Your company’s goal should always be growth. Competition is tough and if you aren’t focused on growth you’ll lose market share, or worse. Growth in revenues, talent, products or services, knowledge, expertise, locations, brands, and profits are all signs of life. It’s important to understand how to effectively lead your business through the growth transition so you can get where you want to go.
That’s why it’s important to identify your ‘why.’ There is always a why behind our actions, ranging from how we build routines, spend our time, or how we define work and fun.
- The route you choose to drive to and from work is the fastest, nicest, quietest, or something else high on your “values” list.
- A specific color inspires you, so you choose a shirt, a car, or a house color based on your favorite color.
- An entrepreneur’s career fulfills a drive to not work for someone else.
- Multi-unit franchising provides a specific opportunity over other ways of owning a business.
These are just a few examples of choices you make based upon something that fulfills, drives, or inspires you. You chose to be a business owner for a particular reason.
So why did you choose to own your own business?
Now that you have identified your why as a multi-unit franchisee business owner, why do you want to grow. Your why to growth is usually something bigger than just fulfilling personal gain such as income. Otherwise, you would have likely chosen a career that was less dependent upon developing and inspiring people.
Knowing your why for growth ensures you build the most efficient strategies for achieving your vision. In addition, your why acts as your compass and litmus test to qualify and quantify if an opportunity or strategy best fits your unique environment. Unfortunately, many multi-unit franchisees set out for growth without a strategy, only creating more work, added stress, and no change in profits. They essentially have made their job harder, burned out the people most critical to the operation’s success, and have no monetary gain to show for the hassle.
So why do you want to grow?
It is good to check your why every five years, because perspective and motivations can change as your responsibilities and life evolve.
People are essential to growth
People are your most treasured asset for success and growth. However, growth requires building a talented team you can delegate to and trust. With your vision, you can set revenue and size milestones to identify when it is necessary to either leverage consultants such as HR or operational specialists or hire subject matter experts within your organization.
Some businesses have a dedicated team for growth opportunities led by a growth manager. Other companies may rely on a business development team.
For more insight on scaling for growth, check out the American Franchise Academy’s programs focused on multi-unit franchise leadership: https://americanfranchiseacademy.mykajabi.com/programs
Growth is complex
Growth can stretch you thin. Adding new locations means recruiting and onboarding new people, marketing, and more, while continuing to perform at a high level with your existing sites. In the article Duplication: Key to Creating Your Growth Playbook, Aicha Bascaro lays out vital processes and procedures essential to successfully keeping all the plates spinning. And as previously discussed, building a talented team is critical for organizational growth.
Fulfilling Your why
Growth is a sign of life, a sign you are working towards fulfilling your why. Why you take on risk as a business owner, allocate the hours to “work,” and stay in the multi-unit franchising business. Growth planning is a transition from where you are now to where you want to go. Growth planning, also known as succession planning, is vital to fulfilling your why. Whether your goal is to sell out for the highest dollar, pass the business to a family member, or create opportunities for key employees, succession planning increases the value and success of your business.
Don’t wait too long to build strategies towards your why. For example, you will become more vulnerable to market swings, franchisor issues, attracting and retaining talent, teamwork, capitalization, and more. Furthermore, during any transition, such as growth, you are typically dealing with increased debt, unknown territory, new employees, and significant distractions from your core business.
Kendall Rawls knows and understands the challenges that impact the success of an entrepreneurial-owned business. Her unique perspective comes from her educational background and, more importantly, from firsthand experience as a second-generation family member of The Rawls Group – Business Succession Planners. For more information, visit www.rawlsgroup.com or email info@rawlsgroup.com.