Are You a Chronic Sufferer of E.D.

Are you a chronic sufferer of ED. If so, it’s OK, you can talk about it in public now. You shouldn’t be embarrassed. Many people suffer from the same affliction. Of course, I am talking about Entrepreneur Disorder.

It wasn’t until recently that many studies have been conducted about entrepreneurs, or the almost debilitating disorder that oftentimes accompanies the personality traits. Now, thanks to a few brave entrepreneurs who weren’t afraid to have their private lives exposed to the public, we now know a lot more about both the individual and the disorder.

Let’s take a look at some of the personality traits of a successful “self-starter” businessperson, as well as the accompanying symptoms of the disorder.

Discipline
Entrepreneurs typically don’t do well in a highly structured environment. This means that they don’t really enjoy having somebody breathing down their neck all the time.

One symptom of E.D. that corresponds to this trait is irritability towards supervisors. This symptom is easy to spot, even by an untrained eye. If you ever see a co-worker planning the death of a superior, or speaking incoherently about torture techniques, don’t be so quick to jump to conclusions. E.D. is commonly misdiagnosed as schizophrenia and may also be mistreated with anger management techniques.

Confidence
Most entrepreneurs are extremely confident in their abilities. This means that they truly believe they can do anything. This not only includes those realistic activities such as managing a company or efficiently controlling costs, but it also includes flying, or even bringing the dead back to life. Lee Iacocca’s work with Chrysler is a good example of that.

Symptoms of E.D. that are related to Confidence may include an unusually swollen head and unbearable arrogance. Entrepreneurs suffering from this symptom are easy to spot in a crowd. They are the ones you see singing at the top of their lungs, “Anything you can do I can do better” from the Broadway play, Annie Get Your Gun.

E.D. is rarely ever diagnosed from this symptom alone because many non-entrepreneurs suffer from this symptom also.

Weak Interpersonal Relationships
Entrepreneurs tend to care about the accomplishments of a person more than they care about that person’s feelings. An entrepreneur could be accused of reducing all business relationships to a few simple questions: What have you done for me? What have you done for me lately? What will you do for me in the future?

Symptoms of E.D. related to this trait may include a lack of friends and excessive time alone. I am sure that many psychiatrists have misdiagnosed their patients with depression when they were really only blossoming entrepreneurs suffering from advanced symptoms of E.D. Just imagine if Ludwig von Beethoven’s doctors had been aware of E.D., we could be going to the golden V (Von Beethoven's) eating a Big Von, fries and a shake. The world will never know.


This quasi-fictitious disorder is somewhat serious and could be spread by human contact. Proper treatment is only a phone call away.

At FranMan, we work with entrepreneurs every day. Our staff members have been trained to work with entrepreneurs in their own environment. We nurture their traits and we have learned how to redirect those energies into more productive behaviors.

If you are, or if you know of anybody suffering from one or more of these symptoms, please call FranMan immediately at 214-207-2035. Operators will be standing by.

"To franchise, or not to franchise"

"To franchise, or not to franchise: that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles."

That modified line from William Shakespeare's Hamlet (written about 1600), sort of makes sense today if you have ever walked down the path of franchising. I have seen it be very difficult, though with the potential for great rewards.

The real question is, should you utilize franchising as a means of distribution of your product or service? Does it necessarily mean that you should franchise your business concept just because your business model is duplicable? I think that the answer to that question is a resounding NO! Not everybody has what it takes to develop and successfully manage a franchise system. A quick read of Michael Gerber’s book, E-Myth, will tell you all you need to know about that.

Think about it like a big box with a kitten in it. Everybody loves kittens, and if I asked you to be in charge of keeping a kitten in the box, you would have no problems doing that. What would happen if I threw in another 10 kittens for you to manage? Could you do that too? Some could and some couldn’t. Regardless of your kitten management skills, eventually, some of the kittens would start climbing out. Eventually, you would have kittens all over the place. Herding kittens is no easy job.

Here is a short list of some of the activities (kittens) that you will have to learn to do (to herd) simultaneously.

• Manage one or all of your existing locations
• Locate a qualified franchise attorney that you enjoy working with
• Find a company to help you develop an operating manual of your procedures
• Develop your system standards
• Grow your existing business
• Complete the FDD questionnaire for the franchise attorney
• Get your logo registered with the trademark office
• Endure a financial audit for the FDD
• Purchase every domain name that closely resembles your company’s
• Review rough drafts of your new FDD and Franchise Operations Manual
• Manage one or all of your existing locations
• Develop a franchisee training program
• Determine how you will market your concept to desirable candidates. (It doesn’t matter how many people have told you to franchise, as soon as you are ready to offer the opportunity to prospective franchisees, everybody disappears.)
• Put your marketing efforts into action
• Screen the prospects
  Interview the prospects
• Manage one or all of your existing locations
• Grant the franchise, sign the contract and collect the money

This is when it really starts to get time consuming

• Help your new franchisee locate a suitable site
• Work with the franchisee on the build out of the site
• Manage one or all of your existing locations
• Conduct a franchisee training session
• Attend the grand opening
• Screen, interview and close additional prospective franchisees

I am sure that the list above is not comprehensive, but it gives you an idea. It looks really difficult, and it is. Not everybody is cut out of the same mold, so not everybody is up to the task. That degree of multitasking talent is rare and requires a great deal of energy.

Many business owners are very creative and can generate great ideas for products and businesses. They may even be able to open a small business and provide their product or service to their community. However, when it comes to the multitude of activities that must be completed simultaneously in order for a business to develop, market, grant and manage franchises, the list of truly qualified business managers becomes very short. That is to say, you may not want to franchise your business concept just because your business model is duplicable.

