Are you considering starting your own business? Is investing in a franchise the right solution for you? I recently spoke with Riderflex about this very topic.
Riderflex is a global recruiting and consulting firm based out of Colorado, and they regularly give out career advice and job interviewing tips on their podcast.
I was honored to be asked to speak with them, as I have long admired the conversations they have with the entrepreneurs, CEOs, and business leaders they have on their podcast. They often speak about the real truth of business ownership; what it’s like to start and lead a business.
Here’s what I shared during our conversation:
What would you say to an Executive that wants to step out on their own and start a business?
My biggest piece of advice is to start sooner rather than later! For years, I struggled, wading through the challenges of the corporate world and not finding the career satisfaction I was looking for. I wish I would have started my own path a decade sooner.
The start-up phase of a new business is always hard. Just starting a new job is challenging, to speak nothing of business ownership. If you are going to have to start something all over why wouldn’t it be something you own and control?
On paper, that makes sense, but a franchise offers you a support system to enter the world of business ownership. With a franchise, you benefit from existing brand recognition, as well as a plan to get you started.
Then? Once you get past the start-up phase of your organization, you move into something called business maturity. At this stage, everything else seems to fall into place. What do I mean by this?
- Your confidence grows
- Your revenue grows
- Your business’ cash flow starts working for you
- Your team performance takes hold and your operations soar
Owning your own franchise business is the absolute best. Truly, there is nothing like it!
What is Business Maturity?
I love franchising because much of the hard stuff about owning your own business—like the open-ended questions that make business start-up scary—are all already mapped out for you. This helps you reach business maturity faster.
I consider business maturity to be the point in a brand where your business performs at systemwide averages:
- You have established revenue, employee counts, and gross and net margin expectations
- You have a solid customer base
- You have a solid team that knows what they are doing
- You are becoming a leader rather than a doer
When does this happen?
That’s a great question! It all happens on your own timeline. This is completely up to you as the individual owner, and it depends on your ability to scale and grow your organization. To make this happen, you must focus on two important factors:
- Growing your customer base and growing your sales.
- Growing your team of employees and attracting great people so that you as the owner can spend more time working on the business.
For most good business owners who choose to leverage a solid franchise system, this can take a while. In my experience, business maturity happens somewhere around 3 to 5 years. But this isn’t a set-in-stone timeline. Some business owners running their own franchise reach business maturity sooner and some struggle to get there.
There’s a lot you can do to reach business maturity, and it all starts with the franchise you choose. A well-defined franchise system will help a lot in mapping out the measurement and path to find this point in the business. However, the execution of this plan and the implementation of the existing system is always up to you as the owner. After all, it’s your business!
Should you start a business or a franchise?
This is a deeply personal question, but these questions are a great jumping-off point:
- Do you have big life goals?
- Do you feel you can do better than your career is delivering?
- Are you competitive—do you like to win?
- Have you been successful in other aspects of your life like sports, school, or your job?
- Do you tackle challenges head-on?
- Do you consider yourself a lifelong learner?
If your answer to these questions is YES, it’s time to dive in. Like I said, you should start sooner rather than later. It is never too late to follow your dreams. Let me help you find the place to start. To learn more about your next step, schedule a call with me today. Business ownership is well within your grasp, and I can help you get there—all at no cost to you.
