Whether you realize it or not, you have plenty of skills that will help you success as a franchise owner. Your past experience, your past jobs have all taught you skills that you need in order to run and maintain a thriving business location. As you’re gearing up to buy your franchise, consider all that you have learned as an employee, and how you can use those skills in your future business.
Take a look at these common pre-existing skills, and see if and how you can use them to benefit your own franchise location in years to come.
1. Customer Service
We’ve all heard “the customer is always right,” and we all know that isn’t necessarily the case. However, past jobs taught you how to deal with difficult customers, including those who think they are right … even if they aren’t. Call upon your ability to calm customers and ease a situation that could have otherwise escalated. This is valuable to you as a franchise owner and can help you through many days, especially whenever you might host a difficult shopper.
2. How to Work More Efficiently as a Franchisee
Just because the next guy takes two extra steps to get the job done, doesn’t mean you need to. As an upcoming franchise owner, remember your days of wasted efforts and how you made them into a more streamlined process. Even shaving off a few seconds from each task can create a skill that’s far more efficient. As an employee that helped you get more done, faster. As a business owner, it can help you lead others to more efficient days, and to create a working business that cuts out excess expenses or wasted time.
Use this method with your franchise location in order to keep things running quickly and smoothly for your business.
3. Counting Change and Taking Tickets
Sounds simple, right? But if you haven’t done it before (or haven’t done it in a while), taking payments can be surprisingly flustering. Don’t worry, the rust knocks off quickly. As a franchise owner, you can call upon your previous years of counting back cash and making small talk
Help your customers feel at ease while they’re cashing out. You can teach this skill to your employees, too. Even if you rarely plan to ring up customers or help them pay, it’s an ability you’ll need to rely on when others are busy. If nothing else, you can also coach the newbies on best practices based on your years of learning.
4. Putting Out Fires
Anyone who’s ever had an entry-level career was put in a situation where something went wrong. Where they had to think on their feet and/or create a new plan. This fast-paced environment is one in which you can learn to adapt quickly and effectively.
Remember your ability to think on your feet, how to put out fires as they arise. This will be a recurring theme as a franchise owner, so the faster you can master it, the better off you will become.
5. How to Stay Busy as a Franchise Owner
Chances are you’ll have more than enough to keep you busy in your beginning stages of business ownership. But there will also be days wherein you just need to stay on task. If early career jobs teach us anything, it’s how to find things to do while at work.
Make yourself useful – while staying productive – as a franchise owner. Set aside time to work, and get things done within that timeframe. Even if you’re “done” with work, accomplishing more in your allotted schedule will get you ahead of the game, rather than allowing incoming tasks to pile up.
6. How to Do the Menial Jobs
Sure, there are tasks you don’t want to do. The cleaning, the miniscule stuff that needs to be checked off, yet no one wants to actually do. But someone still has to do them, right? As the business owner you might not be the one assigned said tasks, but it’s good to remember what it’s like. Never forget where you came from and your ownership skills will serve you well.
Or, in the case that workers are having a hard time, all you have to do is pick up the slack yourself. Seeing the boss do the “yuck” work will do wonders for its perception. Take a few minutes to set the tone and you’ll be surprised just how much harder your franchise employees will work.
7. Talk Up Your Job as a Franchisee
Have you ever had a conversation with someone who wasn’t quite sure about your job? You hear, “You do what?” and you automatically go into a routine. Develop a go-to speech for your franchise in the same manner. It’s a quick pitch where you can tell folks what you do, who you do it for, and why they should come to your business location.
It’s a fast way to spread the word about your brand and to slip in a quick marketing opportunity, too.
8. Bonding With Your Coworkers
Working with someone creates a friendship that likely wouldn’t have otherwise existed. Remember this camaraderie and how it exists for your employees. You don’t have to get on the same level with them as the boss (in fact, you shouldn’t), but that doesn’t mean you can’t make friends. But in any case, remember that they are friends and respect that bond – it can allow them to work better and more effectively as a team.
9. The Potential to Leave
Ok, this one is a doozy. But it’s a fact that entry-level employees come with a higher turnover rate than most jobs. That’s just the way it is.
As a business owner, this won’t be the case; you’re invested.
However, you should remember just how easy it is for your workers to feel expendable. Use this knowledge to create a better culture, and to give them a reason to stick around. Make sure others know they are important to your business and how they help it run.
10. Have Fun as a Business Owner
We’ve all had jobs that we’ve loved. Incorporate your love of certain tasks or the ability to cut loose with your franchise location. The more you can remember to have a good time – not just focus on the numbers – the more you can enjoy your journey as a franchise owner. It will also show employees it’s ok to have a good time at work, and in fact, it might entice them to stay around even longer.