Many investors invest in a franchise just to wear the entrepreneurial hat. For any potential franchisee, its significant to understand that all entrepreneurs can’t be franchisees.
It is a fact that franchising is the safest way to develop and expand any business. However, it is also true that franchising is not for everyone. Each franchise opportunity may have different requisites from its franchisees. Whether one takes a franchise of any QSR or retail or service franchise, depends entirely if one’s personality is fit for being a franchisee. Being an entrepreneur is quite different from being a franchisee.
Many investors invest in a franchise just to wear the entrepreneurial hat. For any potential franchisee, its significant to understand that all entrepreneurs can’t be franchisees. In a franchise relationship, all the rules and regulations of running the business have already been laid down by the franchisor. All that a franchisee needs to do is follow them without making alterations. On the other hand in one’s own business, one need to start from scratch, there are no processes of an already successful business. So if you want to be the boss and run a business in your way then maybe being a franchisee is not your way.
It’s true that franchisees are required to put in tremendous effort to launch their business and must work extremely hard at their capacity. However, simply hard work does not guarantee success in the franchising business. There are certain other traits, which must be present within a person for them to consider becoming a franchisee.
Here, having an entrepreneurial mindset is important but one should also have the employee mindset as well. This is because at end of the day franchisees must be willing to follow the directions of the franchisor. The level of control for a franchisee is noticeably less than of that of being an owner of your own independent business. However the level of risk presented to a franchisee is less than that of an independent business owner.
Personality of a Franchisee related to Franchise Opportunity
As already mentioned, no two individuals are the same. One cannot jump in any bandwagon thinking that if my friend is successful in a particular franchise brand than I too shall be. Your interest, talent as well as passion play an essential role in taking a franchise. If an introvert person takes up a retail or service franchise, it will surely spell a disaster. There might be no problem in the opportunity but the problem here would lie on the personality of the franchisee who may not interact so well with clients/customers. However, many franchisees make the mistake of buying before they understand what is required by a specific franchise opportunity. The result may mean outright failure – because the franchisee and the business are not compatible, the franchisee can never develop a satisfying and profitable business.
Many of us would be confused as to how to find out if they are fit for franchising and secondly for which specific franchise opportunity. Let us read how to find out:
Matching Desires with Reality: Are you a leader or a follower- is the main question that needs to be addressed. Most prospects aim to be bosses/leaders in their life. Even franchisors may believe they want leaders to run their business. But the reality is that franchisees need to be followers. Franchising is successful because a franchisor has already developed a system for operating a business. Franchisees are successful when they follow the franchisor’s system. If you can’t follow, or you don’t want to follow, franchising probably isn’t a good fit for you.
Moreover few prospects may jump into franchising thinking it is a piece of cake, it does not require hard work or in-depth knowledge. This also depends on franchise opportunities; some are easy to run requiring less personal attention while others take a lot of dedication and time.
Discovery Day with Franchisors: Most Franchise businesses and franchisors organise discovery days for investors to gauge if the investor is fit for their business requirements and expectations. This event can be an opportunity for prospects to visit the franchisor’s office for a day or two, and meet members of the corporate team, as well as other successful franchisees. Not all franchisors offer discovery days, but not all franchisors are interested in selling to people who are a good fit for their business.
Good franchisors will never get into partnership with a franchisee who doesn’t take out time to know the franchisor and his business in detail.
Working or Playing Franchisee: Zeroing down on a particular franchise is not the end of it. It’s always better to go deeper and experience how it is to be a franchisee of the business. One can find an existing franchisee of that particular opportunity and request to be ‘shadow’ for ideally a week, if permitted. By experiencing what a franchisee does on a daily basis, and witnessing the challenges the franchisee faces, you’ll know if you are compatible with that business. Existing franchisees may or may not agree to let you shadow them, but be persistent. One can also offer to work in the franchise for few months to get the hang of it.
Being a successful franchisee is not difficult if one has made the right decision in selecting the franchise. Any good franchisee has the ability to assign responsibilities, has a quick mind to spot the best opportunities, should be willing to accept advice from others and should have strong interpersonal skills to interact with the customers and management at the same time.
If, as a prospective franchisee do not possess these qualities and is weak in any of these, then it is advisable that you either work in improving your skills or else choose running your own business.
In a nutshell these are the characteristics of any successful Franchisee:
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