Paul Segreto, one of the authoritative voices in franchising, tipped me with his experience as a franchisee, teaching us how to deal with our struggling financial units.

We are business owners, not ostriches

Paul’s story is evolving around his mistakes dealing with his struggling franchise units. At that time, he did what many of us did (and do) – Sticking our head in the sand, running away from problems by deeming our franchise units as failures too early; In other words, we often give up before we give all we have got.

I did what he did – I gave up too early. I sold a franchise unit back to my franchisor and close the other one, feeling defeated and shameful for not making difficult decisions and taking full responsibility.

How to deal with your struggling franchise units: Don’t give up so early!

A power quote from Paul Segreto:

Franchisees should not view poor sales and disappointing profits as either potential or immediate failure and stick their heads in the sand. I made that mistake in the past and suffered the consequences. Instead, franchisees should build upon the courage it took to become a franchise business owner and recommit to success as they did when they first took the entrepreneurial plunge.

I slapped myself hard for sticking my head in the sand and not having enough courage to be a real business owner.

At that time, I saw one franchise unit declining in sales in the last 6 months of operation while the other franchise unit struggling to make decent sales to cover the operating expenses. I started to stick my head in the sand and I wanted to bail out and call it quit as soon as possible.

I wish I could turn back time and do the otherwise.

Fortunately, learning from some authoritative voices in the business and entrepreneurship world, such as Paul Segreto in franchising, has helping me overcoming my failures and shortcomings to hit the brake and make a U-turn before I drown myself in depression and bankruptcy.

Failure is a great teacher – Paul benefits from it and I do so, too – If you own struggling franchise units, don’t give up and do what Paul and I did and do – You don’t have to fail first to realise that what we are taking here is not nonsense.

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