When is it Time for a Career Change: and Is Franchise Ownership Your Next Move?

There may come a point in your career when you find it harder and harder to go to work. Not just Monday mornings either, or on your first day back from vacation; in general. If so, it might be time to open a new door.

?One of the clearest indicators is persistent dissatisfaction. If your work feels monotonous or lacks purpose, and nothing really recharges your enthusiasm, think of it as similar to a low-grade fever in medicine. Something deeper may be misaligned. A career should not only provide financial stability but also offer some sense of satisfaction or purpose beyond just paying the monthly bills.

?Another sign is the realization that your growth has plateaued. If you’ve mastered your role and there’s little room for advancement, this may feel like stability – you can tell yourself you’re choosing a boring but secure path. But actually, staying on may be the worst thing for your career, eroding away your alternatives and leaving you vulnerable to that one employer. Companies look for energetic and ambitious people. How would you like to get to the point, years down the road, when an interviewer asks you, “Why on earth did you stay in that role so long?”

?Burnout is another red flag. If your job consistently drains your energy and leaves you feeling exhausted or stressed, it could be time to reevaluate. Sure, putting in a hard day’s work is tiring, but it shouldn’t be killing your capacity for joy. Sometimes it’s a loved one who points this out to you – you yourself may actually be too tired to notice. If so, listen to them and think it over.

?There are other indicators, but these are a few. And if that’s the direction your thinking is leading you, should you be thinking about franchising?

?There’s always another corporate job out there, though it may be easy or harder to find. But let’s say you do find some new employment that you could be good at. Unfortunately, corporate success is not just about your know-how or skills, or even your productivity. Every corporate role is about fitting in as well. Do you want to risk a new, unfamiliar employer and new hierarchies? We’ve all worried that we could be jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.

?Business ownership is not for everyone, but it might be worth considering as one of your options. While of course it brings a whole set of risks of its own, it does certainly free you from the tyranny of other people’s opinions. Instead of making money for somebody else, trying to meet targets somebody has assigned, and implementing decisions that somebody else believes in, suddenly you are the decision-maker and the beneficiary as well. You might actually work harder, especially in the beginning, but it’s not the same.

?But what if you don’t have a design in mind for the new, ultimate mouse trap? What if you want that independence of owning a business, but you’re not sure what that business should be doing?

?Business ownership doesn’t have to mean jumping into the unknown. Franchising offers a unique solution. You are the owner and ultimate decision-maker, but you have the opportunity to leverage proven systems and an established business model, ie, it can be the best of both worlds. Is there a guarantee of success? No. But it is a new door to open, a new adventure and the outcomes will depend very substantially on you.