You finally made a decision. You’ve decided to be your own boss. And the more you think about it, the better you feel. It’s a big decision. It’s one you’ve weighed carefully. However, at the end of the day, it was your frustration that pushed you over the edge. Perhaps, it’s because you just got fed up working for a boss on a mission to create chaos out of order and working with mean-spirited people who say nasty things about you behind your back. Or perhaps, it’s because you’ve been downsized from a corporate job where you thought you had made yourself indispensable. As a result, you’ve realized that rather than providing security, a job can be pulled out from your feet at any time for any reason.
Decide What to Do Next
If you’re thinking of quitting your job because you have a better idea on how to do things in your line of work, then more power to you. However, what if you have not developed enough know-how to launch your own business or have no idea what kind of business you want to own? In this case, you might just want to look into franchising a lucrative business. UPS, for example, has a proven business model and an effective marketing process. Why not look into getting a UPS franchise store?
Aren’t Franchises Risky?
Here’s the thing about franchising: if you go about it the wrong way, you could lose your shirt. There are some frightening statistics about people who have jumped in and not done half as well as they had expected. On the other hand, there are others who have made more in a month from their franchises than they made in a whole year working as a cog in a corporate wheel.
Asking whether franchises are risky leads to a paradox because the answer could be either “yes” or “no” with both answering being perfectly valid. Franchises can be risky if you pick the wrong one, if you’re the wrong person for the job, or if you go about doing things the wrong way. Conversely, franchises are not risky if you pick a high-demand niche, choose to do work that you love, and go about doing all the right things.
A better question might be: How can I go about doing the right things to become successful at franchising.
How to Do the Right Things
If you’re single and without any family obligations, then it’s fine if you just go ahead and do what you like. However, chances are that you’re married and that your decision to be your own boss is going to affect everyone around you. As a result, you’ll not only be struggling to build your business, but you’ll also have to contend with a hostile family, too.
You may be fortunate enough to have fully supportive family members who are always pleased to see you do what makes you happy; in that case, you’re good to go.
What’s more likely to happen, however, is that not everybody is as enthusiastic about your planned adventure into unknown waters.
Here are three possible scenarios:
- 1. You capitulate to their demands that forget “your crazy idea” and stick with doing work you hate.
- 2. You compromise and promise not to quit your job until you’ve built a business on the side that will replace your current income.
- 3. You convince them that you’ll do your due diligence and find a business that is bound to work with the right amount of sweat equity.
Out of these scenarios, only the third is likely to work. While the second one may sound reasonable enough, it’s difficult to build a business on the side because there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Like a baby bird, you may just have to jump out of your nest to find your wings.
While you can certainly decide to carry on regardless of what your family thinks, you’re going to have to put up with silent hostility. Ideally, you should get your family to emotionally support your initiative. It will make a world of difference.
Assuming you’ve won the support of your home team, then the next step is to figure out your financial situation. If it’s not where you want it to be, figure out how you can create enough cash flow to make it through the early phase of your new business.
Next, do your homework. Really look for a franchise that satisfies two things. The first is that it’s a solid business model with an excellent track record for helping franchisees become successful. The second is that it is in a niche that you enjoy and that you have some knowledge or experience with. For instance, if it is a restaurant franchise, then it really helps to have had some experience in the hospitality industry because you’ll have a better idea how to manage employees and meet with customer expectations.
Finally, once you’ve picked your franchise, raised the funds to get in, put all your time and effort to learning everything you can, then it’s time to take massive action.
It can be a risk to quit your job and become your own boss, but if you do enough of the right things for long enough, the rewards are there for the taking.
