Be a Businessperson
The old catchphrase with franchising is “you go into business for
yourself, but not by yourself.” The premise, then, is that your
Franchisor will do all they can to help you to be successful.
Wrong! The Franchisor is invested in your success, correct. They will
help you within the confines of the franchise agreement, correct.
However, they cannot make you into a good businessperson. No
franchise system can. No amount of input (either of expertise or cash)
from your Franchisor will make your business a success if you yourself
have not invested in its success, by becoming the best businessperson
you can.
Luckily, becoming a good businessperson isn’t that difficult. It takes
some humility, some education and some hands on work, but it
definitely can be done.
How much do you know about marketing? About finance? About
employing people? About what to do once they are employed? About
industrial relations? About your industry? About organisational
efficiency? About selling? About logistics? About warehousing?
These are all things you need to have at least a rudimentary working
knowledge of, if you wish to be a good businessperson. Read a book,
go to a course, listen to an audio-course, get yourself a coach, it
doesn’t matter how you gain the information. But you do need to
invest a little to gain that information.
Once you have the information, what do you do with it? Apply it.
If you know everything there is to know, but you don’t bring it into
your business and apply it, you might as well have not wasted your
time. Application of knowledge is what brings about business wisdom –
once you start using the information, you’ll see how it affects your
business operation.
And if you don’t use it – well, you know what they say. “If you don’t
use it, you lose it.”