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“The Franchisor wants me to be successful. With that kind of support, I can power through any business challenges that come my way.”

Here’s where I have to tell you more about our franchise story: we still own and operate the franchise we purchased. After a terrible first year, we turned things around to achieve moderate profitability. It’s not the kind of profitability you dream about; it has to be healthily supplemented with other lines of business to be even worthwhile. But we found a way to make it work. And frankly, the support of our franchisor was not a factor in the turn around. In fact, at times, we went directly against the advice of our franchisor. I can think of two specific pieces of franchisor advice that would have likely put us out of business if we had followed it. There have been times when I truly wondered if franchisee churn was the franchisor’s true business model.

The reality is, franchisors only care about your success in as far as it facilitates their success. And this is not really unreasonable. You would do the same thing. If you had a choice between firing yourself or firing an employee, for example–you’re going to fire the employee, right? In the same token, your franchisor will, at the end of the day, pursue its own success. Even if that negatively impacts you and your business.

Real-life scenario

Here’s a real-life scenario to consider. Say the franchisee is losing his shirt and wants out. His options are: turn the business back over to the franchisor or sell it to a new franchisee. He goes to the franchisor and explains that he wants to sell the business; he asks that anyone who approaches the franchisor with an interest in buying that business be referred to him. And then the franchisee waits, hanging on for as long as he can. He can’t find a buyer. He finally decides to walk away, for fear of losing more money. Shortly thereafter, the franchisor has magically found a buyer for the business. Only now, instead of having to refer the new buyer to the franchisee, the franchisor can sell the business directly, for the full franchise fee. Did the franchisor just keep that new buyer waiting in the wings, until the franchisee inevitably gave up? Sure looks that way. Note that I’ve seen this happen more than once and involving more than one franchisor.

And why is this important for you to know as you evaluate your franchise options? Because you can’t run a business effectively if you truly believe the franchisor’s looking out for you. To be an effective entrepreneur, you have to be comfortable making informed decisions, as opposed to taking advice or following the lead. While you can ask the franchisor for advice, you have to be willing to evaluate that advice — to decide if it’s right for you and your business. You have to think and act outside the box, as they say, to create your own success. You can’t do this if your primary method of problem-solving is to call and ask your franchisor for advice. And you can’t do it if you assume the advice you get is rock-solid.

For that matter, the same dynamic should apply when you are interacting with other franchisees within the system. One of the positive aspects of owning a franchise is being able to tap into the franchise owner network for advice and support. But remember that the advice you get from other franchise owners may not apply to your market and your business.

So be prepared to be an independent thinker. If you don’t accept total responsibility for running your franchise now, you could find yourself in a bad place — and wondering how you got there.

If you have questions about this episode, feel free to email them to us at questions@businessmorgue.com. We’ll publish your questions on the site and address them in the next episode of the podcast.