8 Years, 8 Lessons. Celebrating AFA’s 8th Anniversary!
Jul 16, 2024
On July 18, we celebrate the 8th anniversary of the American Franchise Academy! It’s been eight incredible years of helping franchisees implement management systems to scale their organizations with confidence, consistency, and profitability.
In the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking about everything that has happened during this time. To honor this celebration, I want to share eight business lessons I have accumulated in the past eight years since I started this journey of helping franchisees be successful with their franchises.
- These lessons are not specifically for franchisees. They apply to every entrepreneur who wants to grow their business.
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Lesson #1: Being an entrepreneur is hard!
Whether you are a franchisee, an independent business owner, or the founder of an academy, the reality is that having a business is challenging. It can’t be done overnight, and it really takes a lot of work, focus, and thinking. And, in between that, a lot of failures, too.
- In fact, new businesses are more likely to fail over five years than they are to succeed. But hopefully, there will also be successes.
Being an entrepreneur myself and experiencing it first-hand, I can confirm that entrepreneurship is hard. I have also seen it with our franchisees’ clients, but I have also witnessed how the help and support we provide in this journey really makes a difference in their success and achievements.
For those of you, brave men and women, who decide to get into franchising or have a business of your own, I salute you on our anniversary! I know what it takes to succeed and keep going despite the difficulties of entrepreneurship.
Don’t miss: 6 Actions Every Entrepreneur Should Implement to Succeed
Lesson #2: Financial understanding is critical
Many people enter entrepreneurship without understanding what it takes to be financially successful in business.
If you are reading this and you are a business owner or thinking of becoming one, take a deep dive into comprehending the numbers surrounding your business. The more you understand them, the more successful you'll be. Plus, with this knowledge, it will be easier to identify the actions you need to take to thrive.
Keep learning: 6 Financial Insights for Multi-Unit Franchisees
Lesson #3: People are essential, and their priorities change over time
The third lesson I learned in the last eight years is that people are crucial to business success. However, as time goes by, what’s considered important will also vary from generation to generation.
We need to understand that the people who work for us and help us make our dreams come true have different priorities, needs, and focuses, depending on their age. And even if they are from your generation, their hopes and aspirations differ!
- Yes, our teams are key, but we need to adapt and flex to their needs so that they can thrive in their jobs.
As a business leader, you must try to understand who your people are and adjust to them so that they feel motivated to work at your business.
Need some help? Download our Employee Revolution Handbook for free!
Lesson #4: What you think people need may not be it
It is wise to start a business offering solutions to people’s needs. But sometimes, what we believe our customers need may not be exactly what they need, or maybe our product or service is not enough.
When I founded the American Franchise Academy eight years ago, we focused on helping franchisees create the systems to manage a multi-unit organization. Every day, and even today, we work to provide the knowledge, tools, and resources they need to build a successful franchise enterprise.
This vision has evolved and changed over the years. By listening to our customers, we created new products to meet other critical needs they had in their businesses. As a result, they are definitely doing better and thriving in their organization, which obviously pleases us.
This is a lesson you should consider because while you may think your customers -or even your employees- need certain things, they may want something else.
- Keeping your eyes and ears open to embrace and hear what they have to say is vital for your success.
Lesson #5: There was no formal District Manager training in the industry
One of the products that we developed to meet our client's requests had to do with the district managers, those multi-unit leaders who oversee multiple locations in the franchise industry.
Our customers needed to train their district managers because this position tends to be executed based on previous experience, word of mouth, and job shadowing rather than having any specific structure or training. But sadly, there was little training in the industry for these leaders.
To change that and solve this pain point, we developed our LEAD program. We are now three years into it, and it has been quite successful, with more than 250 district managers trained!
People have truly enjoyed it, and based on their feedback, our students have learned a significant amount of new knowledge and skills that have helped them be successful in that position.
Not only are these leaders now better prepared to face this challenging role, but their franchisees can also be successful and meet their business and personal goals.
Mini tip: How Franchise Owners Achieve Financial and Time Freedom
Lesson #6: Unit Managers need more leadership and management training
Another one of the products we designed based on our client’s demands has to do with unit managers.
Last year, we launched our first unit manager training program, MANAGE. This has had a significant impact on how I see what we do and how we serve our clients every day because the more unit managers we train, the more we realize the need for them to develop leadership and management skills.
Franchisors do a great job of providing the tools and guidance to train the employees and implement the franchise brand. However, it is up to the franchisees to train their managers on these leadership and management skills, and many franchisees lack that.
The lesson we learned by developing this program is to really dig deep and understand your client's actual needs. As you build your value offer, put them at the center of your business plan and focus on really giving them what they require to make their lives easier.
Keep learning: The Most Important Job in a Franchise: The Unit Manager Job
Lesson #7: Business owners will have to make up for school deficiencies
Many young men and women starting a job in the franchise industry are not prepared the way that I thought the school would have prepared them.
There are specific skills that these high school graduates need to succeed in the work environment and in life, but I have been shocked at how little they know about using Microsoft Office or business technology in general.
In this scenario, unit managers who are responsible for managing and growing a million or $1.5 million business every day lack training on how to use basic tools like Word or Excel.
Seeing this problem, we have adapted our offer to teach unit managers not only leadership and management skills but also tech skills so they can embrace and feel comfortable using these key business platforms that are critical for their roles, and will be critical for the rest of their careers.
In case you missed it: Top 3 Skills a Franchise Manager Must Have
Lesson #8: Consistency is the key to franchise and business success
- The big lesson that I have learned in the last eight years is that consistency wins.
As entrepreneurs, we tend to get inspired and excited about our dreams and business ideas, but if challenges occur along the way, we sometimes give up right before that success happens.
But if you know that what you're doing is exactly what you want to do, if you have the tasks aligned and believe those are the right actions to accomplish your goal, consistency will be your best friend.
Stay with it. Stick to the road. Continue to do that work because, eventually, it will pay off. That's true whether you go to the gym to build some muscles, take lessons to learn a second language, or work hard to start a business.
This also applies to employees wanting to have a franchising industry career. If you are consistent with your work ethic, integrity, and behavior, consistency and discipline will always win.
These are the lessons I have accumulated over the last eight years, and I wanted to share them with all of you who have been with us through this journey, one way or another.
Thank you very much for your support! Whether you watched our videos on YouTube, read our blog, went to our information sessions, or shared information on how the Academy may benefit them, we really appreciated it! This allows us to reach the people who need our services so they can transform their businesses and turn them into success stories.
What is more: by following us, playing and reading our content, attending our webinars, or subscribing to our channels, you inspire me and the AFA team to consistently accomplish our mission of protecting the American dream of business ownership through franchising.
Look out for what is coming up as we continue our journey of helping franchisees achieve their dreams and grow their franchises and multi-unit enterprises.
And again, thank you all for these amazing eight years!
Reflections:
- Do you have enough financial understanding, or could you reinforce your business acumen?
- Is your business adapting to the demands of the new generations to attract and retain new talent?
- Are you truly listening to your client to give them what they need and solve their problems?
- Have you achieved consistency in your franchise operations?
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