6 Small Business Lessons From a Franchising Giant

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For more than 60 years the U.S. Small Business Administration has celebrated National Small Business Week. On April 28 – May 4, I’ll be celebrating the ones that get overlooked. Mostly because they’re presumably famous and misunderstood.

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I’m talking about franchises that are often mislabeled as big businesses because of their household names and collective economic contributions. It’s a conundrum that has plagued the franchise community for decades. But thank goodness professional communicators like me love a challenge. Because for decades my accidental journey into franchising has:

• fostered my love for small businesses with big brands,
• given me an appreciation for the franchise business model across many industries (not just fast food),
• and provided a front-row seat to the American Dream,? live and in action.

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It started in my 20s when I got married, relocated to Dallas and traded my client-side PR job at Baylor University for my full-fledged agency career. That’s when my new boss handed me my very first account: Dwyer Group. He assumed it would be familiar. After all, I had worked a stone’s throw from the company’s global headquarters in Waco for years. I, on the other hand, was too young and inexperienced to tell him that I knew absolutely nothing about franchising. I knew even less about home services and Dwyer Group. Zippo. Zilch.

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Nonetheless, that account – now known as Neighborly? , the world’s largest home services provider – was one of life’s biggest blessings. Because everything, and I mean everything, I ever needed to know about the mind-boggling, dream-fulfilling power of small business via franchising came lightning-fast from that organization. What exactly did I learn?

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6 Small Business Lessons From a Franchising Giant:

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1.???? Mom-and-pop business success is downright hard. Franchise business success, by comparison, is smart. Notice I didn’t say easy. It does require work! At Neighborly, I saw firsthand that it was way more advantageous to join a powerhouse network like Mr. Rooter? Plumbing than to go it alone as Mike’s Pipe and Drain Cleaning. The same can be said for Sports Clips versus Mike’s Barbershop. Or McDonald’s versus Mike’s Burgers. You get the idea. When you choose to be your own boss with a franchise opportunity, you can be in business for yourself but not by yourself. You are still the independently-owned and operated local small business in your market, albeit with some enormous branding power to impact the bottom line.

2.???? You don’t have to be an expert to be the boss. But you do need to follow the system. That’s right. You don’t have to be a plumber to run Mr. Rooter, or an electrician to run Mr. Electric? , or a maid to run Molly Maid USA , or a landscaper to run The Grounds Guys? . In fact, there are incredibly successful franchisees who have flocked to Neighborly as corporate evacuees, or military veterans, or even fresh college grads. You name it, their varied backgrounds are present across more than 5,500 franchises and counting. Their fit for franchising doesn’t always include trade skills, but it does include a willingness to follow a proven system. That’s why people invest in the first place. They want to be the boss, but they don’t want to have to reinvent the wheel to make it happen. Instead, they can join a franchise system and avoid small business mistakes by having a roadmap to follow on day one.

3. Small business ownership is better with peers versus competitors. The allure of franchising isn’t just the brain trust from corporate headquarters. It’s also the network of peers championing the same brand, offering the same services, and collectively boosting the marketing prowess and buying power of that network. I cannot tell you how many annual reunions I’ve attended [what Neighborly calls its yearly franchise convention] to see an army of people embracing each other like family. Franchisees don’t feel like they live on an island. They have fellow small business owners – their colleagues and friends – who can troubleshoot issues, brainstorm opportunities, share best practices and more. The end result is exponential success and perseverance. Just ask those who survived the pandemic together!

4.???? The exit strategy is as attractive as the grand opening. The idea of one day retiring and riding off into the sunset runs a close second to being the boss. And it certainly helps to have something of value [with a customer base, brand awareness and history of trust] to sell when you get there. That’s why franchise resales have a higher valuation and consistently outperform mom-and-pop businesses. In fact, other small businesses often just close and go out of business altogether. The first time I attended new business training at Neighborly, I sat with a class of new franchisees in the now-famous “Design Your Life” seminar. This class was already asking them to define their biggest life goals – goals of how to live beyond the investment, how to achieve their dreams and aspirations long after franchising. It was all orchestrated to formulate a number. How much money will you need to get there? From day one, these small business owners were outlining a strategy to actually leave the business. Boom!

5.???? The American Dream is alive and well, regardless of economic swings. Neighborly, and franchising in general, has serious staying power. I’ve seen it firsthand. Small business owners are the shining examples across countless franchise brands that the America Dream is not a dream at all, but a wonderful reality. I can remember when I first began working with Dwyer Group and it was publicly-traded. As sexy as that sounds, it was under threat of being delisted on the stock exchange because it was trading so low. What can I say? It wasn’t headquartered in Silicon Valley with dot-com on the name. Yet today it accounts for over $4.3 billion in annual systemwide sales. Thank goodness so many franchisors, including Neigborly’s service brands, have decades upon decades of history to prove that good business is more than a fad.

6.???? Private equity is a game-changer. Read my LinkedIn article "Comfort Is the Enemy of Growth" [ https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/comfort-enemy-growth-monica-feid-mnfve/?trackingId=uZrM6lyzRDyFLMWgcSuphw%3D%3D ] and this will make complete sense. There is big money driving big growth for big success with, you guessed it, small business.

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Now go support your local franchise locations. As radical as it sounds, you’ll likely be supporting small businesses!

[NOTE: Neighborly is a client of BizCom Associates .]

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