To Grow or Not to Grow

That really is the question, isn’t it?

Your business is booming.

You made the investment and documented all your systems.

You’ve even hit your sales targets and the goals you set for yourself and for your family.

Life seems to be good, but you want to achieve more. 

Now What?

Do you take the next leap of faith?

Do you launch your business to the next level? Expand your territory?

Evolve into another service your clients have been asking about?

What’s next for you?

Is it worth taking more risk?

Many successful business owners reach this milestone and can get a bit lost. This is the perfect time to refocus on your long-term goals. Stop and take the time to make a definite decision on where you want your business journey to end. 

Growth for the sake of growth is a pointless path that will lead you nowhere you want to be.

Decide where you want your business to take you, then take consistent, focused action in that direction. There is a danger that your successful business could end up being the wheel that you are “chained to.” If you are not careful, you will look up one day and realize you have been transformed into a “slave” to the business that you brought to life.  

In my previous book, Balance: How to Make Your Business and Family Life Work Together, I deal with the challenge of making your business work for your family. 

I strongly recommend all business owners take the time to get clarity on what long term outcomes you want for your family life from your business.

Stuck in Survival Mode?

Many business owners can get caught up in the “survival mode” that drove them in the early days.  There is a fear motivation that oftentimes “helped” them survive in the beginning. It is too easy to get caught in this mindset—fearing that if they take their foot off the pedal everything will come crashing down.  

Fear of failure is a terrible reason to take your business to the next level. However, if you are thinking of restructuring to remove yourself from the day-to-day duties of running the business, that is a totally different story. 

Chasing the Money?

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is getting caught up in “chasing the money.” There is only one way to get money—people have to give it to you. The key to successful growth is in the motivation of the leader. The group will reflect the attitude of the leader.  

If your leadership is based on delivering high-quality service to your clients, you will attract those with the same focus—good, honest employees with only the best interests of the company and its clients in mind. 

On the flip side, if you are growing a business that is focused solely on getting the most money from your customers, then you will attract money-driven employees. What do you think the results will be like from those employees?

You Want a Bigger Boat?

I spent some time with Steve, a medium-sized builder.

He had started franchising his business about 5 years before we met, but only had around 20 franchises in the network.

Earlier still, he had been a franchisee in a large building franchise network and had been very successful in that business. 

Because of his success he decided to break out of that network and start his own brand.

He was very confident in his abilities to be a “franchisor,” and in his eyes he already had results.

He had grown by one new franchisee every 3 months. And—he said all his franchisees were going well.

He was looking for a “business coach” to help him expand his small network of franchisees into a national brand in both Australia and New Zealand; within 3 years.

I was there to talk to him and see if I could help him reach his goals. 

Let me say this—I completely understand that everyone is motivated by different goals. As part of my coaching process, I ask all my clients about their goals. And honestly, Steve’s answers surprised me and even shocked him a bit. 

His answer consisted of two parts. Firstly, he answered:

“I want a bigger boat than my old Franchisor”

Wait. What?

My response, after I got over my surprise, 

“There are lots of other ways to get the money to buy a bigger boat, there must be another reason?”

He answered: “No, I want a bigger boat than him! My old boss is nothing more than a bogan with cash, if he can do it then I can do it better.”

(“Bogan” is Australian slang for an uncouth or unsophisticated person regarded as being of low social status)

 I should point out his ex-franchisor is the one of the biggest building franchisors in the Southern Hemisphere. They have large numbers of franchisees and have been in business for over 20 years. They build a lot of homes every year. Getting a bigger boat than a someone in a business of that size might be tough … he could be getting a bigger boat as we speak anyway?”

That being said, Steve did have a very valid point about being able to do some things better than the “other guy.”  Some of their practices really could stand to be improved upon and he certainly did have the abilities to do so. 

However, if he honestly looked at the overall comparison between a long-term established business and his fledging franchise system, the results would definitely not be in his favour—they were outperforming him on most levels. 

What’s Going on Under the Surface?

Confidence and a competitive nature are vital attributes for any business owner wanting to go to the next level. Being brave enough to take a huge chance is big part of what drives many budding entrepreneurs. Fortune does truly favour the brave. 

The problem in Steve’s case was the ego that he was using to motivate himself. It was all about self-interest. He really just wanted to “beat” his old franchisor. 

I don’t know for sure what his old franchisor did to cause Steve’s animosity towards him, but it must have been pretty awful.  

