Worth Less, But Not Worthless
So I'm trying to figure out what to do with my life, and I am basically left with two options. I can work for myself, or work for someone else. Neither is unpalatable, although both have their own drawbacks. While performing my due diligence, I came across franchising as an alternative means of being self employed. Whereas in a regular startup, the entrepreneur is responsible for all aspects of getting the business organized: building the brand, marketing, hiring employees, purchasing, sales, training, support, etc., a franchise takes some of the gruntwork out of it for you. Say I open a Krispy Kreme instead of a Fat J's Delicious Donuts. Because Krispy Kreme is already in the collective consciousness, it is pretty much a given that on opening day, a Krispy Kreme will draw more sales than old Fat J's. People know what to expect with one, while the other is an untried entity.
Franchisees buy more than the brand name, however. They buy a management system and philosophy that has been tried and tested, tweaked and twigged to success. An entrepreneur, even if it is not his or her first start up company, has to learn a lot of things along the way, and that can prove costly.
So I was thinking, what if I shut down Resonant IT Solutions & Consulting and purchased a franchise? I now have more business administration experience than most, seeing that my company is in its second year, is profitable, and has solid growth potential. Perhaps I would make a competent franchise owner. I thought back to my first jobs. My first real jobs was when I was 16, a tender lad in Springfield, IL. A friend of mine named Kurtis was a fry cook at Shakey's Pizza and Buffet, and he told me they were hiring. This was my junior year of high school. I interviewed, and I got hired as a busboy, clearing plates away from tables and wiping them down between customers. I recall fondly my starting salary of $3.75 and hour (at that time, the minimum wage was $3.35). I loved it. I was meeting people, especially girls my age coming in with their parents. Getting phone numbers on the sly was my first company perk. Anyway, this is not going to turn into a trip down memory lane. I remember the guy who owned the store, his name was Dale Diamond. He was a short middle aged white man of tremendous energy and intelligence. He had two or three managers who ran the day to day, and he had a few other ventures as well. Anyway, when he was there, there is nothing he wouldn't do; he was involved in ever aspect of his business. He ran the register, he served food, he even bussed tables if his busboys were overwhelmed. I thought that overall he was a pretty solid guy. His daughters also worked their, and their were the standard spoiled little rich girls you would expect to find in such a setting. Anyway, Mr. Diamond was the first entrepreneur I encountered, and made a strong impression. I went on to work for Popeye's Burger King, Encore Books, and numerous lame jobs, but I didn't have an encounter with an actually owner of capital until I worked at McDonald's in Havertown, PA. I was living in Philly at the time, right before starting my freshman year at the U of I in the fall (I graduated high school half a year early and left Illinois post haste). I had been picked up by a modelling agency (hard to believe, eh) and in between waiting for the phone to ring, I scored a Mickey D's gig that was overall, pretty satisfying. Stores in West Philly were low paying, and full of triflin' customers and coworkers, so cast my nets further afield. Havertown is out there. You have to take the El to 69th street and get on the 104 and take it until Black faces almost disappear entirely. That store was owned by a guy name John Niggeman, which of course was bastardized into 'Niggerman'. The manager's name was MaryAnn, and she was awesome. She was sharp, funny, focused, motivated and focused. Maybe she could have been the owner in a parallel universe, she certainly had the tools. John was much less impressive, and that was another education. You didn't have to be outstanding to be in business; you just needed to have capital to invest and find outstanding people to run it for you. I remember John asking some of the guys to help him move from one posh condo to another, and I was one who volunteered. I was shocked at how well he was living, whilst my family in West Philly lived two houses down from a crackhouse and my family in Illinois lived in Springfield's grungiest projects (Brandon Drive). He wasn't a bad guy, personality-wise, but there was a huge divide between us. We just came from two different worlds.
Fast forward 16 years, and there is a huge divide in my life again, only this time its between the contemporary me and the younger me. 5 years ago, I never imagined I could be my own boss. I just didn't think that way. No one in my family thought that way. I didn't think I could become wealthy unless I made a kickass rap record. But now, I am a new creature. I see things differently. And I am willing to risk much in order to gain much more.
Which brings me to the title of this entry. I came across a table of franchise opportunities, listing the name of the franchise, what it did, how much its start up cost were, and what the requirements were. See, a franchiser is not going to give any old bloke off the street a piece of his or her empire. That empire would likely crumble due to poor leadership and management. So they franchiser screens candidates very carefully. One measuring stick is net worth. You want to own a ButterBurger's? You must have a net worth of $500K and $200K of that must be liquid. You want to own a Krispy Kreme? You need a net worth of $5 million. There's a guy who owns 15 of them in 6 six states. How much do you think he's worth?
Fortunately, not all franchises have such steep requirements. But the biggest and best ones do, so unless you have a rich relative, you'd better start small. I made an inquiry into purchasing a franchise (via their website) and they first thing they did was direct me to form that asked all kinds of questions, most frightening of which was: What is your net worth? Ouch.
