When I ask franchisors who their ideal business franchise candidates are, the first word most tell me is “Veterans”.
When asked why they respond with “Veterans are incredible at replicating proven systems. We don’t need people to reinvent the wheel, we already have a system that works. We just need people to replicate that system.” and “Veterans are not deterred by difficulties. When they come against a wall they are more likely to smash through it than walk away.”
In a twist of irony, I was listening to an interview with a franchisor as I was writing this article and, while talking about his top franchisees, said “…and of course there are our veteran franchisees that easily replicate this system”.
These responses should not come as a surprise to any of us who have served. We are given a new system, a new way things work, at every command we are stationed at.
Our success is subsequently measured on how well we adapt and succeed inside the established guidelines set for us, and failure is generally not an option.
When looking at how your military experience correlates to franchise ownership, the best parallel is to compare being a franchisee to having your own command.
As a new CO you have a blueprint laid out for you on how similar commands have achieved success and how others have failed miserably. You may have regulations you need to follow and general guidelines you need to adhere to, but beyond that you have control.
If you run into a particularly difficult problem, you have other commanders you can call or your parent command you can reach out to for support.
Becoming a franchise owner is, by most counts, the same. To explore this further, we need to look into how business franchises are created and what a franchise owner actually is.
Picture a wildly successful business. This business has really figured out how to make money, but they are limited geographically to their local market. They have two options for growth – open additional corporate locations or become a franchise and recruit franchise owners.
In either case the franchise needs to develop marketing, operating manuals, IT systems, sales strategies, HR, and branding as well as a myriad of other things.
To grow corporately, the business would have to look at an increasingly top-heavy organization with multiple management levels and increasing opportunities for inefficiencies.
By going the business franchise route, they can bring in individual investors that have ownership of their own business and funding for franchise businesses is much easier to attain than non-franchise start-ups.
The franchisor ‘s profit from each location will be much smaller, but they don’t need to have the upfront capital to open a new location and they don’t have to have another layer of management to take care of it.
When you become an independent business owner as a franchisee, you benefit from the franchisor ‘s success. To begin with, you have a business model that has already shown itself to be successful and, ideally, has been proven in many markets. Sometimes hundreds or even thousands.
You are given the blueprint for success and educated on what has failed. You are provided with the regulations and guidelines you need to follow in the form of operating manuals, sales, HR, IT, marketing, and branding, but beyond those guidelines, you have control.
If you have a particularly difficult problem, you can call other franchise owners or reach back to the franchisor for support. Does any of this sound familiar?
There are many options out there for aspiring or seasoned veteran entrepreneurs. Some like to start from scratch and make their own way with various e-retail options while others gravitate towards sales organizations where they can earn commissions as independent contractors.
Even more head toward real estate, coaching, digital marketing, pet services, automotive outlets, restaurants, education, IT, staffing, financial services, cleaning and janitorial, fitness, health and beauty, elder care, construction, maintenance, waste removal and hauling, pest control, packaging and mailing, printing, travel, and many, many more that fill every nook and niche in today’s market.
Franchisors are in all of these markets and are looking for competent franchisees. So what is the drawback of a franchise system? Generally it boils down to two things– the franchise fee and the royalties.
The franchise fee is a one-time fee that gives you the license to use the franchise system including access to their proprietary training, systems, and branding.
The royalty is an ongoing fee, usually tied to gross revenues, that pays the franchise for ongoing support as well as providing the franchisor incentive to make sure they help you be as successful as possible.
This means that a potential franchisee needs to have some amount of cash to invest in order to start their business, but given that the number 1 reason for business failures lack of capitalization, this is not necessarily a bad thing.
This also means that if you do have the capital to start a franchise business, you should be equipped with everything you need for success, something you can’t say when you try to build your own business from scratch and you have no idea what will even be required.
Also, not all franchise opportunities are startups and it is possible to find a great franchise business for sale. If you are transitioning out of the military, in-between jobs, or a w-2 looking for personal freedom and control, my question for you is – Are you ready to assume command? If so, reach out to Joel Stewart of Integrity Commercial
