The #1 Trait of an Entrepreneur (and Successful Franchise Owner)

by John DeHart

One day, I walked into my company….and I didn’t like it. In fact, wanted to quit my own company.

Sure we were doing well. Actually really well. Nurse Next Door had grown from just Ken and I, to 1000 employees in just over 4 years. Explosive growth. And it put us in the league of being one of the fastest growing companies in North America at the time. Jim Collins, Author of Good to Great and Built to Last, said “if you are growing over 20% per year, be very scared.” We were growing at over 1000%, per year! Sure we were winning award after award, and getting a lot of recognition, for being two young entrepreneurs who were building a fast growing company. But something was missing. I wasn’t having fun, I wasn’t enjoying life as an entrepreneur. And I walked in that day and realized that something had to change fast. Or else I wasn’t going to make it in my own company!

Luckily Ken and I felt exactly the same way. We went for a three hour lunch, and hatched a plan. When we arrived back at the office, we pulled 8 out of the 23 corporate head office staff into a room and let them all go. You can imagine the astonishment on their faces. You can also imagine the astonishment on the faces of the remaining people, when 8 of their fellow comrades had cleaned their desks out within 20 minutes!

We got to the end of the day, just Ken and I remained in the office. It was our bottom of the bottom. When you talk about being an entrepreneur, and how you really ride the roller coaster – lots of ups , lots of downs. This was the moment when we were at the bottom of the coaster. I laugh today when I tell this story. I say that if there was a study of the worst leaders in Canada, we would have won, hands down!

”What do we do now?” I asked.

”I have no idea.”

So we resorted to what entrepreneurs often do best. We set a crazy goal without having any clue how we would reach it. It was Ken who said “let’s become the Top Place to Work in British Columbia within 4 years.” I laughed. I mean it was a crazy idea. There were approximately 10,000 companies in the province, all better than us!

Now, the one characteristic of an entrepreneur that stands out among the top in all of us? Resourcefulness. We figure out a way to get stuff done. So, in trying to figure out how to build the top company to work for, we realized something. We weren’t that smart. I mean we thought we were up to that point, but it obviously wasn’t right! So we embraced a philosophy, that I give credit to one of our mentors, Cameron Herold (who credits his mentor, Greg Clarke), founder of College Pro Painters) for helping us see the light. Everything has already been done. And someone out there has done it in a world class way. All you have to do is figure out who this is. And then go and do “R & D.” Not R & D in the “research and development” way. R&D in the “rip off and duplicate” way.

So we started to study. We studied companies that had built great brands, and great cultures. And studied some more. We became true students of business. And we started to find the answers.

We deployed this exact same strategy a few years later when we decided to franchise Nurse Next Door.

To be an entrepreneur, you need to be resourceful. You are not going to know all of the answers. In fact, you aren’t going to know many of the answers. And your franchisor is also not going to know all of the answers, especially if you are in a younger and developing franchise system. And if you want to start building a great team, start looking for this trait in the people that you hire. It will make your life easier, and your company better.

Oh ya. We made the Top 10 Employer’s in B.C within 3 years, and were named the Top Employer in B.C within 5 years

John DeHart
Co founder & Co CEO
Nurse Next Door

Learn more about Nurse Next Door at topfranchises.franchisebusinessreview.com.

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