Former news anchor Nicole Lapin has a new financial advice book out. In it she tells her readers, “Assume you are going to suck at running your own business.” This is the exact opposite of what you’ll hear from franchisors looking to sign you up. Sure, some are more selective than others, but usually the assumption they make is that they’ve got a great system, so as long as you follow it you should do great.
That’s part of the benefit of going with a franchise: you have a system to use and training in using that system. You get to skip a lot of the trial and error of an independent start up, and you can see that others have succeeded with the system before you. In fact, you’ll probably leave that franchisor training feeling confident and optimistic.
But what happens if you start out by assuming that you’re not going to be great at first?
- You’ll learn, and keep learning. You’ll learn everything about the franchise system and how it works, and then you’ll learn more than that, because you want to be a great franchisee and you don’t think you’ve already made it. If you think you were born ready, a lot of the motivation to learn is gone. As Lapin’s dad told her, “If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.”
- You’ll look for help. Not only will you make use of all the support your franchisor provides, you’ll also look for good strategic partners, good workers, and good mentors in the franchise community. You’ll look for people who are better at something than you are, and you’ll leverage their strengths. Soon enough, you’ll have people working with you who fill in the gaps in your strengths and skills. You’ll also be a valuable member of the community because of the connections you’ve developed and the reciprocal help you offer those who’ve helped you.
- You won’t give up. Everybody has bad days, and every business has bad days, too. That day when you walk into your office and find crying workers ready to quit, realize that you forgot to make a bank deposit and are racking up overdraft fees, and then face complaining customers… you won’t quit, because you figured you weren’t going to do a great job at first. You knew you’d have room to improve, so you’re more ready to accept minor failures and move on to greater successes.
What about confidence? You should have confidence in your ability to become a great franchisee and a successful business owner. You should have confidence in your stamina, your smarts, and your motivation. You should also have confidence in the things you already know you do well, whether that’s producing pizzas or keeping the books.
But consider starting out with less than complete certainty that you’ll be great. Give yourself some space to be less than perfect when you start… so you can be better than you ever expected in the end.