The TRUTH About Work-Life Balance in a Franchise Business [Franchising Tips]

The Daly Coach

0:00 Have you heard the rumor that start-up businesses require 100 hours a week?

0:07 You love the idea of owning your future,

0:09 but you don't want to give one hundred hours a week!

0:12 This is the video for you.

0:28 In all seriousness, is work/life balance possible when you start a business?

0:34 It's a really common question and even concern by many people.

0:38 The answer The Daly Coach would give you is: it depends.

0:42 It depends on you, and it depends on the franchise you've invested in.

0:47 First of all, when you start an entrepreneurial business,

0:51 work/life balance—this is where the rumor or the myth probably

0:55 comes from, because you have to be the one creating everything.

1:00 And many entrepreneurial businesses are centered around the owners'

1:05 center of influence and what that owner knows.

1:08 But because in a franchise, you can invest in a business that doesn't rely

1:13 on your expertise because you don't need prior experience to be successful.

1:18 And because you can invest in a franchise that has the leverage of systems,

1:24 and people, and technology,

1:26 and even a brand, then owners can come in to the franchise,

1:32 working on the business rather than in the business.

1:35 And that's what allows them to come in as a semi-absentee owner.

1:40 Now, not all franchises allow semi-absentee owners.

1:45 There are many franchises that say, "Look,

1:47 we know that our top-performing owners will always be

1:50 those who take a full-time role in the business.

1:54 But there are a select group

1:56 of franchisees that do allow semi-absentee ownership.

2:00 And, in fact, even promote it.

2:02 They're looking for executives who have full-time

2:05 jobs to be franchise owners in their system.

2:09 They're looking for business owners who are looking

2:12 to diversify their investment into this particular franchise.

2:16 So, a semi-absentee owner is probably going to be

2:19 putting in somewhere between ten to twenty hours a week,

2:22 but it's really going to depend on the owner.

2:25 So, the other depends in this "is work/life balance possible

2:30 when you start a business?" is—it depends on YOU, the owner.

2:35 You are the biggest factor in the success of your business,

2:41 and the biggest factor that nobody can predict other than you.

2:46 It always comes down to that.

2:48 It comes down to you.

2:50 There are some franchises that absolutely allow semi-absentee owner,

2:54 and even owners who go in, thinking they're going to be semi-absentee.

2:58 But once they put their money into it, they realize they can't let it go, right?

3:03 They want to they want to kind of micromanage everything.

3:06 They want to be in it and on it and paying attention to everything.

3:09 And that's just probably a little bit out of fear.

3:12 They need to try to control everything

3:14 until they get through their learning curve,

3:16 and then hopefully, they can back up

3:18 and enjoy the freedom of what they've built.

3:22 But then some people just can't.

3:23 The whole time they're going to be a business owner,

3:26 and the business allows semi-absentee.

3:27 They just can't do that.

3:29 And that's okay!

3:30 if that's how they want to run their business, then more power to them.

3:35 But if the franchise does allow semi-absentee ownership,

3:39 and you can validate with other business

3:42 owners who are working their business part-time,

3:45 who have full-time jobs or other businesses,

3:49 and these people are some of the top-performers in the franchise,

3:52 then there's no reason to doubt that you can't do it, too.

3:56 But you have to let go of the reins.

3:59 You have to believe in your leadership skills.

4:02 You have to trust the systems, and the brand, and the location.

4:07 And for some people, again, that leap of faith,

4:11 that trust is just not there until they have their own learning curve,

4:14 and then they can step back.

4:17 So, the answer to this question is, is work/life balance possible?

4:21 It depends.

4:21 It depends on you, and it depends on the business that you invest in.

4:26 The best coaching advice that The Daly Coach would give to you

4:29 and to any business owner who buys a business or invest

4:32 in a business and feels like they can't get out from underneath it

4:38 is to step back and go back to your vision and your goals.

4:43 Why did you start this business in the first place?

4:47 Sometimes along the path of starting this business,

4:50 we lose sight of why we wanted to do this in the first place.

