commitment). Some are intended to be
supplemental income businesses - although
some of the most successful franchisees
have made it their livelihood. This isn't
necessarily a con if what you're looking for is
supplemental income, but prospective
franchisees should make sure they have
realistic financial expectations.
Franchising is not for everyone. You need
the skills to run a successful business and the
willingness to follow a tried-and-true
franchise system. Because they are so often
owner-operators with fewer resources,
franchisees at the lower investment level
must be able to multi-task and wear a lot of
hats, at least initially, until their new
franchise business iswell-established.
“We find that our owner-operator model is
best suited to people who have very strong
inter-personal skills—people who enjoy
working with others of all backgrounds and
economic levels,” said Money Mailer's
Mulloy.
“We can train anyone to run our system
properly, but it is a lot more difficult to
teach them how to be honest and to run
their business with integrity if it has not
been their life-long pattern,” addedHoward
ofHeaven's BestCarpetCleaning.
Some franchise brands, like U.S. Lawns and
Paul Davis Emergency Services, use a
personality profiling tool to help identify
which franchise candidates might make a
good franchisee or, once they are
franchisees, to help identify their strengths
and weaknesses for running their franchise
business.
“We are big fans of personality profiling to
identify people's natural orientation and
match it to the core skills and attributes of
our successful owners. We can use the
profiles to help coach people, or other
times, it identifies when someone is
absolutely no match for our system,” said
PaulDavis'sKing.
Bevintel uses a different tact to ensure
franchisees are a good match in their
system.
August-September 2014 | BusinessWorld | 107
