What do you think is the number one reason people become franchise owners? Take a moment to answer that question.
Many people shout out something to do with money. You might’ve said something similar to yourself. But really, the answer can be summed up in just one word: control.
What Brings People to Franchising?
Don’t worry, that doesn’t mean you’re a control freak if you’re looking to get into the franchising business. But the number one reason that people become franchise owners is control – and that’s control over many different aspects of life. Franchising is a pathway that affords you control over:
Your schedule
Your time
Your flexibility
Your freedom
Your lifestyle
And yes, even your income.
All of these things are becoming more and more important to us in the modern world. Plus, for those of us who had to return to the office post-pandemic, there were the issues of traffic, lengthy commutes, and missing out on time with our children and families. Whatever area you’re looking to regain control over, franchising may be an attractive option.
With this in mind, FranCoach’s Founder & CEO, Tim Parmeter, shared his own story about what brought him to be a business owner:
“I had the flexibility to not really have my calendar open until 8:30 this morning because I take my kid to school, or on days when I’m going to pick him up at school at 2:16 – not 2:15, not 2:17, but 2:16… I’m married to a woman that lives in a different state than me… to have the control over our time, our lives, our flexibility, and our schedule to actually make that work… More than anything, it’s that overall control of my lifestyle.”
When people come to us for help getting started in the franchising world, they’re often looking for a life that affords them more control. Franchising can be an incredibly rewarding pathway to being a business owner and to living the life you want. It doesn’t get better than that!
What Does Control Really Mean?
So what are some of the things we hear brought up when we’re talking about control? Many people who come to us have a story that goes something like this:
“I’m working my ass for somebody else, making decent money, but not making as much as the person in charge of the whole company. So if I’m going to work my tail off, then I want to be able to reap the rewards.”
Some of that is about the flexibility and freedom to really control your time. But it’s also about being able to decide how you might grow things within your business.
Some of the happiest franchise owners – in any franchise – are not necessarily the top performers. Now, that may seem kind of counterintuitive. If they’re not the top performers, why are they the happiest people?
Of course, the answer is control. They’re working the amount of time they want to work, and they’re making an amount of money that they’re comfortable with. Once you reach your status quo like that as a franchise owner, you’re good. You’re set. And it’s really not something you can do in the corporate world.
Control Your Own Growth
On the flip side, what’s your growth potential? In the corporate world, you can work as hard as you want, but there are so many other factors in play and there’s only so high up the ladder that you’re going to climb. As a franchise owner, you’re in control of the growth.
Your work and dedication to the business is going to make that initial single unit grow and become prosperous and profitable for you. But where can you go from there? You can have multiple units. Does that mean multiple locations of a retail franchise? Possibly. Does it mean multiple locations of a non-retail franchise? Absolutely.
You may be able to add additional products and services to a brand. You could go from owning a single unit to two units or three – or even a whole city, state, or region. All of those things are possible, and you’re in control of them, not somebody else.
Want to go crazy? What about owning franchises in multiple brands? You can continue to grow. Think about it like this: In the corporate world, you can’t have two full-time jobs. Imagine deciding to be the VP of Sales at two different companies – although if you can figure out how to pull that off, let us know. We’d love to harness some of that energy.
But in all seriousness, you can be the owner of two separate businesses. And you can grow them accordingly, in the way you want, because you are in control.
The Get Out of Bed Test
We talk a lot about what we call “The Get Out of Bed Test.” It involves asking a few key questions: What are you doing every day? Do you fully control that when you’re working for someone else? Maybe in some ways, but not fully. When you’re franchising, you regain control in so many different ways…
#1: Control Your Life
For Founder & CEO Tim Parmeter, he values controlling the fact that he gets to take his son to school every day. Control looks like his ability to hop on a plane and fly to go see his wife. It also means that he has control professionally over what goes on in FranCoach’s business – whether that’s coming up with podcast topics, building advertising partnerships, or creating innovative processes that FranCoach uses with our team and with our clients.
A lot of our clients begin their journeys thinking that industry is the most important piece of the puzzle – there’s this big, looming question of what industry you see yourself working in. But really, the industry is of such minimal importance at the end of the day.
#2: Control Who You’re Surrounded By
What counts is what you’re doing every day, whether that’s personal or professional. There’s also the matter of people: Who are you surrounded by every day? As an employee, you have very little control over that, but as a business owner, you have complete control over the people in your life.
Guess who’s in charge of deciding on your staff? You! And then there are the customers. Part of the process when you work with FranCoach is deciding on your ideal customer base and identifying the core values of your community. What’s important to your business? What franchise matches your goals and values? What kind of difference do you want to make with your business? All of those things are up to you.
#3: Control Your Exit Strategy
Does it seem odd to come up with an exit strategy while you’re just starting out and excited about owning a business? Maybe, but it’s an important question to consider.
Yes, it’s down the road, but let’s translate this into the corporate world. You get a job, you work at it, and you get paid – until you don’t. When you leave a job, whether it’s your choice or theirs, the money train immediately leaves the station. You don’t get to sell your job to the next person.
This is one of the biggest separators when it comes to franchising. When it’s your business, you get to sell it to the next person that takes over. You could also pass it on to your family. The legacy potential of this is huge, and there are countless stories we’ve heard about many generations working in a family business. More often than not, that isn’t the case in the corporate world.
#4: Control Each Day
Ask yourself this: When you got up this morning, how much overall control did you have in your day? If you’ve had any level of success in the corporate world, that answer might be “some.” But do you have complete control? And if not, do you want it?
Are there things you’re missing in your life? Time, freedom, flexibility? Life’s too short to not have those things when they’re readily available. The money will come, and it’s included in that control to enable you to do the things you want to do, but it’s never the number one driver. It’s simply not the reason that people become franchise owners.
In almost every case, your earnings will be greater than they were when you worked for someone else. That’s why nearly all of America’s top 1% of earners aren’t employees – they’re employers. Owning your own business as a franchisee is a great way to make money, sure. But more importantly, it’s a great way to take back some of the control you may be missing in your life.
What Does Franchising Look Like in the Real World?
One of our clients recently shared what it was like to take the first steps toward working with Tim and FranCoach.
“Don’t wait. If things sound good, just contact FranCoach. Reaching out wasn’t saying that you’re locked in and now you have to do all these things. It was Tim and I having conversations about ‘Is this even right?’ I felt the process was very sincere… I did way too much Googling. Everyone stop Googling, just put that down… If you think this sounds good, just reach out, because Tim will be very honest.”
This leads us to our final question…
How Can You Take Control?
So what now? You’ve read about how franchising can give you back control, and perhaps your interest is piqued. You’d love to have more control in your life, more flexibility to do the things you love and enjoy a meaningful career that makes you excited to get out of bed every morning.
You might be wondering what the next steps are or what franchise to choose. Luckily, FranCoach is here to help. We’re a national search firm that works with over 600 franchises spanning more than 70 industries. Our goal at FranCoach is to help people find the absolute best franchise for them to own, and our goal with our Franchising 101 podcast is to educate people on all aspects of franchising.
We answer tons of questions that are on our clients’ minds: What is it all about? Is it for you? How do you find the best ones to own? And so many more…
The American dream is controlling your life and what you’re doing with it. Don’t worry if you don’t have a fully fleshed-out idea when you come to us – our role is to help you figure out exactly what that dream life and ideal franchise look like for you.
Reach out to get that first call set up so that we can help you learn more about creating your better tomorrow and having control over your life.