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When I read the words this morning during a coffee break, I laughed. “You can’t fix a loser!” said Dan Kennedy, one of my long-time marketing mentors. He doesn’t mince words, which is one of those love/hate things about him. Kennedy makes it clear that he’s not interested in making friends, so you don’t read him with any expectations of having a drink or dinner with him. You read him purely because you want to get better at what you do! Losers aren’t interested in getting better.
Franchisees who get it avoid the losers
I laughed when I read the words because it’s something I would say, though I haven’t said it quite like that. And it reminded me of several passages in a book that I wrote not long ago: Get It! It’s about franchisees that have cultivated a millionaire mindset. They are successful because they practice a dozen distinct habits, including avoiding the “losers” in franchising.
“Losers” exist in every franchise network
Many of the franchisees I interviewed for Get It! told me of the importance of protecting themselves from — though they didn’t necessarily use the word — the “losers” in their franchise network. It doesn’t matter which franchise network, by the way. I’ve been interviewing franchisees and franchisors for 30 years and “losers” — define the word however you want — are in every network.
When I asked Steve Masry, a West Palm Beach, FL franchisee since 2002, what separated successful franchisees from non-successful franchisees, he didn’t hesitate: “Three things and only three things,” he said. “First is the least important: how much money they can get access to. Second: how they deal with problems — problems will occur daily. And third – this is most important — how they think.” Losing in business is a byproduct of negative thinking.
No naysayers allowed: only visionaries
Steve pointed out that his perspective had been developed through a period of pain. “(Other franchisees) think I’m crazy,” he said, because he distances himself from the losers, “but I know who I am and I have eradicated the naysayers from my life. You can’t be around me if you don’t share the vision, the passion and the joy.”
Steve continued, “What’s different about the unsuccessful franchisees is that when they face a problem, they think about everything that can go wrong. I think about solutions. I don’t think about problems until they exist. I don’t bury my head, I face the problem, and my first thought is usually negative, so I remove it and search for solutions. I know the solution exists and I’ll find it.”
Look out for contrary thoughts
He explained that “each of us” is the sum of our thoughts. “If you think bad thoughts – Oh no, there’s a problem, I’m going to run out of money and lose my business — then you won’t succeed. I remind myself every morning that I went from almost going out of business and filing a bankruptcy to (achieving success in my business). When a contrary thought presents itself, I remove it and replace it with the truth. That’s what you do when you’re unwilling to accept anything but success.”
In a similarly pro-active manner, Patti Robertson in Norfolk, VA — she and her husband are mutli-concept franchisees — told me, “The (franchisees) who are successful are the ones who take action, not the ones who are always complaining or worrying about things. We always take action . . . .” Losers, on the other hand, rarely do. They whine, they complain, they moan, but they do not take action for fear of changing their circumstances for the better.
He could tell the losers just by their voice
Mitch Cohen, a veteran business owner in Queens, NY, used to spend hours talking to franchisees in his network. “From the moment I picked up the phone and heard their voice I knew whether or not I wanted to talk to them,” he explained.
“When they started with, ‘How’s the market treating you?’ I knew it wasn’t going to be a discussion I wanted to have. I realize that misery loves company, but I don’t want that kind of company and I don’t want the misery. Why would you even ask,‘How’s the market treating you?’ There’s just no sense having that conversation and it’s unfortuante there are franchisees who think like that.”
Losers lack clarity of thought and purpose
Franchisees may think like that because they suffer from a lack of clarity, explained Bob DeClue, a franchise entrepreneur in St. Louis, MO. “That’s the difference between successful and unsuccessful franchisees. Without clarify, the unsuccessful people can’t succeed. They don’t know not to quit. They don’t know it because, how could they? They quit! They have no clariity. They don’t udnerstand that the way to success is to never quit. If you don’t quit, you can’t fail. It’s just a different way of thinking.” Losers, on the other hand, like their way of thinking!
In Springfield, MO, J. Barry Watts is a positive-focused franchisee who said the Bible gives him no choice. “As a man thinks in his heart, so he becomes. I believe that,” Barry said.
“While I’m not as successful or wealthy as I’d like . . . the big question really is whether or not I’ve done the most with me? If I have, then ‘well done, good and faithful servant’.”
Losers can’t help you
Whether you’re selling franchises, trying to improve your franchise, or re-inventing your franchise, this I know: Losers can’t help you!
In fact, losers don’t want to help you. They want to bring you down. They’ll tell you that franchising in general doesn’t work, or that the franchise they bought doesn’t work. They’ll tell you the franchisor is out to get them, that the concept worked in a different market but not their market — their market is always different — and this is wrong and that is wrong . . . .
Unfortunately, as I learned while I was first a franchisee then the CEO of HomeVestors, some franchisees do not want to Get It! They like complaining too much to win!
Avoid the losers in franchising . . . they will seek your company and it will be miserable. And whatever you do, don’t even think that you can fix them!
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Twitter: @thefranchiselab
As the old saying goes (something like), “You can’t speed up a mule, but you can reign in a thoroughbred.”
It can be scary for a young or over-controlling franchisor to sign thoroughbreds to the team, so they gravitate toward picking mules. Or sometimes, they think so highly of their concept, marketing programs or support that they are truly convinced that they can make the mules (losers) successful. Or worst: they pick losers because cash flow makes them do it– franchise fees are keeping the franchisor afloat. All candidates accepted! Yikes.
For better or worse, franchising is subject to a term that I borrowed from economics: the multiplier effect. Think of every output from the franchisor being multiplied throughout the franchise system. Smart output, such as time spent supporting winners, multiplies as a worthwhile investment that pays many times over for the life of every good franchisee. It’s a virtuous circle. Isn’t that the idea of franchising in the first place? Scaling up a huge operation from a relatively small initial investment and each subsequent reinvestment through marketing and support programs.
However, the losers don’t just drag on the system, their effects multiply, too. Attitudes, cynicism, poor brand representation, low revenues, poor validation, expensive support that doesn’t produce…
No system can grow this way because you can’t scale a business on losers. They give the franchisor no leverage because they don’t add to the resource pool– they drain it!
Time and money spent on franchise selection with many built-in safety valves to screen them out before, during and even after training is crucial to keeping the losers from adding up. Too often, I was personally charged with pushing losers through training or spending extra resources to support them, despite my better judgment. With deadly precision, they wasted all of the time and money that flowed their way. When is that magical moment when the loser finally sees? What amount of support finally creates an effective franchisee? None.
Franchisors don’t make good franchisees– they merely enable them.
Winners showed their value not because they always require less initial support, but because they “Get It!” Sometimes, they demand much more than the losers, but the difference is that they make the system better for it. They raise standards, problem-solve creatively, and make more money for everyone. They also happen to make business fun!
Twitter: @rightathomeUS
Great Post John,
I really like the straight-forward way you approached the topic. The simple answer is that no business can survive without passionate people who are willing to work hard. I work for two blogs that discuss franchising for a nation-wide, in-home care organization called right at home and we often discuss how to select franchises and what research potential franchisees need to do.
If you are interested I hope that you will check out our advice on (so you don’t get mules).
Keep up the great posts,
Bill