Looking back on my decades of experience in the franchise industry, I believe there is one thing that contributed to my success more than anything else: my participation in a business owners’ mastermind group.
Get ready…the in-person IFA Convention is finally back!
My mother, Flo Francis, passed away last month in December 2021 after a long battle with ovarian cancer. She was a wonderful woman who did a lot with her life - and who experienced a tremendous amount of success in her 85 years.
I’m a lucky dad of two great daughters, who growing up, have had a front-row seat to much of my work in the franchise industry. As children do, they absorb a lot, so they really “got” some of the key concepts around franchising and business ownership and management early - we even turned some of it into a game!
Do you have a succession plan in place for your business?
When I was a franchisor, there were few things as valuable to me as the executive business owner peer group I belonged to - I was a member for more than 25 years! I found the group to be both really valuable and fun, as it gave me the opportunity to share ideas, problem solve and find support among like-minded professionals. It made such a big difference in my career and many of those people are good friends today.
As we’ve talked about in the past, building a positive organizational culture is critical to the success of your franchise business. And while we all know the BIG mistakes that can spell ruin for the business (obviously don’t lie, cheat or steal), there are subtler, but equally dangerous, issues that often trip up franchisors - and can make it challenging for them to build a strong and long-lasting culture in the organization.
Recently, in May 2021, I had the pleasure of attending the 2021 Big Frog Conference in Orlando, Florida. This was my 1st in-person conference since the COVID pandemic hit in March of 2020 and it was great to get back out there again! After more than a year of being stuck online, the in-person connections with handshakes and hugs were welcome.
