Entrepreneurship

by Five Star Painting

I have been teaching a class on entrepreneurial business planning and have just finished up the course at the local University. As part of this course we brought in guest speakers from various backgrounds – entrepreneurs, managers, venture capitalists. Each of them had a great story to tell in the classroom about business philosophy, bootstrapping, Big Hairy Audacious Goals (I learned the BHAG concept in this class) and how to raise money. Probably the biggest take away from this class had nothing to do with business and everything do to with lifestyle.

For a few short years, I put my time in a big office tower wearing suits all day and keeping busy with regular meetings with executives and people way smarter than me. As my father would say, “the modern day coal mine.” I punched in and punched out every day, missed a few holidays to get that report out on time and work hard to bring honor and glory to my employer and maybe even get a raise or bonus at the end of the year. The paycheck would arrive like clockwork and I felt warm in the corporate security blanket. During these years I learned that I was not made for Corporate America, but rather made to make corporations. This is what I believe drives franchising today and what has brought into an industry that I have come to love.

Say goodbye to regular paychecks and say hello to a new life. As risk increases so does reward. You make your future, you make your schedule, you create the opportunities, you feel fulfilled. That is the foundation to entrepreneurship. What franchising does for the foundation of entrepreneurship is provide a few recipes for success, and improved probabilities for success.

I have regular calls with our owners and the most rewarding aspect of what I do is to hear people talk about what their business means to them, how it has helped them achieve their goals and in many cases those goals are not always monetary but time, freedom, sense of control.

There has been some debate over whether franchising is in fact entrepreneurial, and I have read a few articles and blogs on this subject. A quick read on the words definition should shed some light on the subject:

“Entrepreneurship is the act of being an entrepreneur which is a French word meaning “one who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods”. This may result in new organizations or may be part of revitalizing mature organizations in response to a perceived opportunity. The most obvious form of entrepreneurship is that of starting new businesses.”

We have had a lot of different buyers in our business from Kung Fu teachers, to Police Officers, to Actuaries and MBA students, all of them have started a business and many of them have brought to our business innovation, finance and business acumen. In my opinion, the title “Entrepreneur” belongs to our franchisees and fortunately the title is gaining the attention it deserves to be among the more noble professions in America.

-Five Star Painting
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