How to Find the Right Franchise for Your Personality

Franchise ownership is about being one system businessroundups.org more than an businessroundups.org. If you value following a system and want to start your own business, franchising could be a good fit. How do you find the right franchise for your personality and goals? Contact your systempreneur spirit animal. I’ve observed seven basic personality types of systempreneur franchisees:

1. Inventor

2. Independent thinking person

3. government builder

4. Passive investor

5. Community Builder

6. Escape artist

7. Turnaround artist

These categories may not be mutually exclusive, but one is likely to dominate. Let’s discuss the features of each type below:

Related: Which Franchise Is Right For You? Follow these steps

1. The inventor – a “real” businessroundups.org

You like to create. You don’t need or want a script. If a process exists, you tend to ignore it or reverse engineer it to find a better way. You dream of new products, brands and companies.

Franchising is all about system compliance. Because you’re annoyed by someone else’s rules, being a franchisee probably isn’t right for you. However, starting a franchise from scratch is something to consider (assuming you like the franchise model as a market expansion strategy). You devise systems and processes that others can follow. But you will be the creator.

2. The maverick

You want existing systems because you value speed and efficiency. You’re also okay with a little less structure because you’re an early adopter and energetic self-starter. You like to stake out the most important territory first. You have probably been promoted many times in your business life because you delivered the goods and got noticed. Or you could be a serial businessroundups.org.

Focus your franchise search on:

De-prioritize or avoid:

3. The government builder

The empire builder is the true personification of a franchisee. You are a self-starter and want to build large scale and wealth. You are likely to be competitive, demanding, energetic, fast moving, extremely methodical and strategic. Your greatest skills tend to be team building, operations, leadership, planning and closing deals. You appreciate adapting existing systems so you can focus on team development, operational excellence and capital planning. This allows you to seize all the great opportunities, especially acquisitions. Most large multi-unit franchisees exhibit this personality type. Over time, these leaders create a management team and support systems that often rival or exceed those of the franchisor. Some major operators buy entire brands outright.

Focus your franchise search on:

• Multi-unit friendly brands with established business processes

• Established brands with available white space

• Possibilities for area developers

• Highly scalable businesses that can be run profitably by professional managers

• Consolidation opportunities in solid brands

• Acquisitions of whole brands

De-prioritize or avoid:

Related: Busting Franchising Myths and Picking the Right Opportunity

4. The passive investor

You don’t want to work full time. You want to diversify but also keep your job, another company, or you are semi-retired. While some models are built for passive franchisees, keep in mind that the startup phase will still be very hands-on.

Focus your franchise search on:

• Models designed for passive investors

• Operator for hire models as a paid service to run the business

• Acquiring and consolidating existing high-performing units under a proven management team

• Minority Investment Opportunities

• Real estate investments with franchise tenants

De-prioritize or avoid:

• Owner-operator models

• Unproven passive models

5. The community builder

You want to make a difference. You dream of running a business that feels a certain way. You value building a close-knit team as an end in itself. Profitability may be a secondary consideration.

Focus your franchise search on:

• Concepts emphasizing community networking and marketing

• Concepts where customers and employees value being part of the brand community (e.g. fitness, pet care, healthy food, etc.)

De-prioritize or avoid:

6. The escape artist

Many franchisees would rather work 80 hours a week for themselves than 40 hours for someone else. But the archetype of the escape artist franchisee is unique. You want as little supervision as possible, even within a franchise context. You can also seek physical freedom; you don’t want to be chained to a desk. Your weakness is your willingness to overlook weak franchisee support because you don’t plan on using it much anyway.

Focus your franchise search on:

• Mobile, part-time and work-at-home models

• Emerging brands

• Field-based concepts

• Passive franchise models, ultimate flexibility

• Franchises without defined territories (opportunism over exclusivity)

De-prioritize or avoid:

• Concepts with fixed schedules or surprising rush hours (you can be called in)

• Models with full-time, best effort requirements or performance minimums

• Concepts with rigid health and safety requirements (supervision, licensing and auditing are inextricably linked)

• Retail-based companies (fixed costs and hours)

Related: How to Choose the Best Franchise to Own in 2022

7. The Turnaround Artist

You are a stone cold operator who can quickly diagnose and treat almost any business ailment. You are comfortable with – and even attracted to – complex business problems. You have a proven track record and your own playbook for getting faltering companies or units back on track. You like to buy low, turn things around and sell high. You may have experience in real estate, bankruptcy, finance, operations or other relevant experience. Franchising attracts many operators like you because even within proven systems there are always some franchisees who are undercapitalized or don’t follow the system and leave otherwise good areas.

Focus your franchise search on:

• Rolling weak units into strong brands with good unit level economics

• Emerging brands (turnaround operators can generally compensate for immaturity)

• Sectors where “turnaround” work is baked into the delivery model itself (e.g. disaster restoration, home renovation)

• Entire brand acquisitions of otherwise good concepts that can be turned around

De-prioritize or avoid:

• Mature brands with no chance of a turnaround

The right franchise fit requires honesty and self-awareness. Get in touch with those who know you best. It is tempting (perhaps subconsciously) to attribute unrealized ambitions to this exercise. Being a misfit sounds great, but are you really? Tap into your unique gifts and strengths to create your version of success. And, of course, do a thorough due diligence and speak to as many franchisees as possible. Whatever your passions, you want strong returns.