4:55 We forget that we have ultimate control over how things can go.

5:01 It's very easy when you are stepping out of your comfort zone,

5:06 and you're taking this leap of faith.

5:08 It's very easy to feel.

5:10 I don't want to use the word "victim," but to feel very

5:15 insecure and almost like you have to react to everything that's happening,

5:20 forgetting that you can proactively drive what is happening.

5:25 The second part of what I do for my candidates, in addition.

5:28 To finding them the right business that matches their goals is to coach them,

5:33 to help them start to think about their life

5:36 as a business owner and to get clear specific goals first,

5:39 to identify again why with specificity, why are you doing this, and what

5:46 are you trying to achieve through this business?

5:49 The business becomes the vehicle that's going

5:51 to drive their life to this new place, but then to break down their financial

5:58 goals for the business into weekly, monthly,

6:02 and even daily sales goals so that they can

6:07 come to work with clarity and know exactly what

6:11 they have to achieve that day to be on the path to where they want to end up.

6:17 This is something that I did back in 2012 when I decided to really

6:23 get clear and specific about what I wanted to achieve in my business.

6:27 I built a very clear and specific daily sales plan for myself,

6:32 and I held myself accountable to it.

6:34 And one year later, I had built the largest

6:38 franchise consulting business in the history of franchise consulting.

6:42 So, I was an average performing consultant for the first

6:45 eight years that I was here at FranChoice.

6:47 And then I got serious and focused and got clear about my goals.

6:52 Instead of looking to the big goal,

6:53 I focused on what I could do that day, what I could control.

6:59 That day I came to work empowered,

7:02 almost like a game just to accomplish that one goal.

7:06 Then the next day, I came to work,

7:08 and I held myself accountable again to that one goal.

7:11 And the next day and every single day built upon itself,

7:15 it's like, how do you eat the elephant one bite at a time?

7:19 How do you build the million-dollar business one day at a time?

7:23 So, if you want work/life balance, you have to be disciplined to have a plan

7:30 and then to hold yourself accountable to that plan.

7:34 Every year now, since that standout year back in 2012,

7:39 around November and early December, I start thinking about the year ahead.

7:44 When do I want to take vacation?

7:47 How many days off do I want to have?

7:50 I plan my vacations and my days off before I

7:55 plan how many days I'm going to be in my office.

7:57 Is that genius or what?

7:58 Like this is the best way to never feel like

8:00 a slave to your business because you are totally in control.

8:06 A business mentor of mine taught me years ago that you can take as many

8:10 days off when you own a business as many days off as you want.

8:15 You just have to be that much more effective

8:17 on the days that you show up in your office.

8:20 So, if you can break down your sales goal

8:22 from your annual goal down to the number of days that you're

8:26 going to be in the office to where you can figure

8:30 out exactly how effective you need to be every single day,

8:34 then literally there's no question that you can have work/life balance.

8:38 You can take as many days off as you want.

8:41 And every November, December, since that standout year back in 2012,

8:46 I've created this plan for myself where I think about

8:49 the number of days I want to be in the office.

8:52 And then, I divide those days by my by my revenue goal

8:55 to figure out then how much revenue per day I need to be generating.

9:00 One other tip I have for finding work/life balance is delegating.

9:05 If there are things that you don't like to do,

9:09 they're not in your sweet spot of like the things that get your juices going.

9:14 You've got to delegate those things!

9:16 This is something I learned about myself years ago.

9:19 There are some things that I do that inspire me and motivate me and energize me.

9:24 And then there are some things that I have to do

9:26 as a business owner that sort of suck the life out of me.

9:30 What I realize is that if I could afford to pay people to do those things,

9:35 it would save my time and my energy to do the things that I enjoy doing,

9:40 which for me and my business are the things that drive the greatest result.

9:45 So, really, being conscientious of all of the different

9:48 activities you have to do as a business owner, picking the ones that you're best

9:54 at, and then delegating tasks to your employees so that you can have more time