(The following is an excerpt from Module 3 of The Ultimate Franchise Course. It’s a powerful, easy-to-follow, step-by-step way for you to learn exactly how to find, choose, research, and buy a profitable franchise business. The course was created by The Franchise King®)
If you didn’t take a good look at yourself before you started the process of looking for a money-making franchise to someday own, you may be wasting your time. Your idea to buy a franchise-type of business may not be the right way for you to go.
That’s because not everyone is right for franchise ownership. If you happen to have a “franchise personality,” great. You’ll get to enjoy the many advantages of franchising. But if not, you may be in for an uphill battle.
The next logical question is, “What is a franchise personality?”
As you may know, I write a monthly article for The U.S. Small Business Administration. One article in particular is very popular. Here’s part of it:
“The business model of franchising brings with it a totally different set of issues. Not only must you be somewhat of a risk taker, but you must have absolute faith in the system you are investing in. Along with that faith, and a great deal of proper due diligence and fact gathering, there is one other thing that tends to be overlooked. What is often overlooked is what I call, ‘a franchise personality.’ What I mean by ‘franchise personality’ is that the person or persons that are purchasing the franchise have the type of personality that is OK with rules.”
Examples of a ‘Franchise Personality’:
- You must follow the franchise operations manual.
- You must use their colors, their logos. (If you buy a UPS Store franchise, the predominant color of their stores is brown. You cannot set up your retail space with splashes of orange and green!)
- You’ll be asked (required) to pay a certain percentage of your gross sales revenue to the franchisor.
- Territorial rights. You may not be allowed to market your products/services outside of your protected territory.
- You may have minimum monetary requirements regarding monthly advertising expenditures.
In franchising, there are lots of rules. Lots of things you’re required to do to stay on as a franchisee. But, don’t worry; you won’t have to guess what the rules are. They’re all spelled out in a fairly complicated legal document called an FDD. The Franchise Disclosure Document.
But, know this: The franchisor has certain obligations to you, the franchisee, and franchisees have certain-and very specific obligations to the franchisor.
Are you a rule-follower?
Have you followed the rules in the past?
Think about this carefully.
If you haven’t had a history of following rules in your workplace — heck, in your life — owning and operating a franchise-type of business won’t be fun for you. Not in the least. As a matter of fact, you’ll hate it! And, you’ll lose a lot of money!
Does that make sense?
The way I see it is you’re either a rule-follower or you’re not. And, if you’re seriously considering franchise ownership, you need to make sure you are a rule-follower.
So, can you — and will you — follow the rules and commit to using the franchisor’s system to create a successful business of your own?
There’s something else that you need to know. It involves something you’ll need to lose. Your ego.
Being ‘franchise material’ means that you completely understand that the franchise concept you’re interested in buying is someone else’s “baby.”
That’s right: The franchise concept you’re looking into is their idea — not yours. And it certainly wasn’t your money that went into the creation of the concept. You may be really, really smart. You may have CEO-level experience. But, are you willing and able to put your ego aside to get where you want to go?
Buying a franchise is a big decision.
Make sure you are right for franchise ownership.
To learn more about how to succeed as a franchise owner, enroll in Franchise Business University, a 23-lesson course that spells out everything you need to know about starting a franchise and thriving. Click here to register.
