Franchising

If you're a franchiser who has sold a franchise to an entrepreneur, read this! It explains why you're frustrated.

If you're an entrepreneur who bought a franchise, read this! It explains why you're unhappy.

Hurry! Because in neither case will things get better. Of that I am certain.

Michael Gerber says so, too!

So is Michael E. Gerber, author of The E-Myth and other best-selling business books. Gerber is the man INC Magazine calls "The World's #1 Small Business Guru!" Recently, he and I discussed franchising and entrepreneurs.

At one point in our discussion, Gerber reminded me of what he had written in another of his best-sellers, Awakening the Entrepreneur Within. "Entrepreneurs do not buy business opportunities, they create them," he wrote. "While business opportunities such as franchises are more likely to guarantee the success of the person who buys them, they are only successful to the degree the buyer suppresses his or her inclination to invent--suppresses his or her entrepreneurial passions."

What happens to the entrepreneur who buys a franchise

Now brace yourself franchisee entrepreneurs: "Therefore," Gerber continued, "entrepreneurs who buy business opportunities are doomed to disappointment, no matter how successful the business is. The passion of the entrepreneur is not to run a successful business-not to run a business someone else invented-but to invest in a unique business that becomes successful. Business opportunities are invented for technicians or managers to run who have no aspiration to be entrepreneurs..."

Of course, you already know that if you are a student of Gerber's book, The E-Myth. If you're not, that may explain how you ended up buying a franchise when you really wanted to act like an entrepreneur. Go read the book - maybe again?

Franchisers only pretend to want entrepreneurs

"Franchisers," Gerber said to me, "can only hope not to sell a franchise to an entrepreneur. They may say that's who they are looking for, but they're not. Once they sell to an entrepreneur, their real problems begin. Entrepreneurs want to do things their way. A good franchiser knows that franchisees must do things the franchiser's way. That's why Ray Kroc was so successful with McDonald's. It's why so many other franchises are not successful."

Written it and done it, too

At 73, Gerber speaks with the authority of one who has not only written the Small Business Gospel, but lived it. Both old and new covenants. He's been a franchiser. Plans to become one again. He knows the wants, desires, motivations and frailties of people, people who buy and start businesses, people who operate businesses, and especially people who do so unsuccessfully. Unhappily. People who wonder why their business didn't turn out better.

He knows why.

It's the F-Myth. The myth that franchising was created and exists for entrepreneurs.

"Sell" is not a four letter word

The Question: What do you do now?

If you're an entrepreneur who owns a franchise and you're unhappy, sell! It's not going to get better. If you're happy, good for you and good for your franchiser. 

If you're a franchiser who has sold to an entrepreneur and you're frustrated (because the franchisee won't comply), encourage the franchisee to sell! In fact, think about buying back the franchise. It's not going to get better.

Meanwhile, if you're truly an entrepreneur, don't buy a franchise unless you can agree to do things the franchiser's way. If you're a franchiser, don't sell to entrepreneurs unless you're okay with them doing things their way (and you should not be). Both desires are difficult to resist.