, which really hampers their efforts and success.
Remember, there is a reason the franchise system costs something, and that’s because it is a proven system that has been duplicated and that works.
A new franchisee has to trust that, and simply follow the system. Following the system is a simple concept, but my experience is that simple is not always easy.
Second, getting and keeping customers is vital to your success, so marketing can be a real issue for new franchisees, especially if they are used to working on the operational side of a business.
Marketing is especially a challenge for the former accountants (a fraternity in which I used to belong). But once you see marketing as an investment – and you start to run it as an investment that buys you leads and gets you repeat business – then you should see the true benefits of marketing as the key to your long-term survival and success.
A third “growing pain” for a franchisee is on-going training and support from the franchisor. Too frequent or too infrequent trainings can be challenging, and a staggered follow-up training program can be ineffective, especially if the initial training was not as educational, informational and supportive as it could have been.
So if you are looking at a franchise, pay a lot of specific attention to the structure and the details about training and support. Educate and prepare yourself and don’t be afraid to ask questions.
If you don’t you might regret it later.
Fourth, learning how to be a business generalist versus acting as a business specialist can be a challenge for new franchisees, especially if you were a superstar specialist in your previous career.
As an owner, you have to learn to do a lot of things all at the same time. That means and includes managing, marketing, selling, recruiting and pricing. For specialists, those functions can be hard to manage all at once.
Fifth, cash flow is an issue for new franchisees, especially in the retail category because it can take some time to create store traffic and build consistent sales.
However, in a professional services franchise, the issue is the same. It simply takes a period of weeks and months to build up and keep a consistent and predictable client base.
Finally, the sixth biggest growing pain for a franchisee is managing a team. Management can be especially challenging for those who were sales superstars, but who had limited experience doing other things such as managing or leading teams. As those people soon discover, sales and sales management are two totally different aspects of business.
What’s the best way to overcome these challenges?
Hire a good Business Coach.
But if you’re not ready or willing to be coached, get as much knowledge as possible in the areas you are weakest in, and be prepared to be uncomfortable as you apply your new knowledge in those areas.
Remember, wisdom only comes from applied knowledge. And if you can learn from your mistakes, you’ll be far more successful in the long run – and be at or near the top of your chosen franchise system.