It was true some of Steve’s systems were better than the old systems. But the bottom line was that he had really only re-engineered his old franchisors systems. At least, that’s how I saw his system.

The biggest challenge he was facing in his business was the slow recruitment of his franchisees. He was spending good money on marketing for new franchisees. He had about 30 new franchisee enquiries each month, not bad for a business with only 20 franchisees. 

The real problem became clear rather quickly though—only one person joined his group every three months. That is only one out of every 90 new enquiries that converted to a new franchisee. Not a very good conversion rate for anyone.

There was obviously something very wrong with his recruitment system. When I asked him about his recruitment process he said it all depended on whether they were “tyre kickers” or not. (A “tyre kicker” is salesperson slang for a buyer who is merely looks at many cars with no intention to actually buy one) 

In my experience, this term is most often used by under-performing salespeople who blame the potential buyer for their poor results.  

Apparently, one of his office administration people would take the first enquiry and only if they “sounded like good ones” to her, would she pass them on to Steve. If she didn’t like the sound of them, or if she was busy, she would simply send them a brochure in the mail. 

This clearly was not a professional franchise recruitment system. Untrained office staff evaluating his potential new franchisees from a quick phone call and a “gut instinct” seemed foolish, and frankly, disrespectful to the potential franchisees as well as the franchising industry as a whole. 

I told him that in 20 years of being involved in franchise sales, I still cannot tell the good candidates from the bad ones based on a phone call. And that there was certainly no way an office administrator had the powers to read the future at that level.  

I pointed out that I had sold more franchisees in my first 3 months of commencing franchising than he had done in 5 years, and that this attitude simply would not work. 

Steve’s reasoning was that he had better things to do than waste time and money on those callers who weren’t going to end up buying anything from him.

He honestly felt that it was a waste of time to talk to customers that didn’t buy? 

Okay …

I asked him about the sales system he had in place to sell homes. For the most part, he did have a system for this, but it ran pretty much parallel to that of his old franchisor. He thought it was different when he was selling franchises than when he was selling the actual houses. 

They May Not Buy Today

Let me tell you, there are a lot of people who enquire about your “product,” no matter what it is, that will not buy immediately. They may buy tomorrow, they may buy next week, next month, or even next year. 

Are you honestly willing to consider all of them a waste of your time simply because they didn’t buy TODAY? If you do… you may just be the best salesperson your competition has got. Because, using Steve as an example, most everyone will buy a house at some point. Operating the way Steve was operating insured his potential customers would go to the competition instead.

Not to mention, that his existing franchise systems were not giving confidence and direction to the families who were looking to join his network. His own self-interest had contaminated his entire business system.

The problem with Steve’s business was that he created it from a completely selfish idea—to buy boats, aircraft, and flashy cars. He saw his business as a way to get the expensive toys he wanted to play with. He spent little to no time developing the systems in his business that would work for his potential franchisees and their clients. 

Steve’s primary interest in money so he could buy a bigger boat was reflected in the vibe he sent to his potential franchisees. I know we’re talking about franchisees here but how do you think Steve treated the people who enquired about buying houses from him? I suspect the same.

I had the systems that could have put Steve’s business on the right track to becoming a high-level franchisor. I didn’t end up working with him though—I’m not much of a boat guy, honestly. 

What Drives You?

For me, swallowing my pride when I was a young, 20-something year old dad, and learning the skills I needed to make my own car cleaning business a success completely changed my life and the lives of my family.

Throughout my 20 years of working with franchisees, I was always driven by the desire to share the dream of helping family businesses really work for their families. We used franchising to educate and lead thousands of family businesses to small business success. 

Once you deliver the dream, the money will follow.

If you decide you want to grow your business to the next level, you must first take the time to make a definite decision about on where you want your business journey to end. 

Then make the plan, take consistent action towards your dream business, and get the help you need to make those dreams a reality.

The Gold:

  The question is do you take your business to the next level? Is it worth the risk?

• Stop and take the time to make a definite decision about where you want your business journey to end.
• Fear of failure is a terrible reason to take your business to the next level, but if you want to restructure and remove yourself from the day-to-day duties of running the business, that is a different story. 
• One of the biggest mistakes you can get caught up in is chasing moneyfor money sake.
• Confidence and a competitive nature are vital attributes for any business owner wanting to go to the next level. Being brave enough to take the risk is big part of what drives the budding entrepreneur.
• The money will follow after you deliver the dream.

“Always Chase the dream, not the money!”

Robert James :Best Selling Author at "The Ultimate Guide to an Extraordinary Service Business"