Here is the good news. If you are reading this, then you probably already have a business of your own, which means that you are an entrepreneur. That means that you are one of a unique breed of people whose natural born personality traits include the ability to multitask at high levels, as well as an abundance of energy. If you are this person, then you have a much higher probability of success and you are more likely to reap the benefits, both financial and emotional, of operating a franchise system.

Top 10 Signs That Your Manual Is Outdated

10. The dress code section forbids the use of parachute pants.

9. The “Technology” chapter of the manual talks about the up-and-coming “World Wide Web Internet” and “Electronic Mail Messages.”

8. Reproducing your manual involves a combination of printing, photocopying, and borrowing documents from your field staff.

7. The Management Documents section of the manual reads, “Copies are also available on Floppy Diskette.”

6. The franchise manual update folder in your file cabinet is full of updates that already need updating.

5. The process of updating your manual involves a chisel and a hammer.

4. The cover page of your manual says “Y2K Compliant.”

3. Your franchisees refer to the manual as “The Dead Sea Scroll.”

2. The last three times you made official updates to the manual, you only changed the revision date on the cover page (Don't laugh. I know that some of you have done that.)

And the number one sign that your Operations Manual is outdated is......

1. It was NOT written by FranMan, the leading producer of custom Franchise Operations Manuals, and the only place you can get "The Online Manual by FranMan."

Site-Visit versus Questionnaire?

When a company comes to your place of business to assess the operations and procedures, do you believe it is possible for them to learn everything they need to know with only a questionnaire, or is a face-to-face site visit required? There are obviously some variables in play, such as who will be completing a questionnaire, and who will be conducting the interview.

Follow-up question: Has anybody ever heard of or experienced another method of information gathering?

Online Franchise Operations Manual

Clients tell us that they can never keep up with manual updates. Alternatively, when they do finally get around to updating the manual, they can never be sure that the franchisees are reading them, much less inserting the pages in the appropriate places in their manual. Finally, they tell us that it is difficult to find exactly what they want in the manual. They say that searching for a specific topic is just too time consuming.

We have just finished developing a product that should solve those problems and more. It’s our online manual. Customized to your company’s look for seamless integration, the manual has all of the typical features you would expect to find in an online product. However, we have tried to implement great new features that will help franchisors and franchisees do their job better.

A couple of those include:

• Franchisees will be automatically notified instantly of any changes to the manual, keeping them up-to-date on your most current system standards.



• A tracking feature will allow you to know which of your franchisees have read the most current content. Field consultants can utilize this feature when they are conducting their periodic site visits and you franchise attorney will utilize this feature in the event that your company is ever involved in a lawsuit that involves the application of your system standards.

These are just a few of the features. I would like to invite you to visit franman.net for more information and a short video demonstration, or give us a call or email and we would be happy to provide you with a personal demonstration.

Purpose of a Franchise Operations Manual (Part Two)

Continuing from yesterday's discussion, here are the final two functions of a Franchise Operations Manual.

Third, the Franchise Operations Manual will likely be the principal tool for training new franchisees. It is the “Your Company for Dummies” book. You have to assume that most of your franchisees will not have experience in your industry. They may not have any business experience at all. It is very common for a retired schoolteacher or a retired military person to invest in a franchise. This is not to suggest that school teachers or military personnel don’t have any business savvy, it is only to say that they were not formally trained in business and have not practiced it during their career. Your manual needs to be a document that not only trains them on your system of providing a favorable customer experience, but also one that brings them up to speed on how to manage a business.

Fourth, a well prepared documentation of the procedures that has helped make your company a success will help you sell your concept to potential franchisees. Put yourself in the shoes of a potential franchisee. If you received a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) that showed you that the company had a 50 page document describing all of its operating procedures, you might be a little concerned. You will also take your Franchise Operations Manual with you when you meet with potential franchisees for the first time. In that meeting, you will attempt to sell the concept to the prospect. Like all good sales people, you will likely have a few sales tools to assist you. You will probably present a PowerPoint presentation of the concept, you will review the company’s performance in the FDD, and you will present the Franchise Operations Manual as your proof that you have a well documents system for success.

Purpose of a Franchise Operations Manual (Part One)

Before working with a new client, I think it’s a great exercise to review the functions of a Franchise Operations Manual. Over the next couple of days, I’ll review the main functions of a Franchise Operations Manual because it serves four main purposes.

First, the Franchise Operations Manual is the authority document of the franchise System Standards. The System Standards are the standard procedures that a franchisor requires of all franchisees in order to duplicate the customer experience in every location. The customer experience is the driving force behind profitability. If you can duplicate a favorable customer experience, then you may have a business that you can franchise. If you have a well prepared Franchise Agreement, it should refer to the Franchise Operations Manual as the System Standard. This way, as your system grows and your System Standards change, you only have to update the manual instead of updating the Franchise Agreement.

Second, the Franchise Operations Manual is the most effective tool for protecting your Brand. A company’s Brand is one of its most valuable assets. The Brand is also the asset that is at most risk when a company decides to franchise. When you franchise a concept, you are putting your Brand in the hands of other people, all of whom likely have different ideas about the best direction for the company. A properly prepared Franchise Operations Manual, with well defined and organized System Standards, will be the only tool you have to manage the Brand and control the franchisees when they try to act on their vision for what is best for your Brand.

I’ll conclude with Part Two tomorrow.