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Chapter Four
2. Buy a franchise.
Another way to learn about systems is to buy a franchise. When you
buy a franchise, you’re buying a tried-and-proven operating system.
By buying the franchise system, instead of trying to create your
own system, you can focus on developing your people. Buying
the system removes one big variable when you’re learning how to
be a B. Many banks will loan money for a franchise, but not for
a small start-up business, because they recognize the importance
of systems and how starting with a good system lowers their risk.
A word of caution: Franchises are hard for people with an
S-quadrant mentality who want to do their own thing. If you
buy a franchise system, be an E. Just do it exactly the way they
tell you to do it. Nothing is more tragic than the courtroom
fights between franchisees and franchisors. The fights happen
because the people who buy the system really want to do it their
way, not the way the person who created the system wants it
done. If you want to do your own thing, then do it after you’ve
mastered both systems and people.
My highly educated dad failed, even though he bought a famous
ice cream franchise. Although the system was excellent, the
business still failed. In my opinion, the franchise failed because
his partners were all E’s and S’s who didn’t know what to do
when things started to go bad and didn’t ask for support from
the parent company. In the end, the partners fought among
themselves, and the business went down. They forgot that a true
B is more than a system. It’s also dependent on good people to
operate the system.
Banks Don’t Lend Money to People Without Systems
If a bank won’t lend money to a small business without a system,
why should you? Almost daily, people come to me with business plans
with the hope of raising money for their idea or their project.
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