Tips for budding Franchisees | Bedshed

Looking to achieve more in your business with less effort? Tips for budding franchisees.

Looking to achieve more in your business with less effort? Tips for budding franchisees.

This article originally appeared in Dynamic Business. 

There’s a common misconception in the small business world that being your own boss means you sacrifice a healthy work/life balance. While putting in extra hours can be important, particularly in the early stages of your journey, there are certain tricks and systems you can put in place to ensure your business will thrive and run smoothly in the long run. Successful profit turnover can and should be coupled with reasonable working hours, but how can you make it happen for you?

The great thing about joining a franchise is while you’re your own boss; you also have the safety net of a proven network behind you who is willing to offer support and training every step of the way. This means you choose how things are run – within reason – but you have the guidance of trusted professionals who have a vested interest in seeing you and your business succeed.

Here are a few tips to ensure you get the most out of your franchise business.

Have a plan.

Clearly defining your objectives and milestones as part of a business plan is one of the best ways to ensure you achieve them while sticking to your set deadlines. This is just one of the things that your franchisor can work with you to develop.

While having a plan is essential, remember that things won’t always go your way or to plan. The best business plans are those that continually adapt, evolve, and allow for reasonable change.

Get smart about your product.

While it’s all good to have a solid business plan in place, you must consider what you will be selling every day. Will that product still be in demand in 10 years? Equally important is considering the time and energy it will take you physically and mentally to sell that product.

For example, compare selling mattresses to cups of coffee. Certain luxury mattresses have a retail price of around $10,000, though key sales periods may offer them at a lower cost. On average, someone working in a coffee shop would need to sell 2,000 small coffees to match this price, which is over 5 years’ worth of coffee for one person! (This is based on one coffee per person per day at an average price of $5.)

Utilise your network.

Being your own boss can, at times can feel draining, with pressure to constantly make the right business decisions. Joining a franchise network means you have a wealth of knowledge you can tap into - you just need to ask the right people around you!

One of the great things about franchising is that you’re not out on your own and not starting from scratch. You can join a network with a proven track record and longevity in the market, which means more security and less risk for you. The franchise network largely takes care of things that would typically take up a long time for small business owners, such as marketing and advertising, identifying market trends, analysing competitors, and undergoing product development through site selection and finance. A good franchisor will help you with all these things and more and can promptly assist with any potential problems before they arise.

Why not learn from others if you have these kinds of resources readily available around you? You can build relationships with existing franchisees in the network. Here, you can share tips and tricks on what is and isn’t working, essentially learning from each other’s mistakes and successes.

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