I honestly didn't know, so I couldn't complete the form right then and there. I didn't even know how to come up with a number. So of course, the first thing I did was go to google. I eventually wandered to this site, which was very useful. After examining my finances with dread, I have a number, and it is not as bad as I thought it would be. I won't be opening a chain of Starbucks anytime soon, but it isn't too bad. I feared it would be negative or close to zero. My friend Carlos told me last night, "You gotta start somewhere." True. Just reckoning your net worth will teach you a lot about yourself. I know it did for me. And it has giving me yet another new goal: increase my net worth.
Franchisees buy more than the brand name, however. They buy a management system and philosophy that has been tried and tested, tweaked and twigged to success. An entrepreneur, even if it is not his or her first start up company, has to learn a lot of things along the way, and that can prove costly.
So I was thinking, what if I shut down Resonant IT Solutions & Consulting and purchased a franchise? I now have more business administration experience than most, seeing that my company is in its second year, is profitable, and has solid growth potential. Perhaps I would make a competent franchise owner. I thought back to my first jobs. My first real jobs was when I was 16, a tender lad in Springfield, IL. A friend of mine named Kurtis was a fry cook at Shakey's Pizza and Buffet, and he told me they were hiring. This was my junior year of high school. I interviewed, and I got hired as a busboy, clearing plates away from tables and wiping them down between customers. I recall fondly my starting salary of $3.75 and hour (at that time, the minimum wage was $3.35). I loved it. I was meeting people, especially girls my age coming in with their parents. Getting phone numbers on the sly was my first company perk. Anyway, this is not going to turn into a trip down memory lane. I remember the guy who owned the store, his name was Dale Diamond. He was a short middle aged white man of tremendous energy and intelligence. He had two or three managers who ran the day to day, and he had a few other ventures as well. Anyway, when he was there, there is nothing he wouldn't do; he was involved in ever aspect of his business. He ran the register, he served food, he even bussed tables if his busboys were overwhelmed. I thought that overall he was a pretty solid guy. His daughters also worked their, and their were the standard spoiled little rich girls you would expect to find in such a setting. Anyway, Mr. Diamond was the first entrepreneur I encountered, and made a strong impression. I went on to work for Popeye's Burger King, Encore Books, and numerous lame jobs, but I didn't have an encounter with an actually owner of capital until I worked at McDonald's in Havertown, PA. I was living in Philly at the time, right before starting my freshman year at the U of I in the fall (I graduated high school half a year early and left Illinois post haste). I had been picked up by a modelling agency (hard to believe, eh) and in between waiting for the phone to ring, I scored a Mickey D's gig that was overall, pretty satisfying. Stores in West Philly were low paying, and full of triflin' customers and coworkers, so cast my nets further afield. Havertown is out there. You have to take the El to 69th street and get on the 104 and take it until Black faces almost disappear entirely. That store was owned by a guy name John Niggeman, which of course was bastardized into 'Niggerman'. The manager's name was MaryAnn, and she was awesome. She was sharp, funny, focused, motivated and focused. Maybe she could have been the owner in a parallel universe, she certainly had the tools. John was much less impressive, and that was another education. You didn't have to be outstanding to be in business; you just needed to have capital to invest and find outstanding people to run it for you. I remember John asking some of the guys to help him move from one posh condo to another, and I was one who volunteered. I was shocked at how well he was living, whilst my family in West Philly lived two houses down from a crackhouse and my family in Illinois lived in Springfield's grungiest projects (Brandon Drive). He wasn't a bad guy, personality-wise, but there was a huge divide between us. We just came from two different worlds.
Fast forward 16 years, and there is a huge divide in my life again, only this time its between the contemporary me and the younger me. 5 years ago, I never imagined I could be my own boss. I just didn't think that way. No one in my family thought that way. I didn't think I could become wealthy unless I made a kickass rap record. But now, I am a new creature. I see things differently. And I am willing to risk much in order to gain much more.
Which brings me to the title of this entry. I came across a table of franchise opportunities, listing the name of the franchise, what it did, how much its start up cost were, and what the requirements were. See, a franchiser is not going to give any old bloke off the street a piece of his or her empire. That empire would likely crumble due to poor leadership and management. So they franchiser screens candidates very carefully. One measuring stick is net worth. You want to own a ButterBurger's? You must have a net worth of $500K and $200K of that must be liquid. You want to own a Krispy Kreme? You need a net worth of $5 million. There's a guy who owns 15 of them in 6 six states. How much do you think he's worth?
Fortunately, not all franchises have such steep requirements. But the biggest and best ones do, so unless you have a rich relative, you'd better start small. I made an inquiry into purchasing a franchise (via their website) and they first thing they did was direct me to form that asked all kinds of questions, most frightening of which was: What is your net worth? Ouch.
I honestly didn't know, so I couldn't complete the form right then and there. I didn't even know how to come up with a number. So of course, the first thing I did was go to google. I eventually wandered to this site, which was very useful. After examining my finances with dread, I have a number, and it is not as bad as I thought it would be. I won't be opening a chain of Starbucks anytime soon, but it isn't too bad. I feared it would be negative or close to zero. My friend Carlos told me last night, "You gotta start somewhere." True. Just reckoning your net worth will teach you a lot about yourself. I know it did for me. And it has giving me yet another new goal: increase my net worth.
posted by Jahan at 8:30 AM
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