In business, it’s generally advised that creating a plan will help keep you on the right path. Business plans, financial plans and marketing plans are just a few common exercises that entrepreneurs should get familiar with when starting a business. However, when getting into the franchising industry, sometimes the lack of a grand plan isn’t always a bad thing.
In an interview for The Global Franchise Podcast, Suzie McCafferty, our CEO, states ‘I fell into this. I never had a grand plan. When you’re younger and you want to be a doctor you go to university and you study medicine, or if you want to be a lawyer you go and study law. I didn’t do that…..I didn’t know I’d end up in franchising.’
In fact, franchising is something she fell into in her early 20’s after customers of her Edinburgh based printer cartridge retail store kept asking if the business was a franchise. What followed was a rapid expansion that led to 70 franchised outlets across 6 countries by the time she was 30. McCafferty then went on to become a board member and Franchise Director of a national recruitment franchise before founding her own consultancy business, Platinum Wave Franchising.
So, what’s the key to Suzie’s success?
According to Suzie, her method is simply to ‘put yourself around people that know more than you…people who are far more successful, who can always teach you more and give you the words of wisdom when you need it’. The UK is lucky to have a tight knit franchising community where it can be said that everyday is a school day. This means there is a high likelihood that even if you had the most ornate grand plan for your future, due to peer to peer and mentor networking that provide you with opportunities to learn and adapt, it would evolve for the better.
Of course even without the influence and knowledge of others, there’s also the chance that a number of factors can negatively alter your ‘grand plan’. These could include having the wrong people in management positions, the market could change unpredictably or you may simply have chosen the wrong location for your franchise, resulting in poor sales. By all means have a business plan in place, just be prepared for it to change along the way. Risk factors should always be taken into consideration and planned for wherever possible.
Everyone’s franchise journey is different, but it’s important to keep in mind to ‘find your feet and continue to grow’ along the way.
You can listen to the full podcast interview from our Strategic Media Partners, Global Franchise Magazine, here.