Five Star Franchise:
I recently read a quote from a judge in a local entrepreneurship contest (Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year - Utah) that mentioned how he was looking at contestants based on not necessarily how much money their business made, or how high their sales were, but rather how innovative their idea was. If it was at least moderately successful in both sales and profits, and it was a new idea, then that was the entrepreneur that would get the quoted judges vote. I thought about his viewpoint for a minute and realized that I will probably never win the entrepreneur of the year award… and I am okay with that. At least I won’t win one where his criteria are used.
Why?
Because the vast majority of my experience and ownership is and has been in businesses that are franchise concepts. They aren’t new and exciting compared to say some new web 2.0 software startup in Silicon Valley with 13 ex-Microsoft engineers and a bunch of VC money backing the business. Of course you could also sell bean-bags that are cool looking and expensive - as long as you sell a lot of them, and fast- and win a bunch of awards (including entrepreneur of the year) just prior to going bankrupt. I am not interested in winning awards; I am interested in making money. I don’t really care if what I do isn’t new - in fact, I kind of like the old proven stuff (thus increasing my chances for success). I think most entrepreneurs who are getting started would do themselves quite a service if they owned and operated a franchise before going out and starting their internet based web 2.0 buzzword of the moment business. Why? Because whether or not you are running a Taco Bell or Bell Labs, there are some common business principles that apply to all companies - old and new. Read full post.
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