As entrepreneurs, we fantasize about the day we start our own business or make our first million. The strategy for maintaining success is the ultimate objective that many entrepreneurs fail to consider. But achieving success is only half the battle. In franchising, the future of business is a serious topic because the only constant thing is change. We are dealing with the feeling of continual flux now more than ever. A potential recession, staffing woes, and various political and social dynamics can make you wonder which end is up? The keys to surviving and thriving in this environment are solid and flexible strategies, processes, and organizational culture so your company can ebb and flow with shifts in our environment.
It can sometimes feel like the odds are stacked against you. But there is a way to create light, hope, and a pathway towards what you are working hard to create.
Flexible Strategies
The future isn’t certain. Experts, scholars, and even economists did not predict the dot.com bubble burst, the financial meltdown in 2008, or our recent Covid experience. This is where Scenario Planning comes into the picture.
First used in creating military strategy, this planning approach helps decision-makers incorporate uncertainty, challenge conventional wisdom, and question core assumptions in current thinking.
Scenario Planning allows organizations to think about how changes may impact business, determine what is required to succeed, and develop a strategy relevant to those changes. In short, scenario planning helps us avoid two significant planning pitfalls: Overprediction and underprediction. Both can be barriers to moving to the next level of success.
Download our “Scenario Planning Guide”
Strong and Flexible Processes and Procedures
Sustainable success depends upon talent, teamwork, and rock-solid systems for your people to follow as the business grows or ebbs with change. The franchise model’s magic is the franchisor’s processes and procedures that provide you with turnkey best practices to follow. However, every market is different, and so are core values and organizational culture; some systems are unique to your organization. Take time to discuss with your managers and leaders what is and is not working and ask them for ideas and feedback for improvements. Review and collaborative discussion will strengthen your systems and create an ownership mentality among the leaders in your organization.
Culture
Innovation is a crucial component of corporate sustainability. Develop a creative culture in your company as a business owner and offer a forum and a way to bring new, unique strategies that will appeal to customers and clients. Innovation isn’t only about the sexiest new idea, thing, or service; it’s also about how it’s delivered and how the community receives it. The capacity to provide your customers with what they want and how they want it before they even realize they need or want it is one of the most crucial components of innovation. Identify areas of opportunities where it makes sense to collaborate with your franchisor to adopt a fresh concept or find room for their franchise regulations to be flexible.
You must pay attention to all three of these simultaneously, rather than just one of them separately. You can assess how well your company and leadership team are set up for the future and aligned with your vision by considering these three factors as you interact with your team daily, weekly, and monthly.
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.