If it's not hard you must not be doing it right

by Joey St. John

I heard the following line in a movie recently; “if it’s not hard you must not be doing it right.” I let out a short laugh thinking the actor had said his lines incorrectly, and it had not been caught. However, as the dialogue continued I realized it was me who was wrong as the line had been delivered perfectly. It was quite a dramatic moment in this movie with the characters struggling to understand why the most rewarding things found in this world are often the most difficult to attain or maintain.

This scene brought to mind how critical it is to have the right perspective and expectations when considering buying a franchise. It is a wise decision to look to business models that have been successfully demonstrated, but this is an ill-advised step if your expectation is that a franchise will guarantee success simply by writing a check. In fact, for every question that buying a franchise answers for you, it creates additional ones that you are prudent to carefully consider. Potential JumpBunch franchisees, for instance, are often emotionally drawn to an environment where they are actively making a difference in the lives of children on a daily basis. Being fulfilled in that way plus the fact that it is outright fun are huge advantages to us. However, we do a potential franchisee and ourselves a great disservice if we fail to take the discussion to other areas. Specifically, we spend time discussing marketing efforts, administrative duties, hiring challenges, and ongoing investment realities. This way, there will be much less chance of “buyer’s remorse” setting in when the first obstacle appears.

While at times it may seem you have to try to talk someone out of moving forward before qualifying them as ready to proceed, this is not really the case. As referenced above, going the route of franchising removes a lot of questions you would otherwise have to answer on your own. However, ensuring the complete list of questions from franchisee and franchisor is essential to the long term contentment of both. Some of the ones that are created by going the route of a franchise are outlined below.

• Are you willing to comply with all standards and procedures that a franchise system has in place?
• Are you prepared to be an active participant in a group dynamic while in business for yourself?
• Are the ongoing costs associated with franchising considered in your business projections?
• Are you going to be tolerant of the ups and downs of any business system, franchise or otherwise?

Things that come easily typically go away just as fast, and in further considering what I value most in my business and personal life, it is the things that produced the most sweat that bring the most pride. Now the next time I think something is hard, I will know that I am headed towards something potentially great. Some specifics that were definitely hard but worth doing are below. Though they are almost exclusively related to a personal life, you will get the point.

• Being born (9 months of patience)
• Learning to walk (what if I had stopped the first time I fell?)
• Braces (no need to elaborate)
• Grade school (a whopping 12 years!)
• College degree (4 more years!)
• Marriage (for me, 17 years of ongoing work)
• Buying a home (a big down payment and a 30 year commitment)
• Raising a child (8 years into it and my lifetime to go)

JumpBunch and many other franchise systems are great choices for those who want to benefit from a trails already blazed. The reality though is that no hard work is eliminated by doing this. In fact, if you don’t find yourself actually working much harder than in a regular job, you probably are doing something wrong. If your expectations are accurate and paired with a good system, that work will pay off in rewards and flexibility that go well beyond those of the traditional daily grind.

Joey St. John
VP of Operations
JumpBunch

Learn more about JumpBunch at topfranchises.franchisebusinessreview.com.

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