Warning: Suppressing Your Inner Entrepreneur Could Ruin Your Life
Almost no one achieves greatness by working for someone else. Only a few people can rise to the top in any organization. Often, too, their success is not due to their extraordinary aptitude but simply due to how well they conform to the organization’s goals and values.
If you’re an ambitious person, your chances of success will increase exponentially if you start your own business or join a franchise. Starting your own business instantly empowers you to do things your own way while joining one of the top franchises will give you all the tools and resources you need to benefit from a proven business idea.
If you’re currently feeling stuck in a corporate job and feel you’re not going anywhere fast, if you have fantasies of starting your own ice cream shop or buying an ice cream shop franchise because it would be fun and make you and other people happy, then it may be time to fully express your entrepreneurial streak.
What is a franchise?
You don’t prosper in business until you have systems in place for every aspect of it. When you join a franchise, someone else has put a system in place and only asks that you follow the recipe.
A franchise, then, is a way to expand a business and to distribute goods and services via a licensing arrangement. The two main franchising terms to keep in mind are “franchisor” and “franchisee”.
The franchisor is a company that grants a license to someone for running the business under clearly specified instructions. A franchisee is someone who takes on this mission because they are given an operating system, a recognized brand, and plenty of support.
What makes a franchise a good idea?
The only way to get ahead in any business, the only way to get to the next level, is by focusing all your attention on all the things that need to be done every day, every week, every month, every quarter, and every year.
When you join a franchise, you don’t have to figure out through trial and error what to focus on. When you buy a franchise, you enter into a formal agreement with a franchisor to focus on all the things that they have identified as important. Every aspect of the operation has been spelled out in detail, from the products you sell to the suppliers you use, from the daily operations to the way you market the brand, and from the type of employees you hire to how you train them to deploy the pre-established system.
Is it better to start a business from scratch?
No matter whether your goal in life is to increase your level of community contribution, improve your own bottom line, develop other people’s skills and aptitudes, or solve personal problems, you will find plenty of room to meet these goals when you start your own business.
Once you’ve figured out what type of business you want to own, you have to research the market, set a concrete goal, and launch a business where you can sell a product or service.
Is it better to join a franchise?
The nice thing about a franchise is that it gives you structure. This business model will work for you if your mind tends to hop from one business idea to another: a franchise will free you from your own vacillation because it will give you a proven system to follow through on.
When you own a franchise, you do go into business by yourself, but you are not by yourself. You have all the business support you need to make things work out.
While some people believe that franchises give you no room for creativity, this isn’t quite true. Many franchises give you a certain level of independence to run the business in the best possible way. In other words, you can choose your own crayons, but you do have to color within the box.
How to make up your mind
There is no right answer since both starting a business from scratch and buying a franchise have their pros and cons. Ultimately, it’s not about trying to decide on the best business model but about coming to terms with your own personality. If you’re someone who is headstrong, creative, and an independent thinker, then dealing with the mothership—the corporate franchisor’s headquarters—will be irksome. Conversely, if you like the security of following a tried-and-tested system, then a franchise will work perfectly for you.
