Page 18 - OPE March 2020

INSIGHT
Lawn & Garden Contractors
Some of this will have been about individual choices, but some will also be due to what turns out to be an accepted phenomenon that I’m calling franchising’s mid-life crisis.
Asked about this seeming tide of ex-franchisees in lawn & garden, Callum Floyd of Franchize Consultants (NZ), which produces the Franchising Confidence Index (www.franchisingconfidence.co.nz), says a pattern of high satisfaction is typical at the start of a franchise followed by dissatisfaction at the mid-point (a low ebb during which the franchisee will often not see the benefit of being part of the brand) and then rising satisfaction the longer the franchise continues.
Estelle Logan agrees: “The first phase is their initial entry into self-employment. Some absolutely take to it like a duck to water while others find it needs far more self-discipline than they ever thought.
“They look at the glamour of self- employment – you can do what you like when you want, have days off and do whatever – but actually, you need to be far more disciplined [than in an employed situation] because your income depends on youbeingdisciplined.
“And so you have to be self-generating and you have to be self-disciplined to make your own business work.
“Yes, you do have flexibility. Yes you do have the control. Yes, you have potential to do far better than any employed situation.
“But you have to take ownership of that
“And it’s not to do with expertise. It’s not to do with age. It’s not to do with anything like that.
“It’s when they come into the second phase and they kind of sense ‘I’ve got a very good business. I do have flexibility and I know what I’m doing. I’ve got control.’ So
for whatever reason, of course there’s no new leads just being fed to you.
So, he advises, unless you you’re really confident that you’ve got a really strong referral-based business, you’re better off staying within the franchise framework...
On the other hand, he says: “For the
They look at the glamour of self-employment – you can
do what you like when you want, have days off and do whatever – but actually, you need to be far more disciplined [than
in an employed situation]
business and you have to be accountable for every decision you make in that business.
“And so those who find that challenging, if you like, the shorter term franchisee, probably may leave a franchise having never realised their true potential because it’s longevity that actually just makes it better andbetterforthem.
they step up a gear.”
Straight-talking Graham Watson takes
a similar view of some of these former franchisees: “If they can’t make it work within a franchise environment, some of the blame has to be apportioned to them.”
Going solo armed with a good customer base is one thing, he cautions.
But,whencustomersstartdroppingoff
really good guys, it’s just a no brainer. It’s a good thing to do. But for those who aren’t business minded, a lot of them just end
up selling up their business for chump change.
“Basically they would have been better just to stay in the franchise, sell their business, get good money for it and bugger offanddosomethingelse...” n
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