You’d be Surprised… the right business for you might not be the one you’d guess! Howard Bassuk In all of our lives, there are defining moments. There is the moment when we decide where we are going to attend college, the moment when we decide that we’re ready to get married, the moment that we accept our first real job, and the moment we decide that we want to work for ourselves and own a business. Without a doubt, the decisions that we make at these critical junctures in our lives can, to a large degree, determine the quality of the life we have in the future. These decisions are ones that will not only shape our lifestyle, but also much of the fabric of our life itself! Sadly, and all to often, the decisions we make at these critical times, turn out to be mistakes. In some cases, there’s simply nothing we could have done differently that would have allowed us to change our decision making, but in other cases there most certainly is. One of the greatest challenges each of us faces is to make sure that when we have the opportunity to make a decision “of a defining moment” that we make it into a decision that we will be happy with for the rest of our lives. In plain English, we need to be sure that we do it right! Of course, we should do it right, you think. But often, it’s easier to say than to do. We can all remember those painful “I told you so” days when, after the fact, we or someone else would second guess one of our decisions and point out how foolish we were to make it. Hindsight, being what it is, is always 20-20. No one likes to be second-guessed. Who amongst us wants to have our bad decisions revisited unnecessarily? None of us are perfect, so mistakes are inevitable. However, a bad decision from the past can be so painful that we may try to avoid making critical decisions about our future, simply to avoid the risk of making another bad decision. The problem with that type of thinking is that it leads to paralysis, and an almost ironclad guarantee that even if we can see the road to our dream, we won’t be able to reach out and grab it. To quote (or close to it) a motivational phrase that I am fond of: “It is impossible to discover new horizons, if one is afraid of losing sight of the shore”. In other words, if we give into our fears, we could lose the chance to act upon and to seize one of the “defining moments” in our lives. Well, here’s some good news! When you make the decision to investigate purchasing a franchised business you have the opportunity to turn hindsight into foresight. If you do your investigation properly, you can give yourself a better chance of making a great decision in terms of the business that you choose for yourself. How, you may ask? The answer is relatively simple. When you make the decision to go into business for yourself, you want your decision to be a good one not just for the short term, but also for the long term, and even for that moment in time when you are ready to sell your business, or transfer control to someone else. You need to have a plan that will allow you to achieve each of these three steps. So, you should start on the road to making a good decision for yourself by recognizing a couple of things that could badly mislead you, if ignored. 1) A business that you may like emotionally may actually be totally unsuited to help you achieve your real goals, and therefore may not be a good business for you to own. 2) A business that on the surface, might not seem appealing to you, may turn out to be the ideal business to help you to achieve you long-term goals. 3) The key to making sure that you don’t get fooled by #1 and #2 is to look at businesses after you have thought through a strategic plan for yourself. Let me explain. When I work with clients, I suggest to them that the first thing for them to decide is not which business they think they would like to own, but rather what they would like to achieve through business ownership. You can do the same thing for yourself. Start your search for the perfect business by first asking yourself this question: “If I am successful in the business that I select, what do I want to achieve, and what do I want my life to be like?" Once you are able to answer that question, you can “reverse engineer the process”, and go backwards from your destination, until you arrive at the business that will give you your best opportunity for success. Too often, people don’t know where they want to wind up, so they don’t select the best vehicle to get them to where they want to go. Sure, sure…it all sounds good, but what does it really mean? Let’s take a look at a couple of examples I often use when I am giving seminars. Let me start by having you ask yourself this question:  “How would you like to own a dry cleaner?" Most people (unless they already know someone who has been in the dry cleaning business) would probably say that they would not like to own a dry cleaner. They would probably say that they think it wouldn’t be enough fun, or that it’s too hot, or that it could be boring because the service is so repetitive, or something else like that. Then I ask them three more questions: 1) Would they like a business that someday they can operate from a distance, or altogether absentee? 2) Would they like to either definitely own more than one unit of the business that they choose, or would they at least like to have the option to own more than one unit? Almost without exception, I am told that multiple unit ownership should be either an option or a certainty, and that someday they would like to back away from their business and have more freedom and independence. 3) What business structure is necessary for them to be best able to achieve #’s 1 and 2? I then, once again ask whether the structure of a dry cleaner is a good one to help them achieve their goal? I ask whether the simplicity of the operation, which allows an owner to hire and train employees to do all the jobs (but might be boring for the owner) is an absolute necessity if they want to be able to back away some day? I also ask them how they expect to have more than one location, if the business is so difficult (interesting/challenging) that only they can do it? When I do this, their lights go on! All of a sudden, these people realize that while they might not like to take in dry cleaning, or for that matter make french fries, they might very much like to own a 1-Hour Martinizing or a McDonalds! As soon as they separate the business they work in, from the business they work on, their strategy changes. They look at a business as something they are going to manage and grow, and realize that the product that they choose may not be as important as the opportunity for growth and success that the business can offer. I know, I know…you’re saying to yourself that you are simply not going to get into a business unless you like what it does. No Problem! With all the choices that exist in Franchising today, you will have lots of possibilities to choose amongst. However, no matter what you choose, I’d be willing to bet you that three years after you’ve started your business, what will matter most to you, is not what your business is called, but whether that business gives you the things you most want to have in your life. If it does, you’ll be happy. If it doesn’t you won’t be. If you don’t have the security, freedom, independence, success, recognition, accomplishment, time for family, growth, or whatever else you personally want to have as part of your life, you will not like the business you have chosen. On the other hand, if you do, you most probably will thank your lucky star that you selected that business. So, how can you make this happen for yourself? Plan ahead. Look at every business you are considering, and compare it to: 1) Entry strategies that will allow you to safely enter the world of business. 2) A long-term strategy that will allow you to have the kind of success you desire. 3) An exit strategy that will allow for you to leave your business when the time is right. If you pick a business that strongly matches up with the components you have in your three strategies, you will be well on your way to realizing many of your dreams. Of course, you need to make sure that any business you look at is: 1) A good business. 2) Is in a good, solid, stable industry. 3) That your franchisor is a leader in that industry. 4) You want to make sure that most of the franchisees are happy, and would repeat their decision to buy that business. 5) You will want to make sure that to the extent you want to grow, there is opportunity for growth. 6) The franchisor should be someone you would like to work with. 7) You should believe in the “vision” that the franchisor has for the future. 8) You should be able to make as much money as you want and need. 9) You should feel comfortable with the “corporate culture” of the business you select. 10) You should have the skills needed to successfully run your business. These things should all be givens about any business that you select. Then you should apply your strategy. Which business should you buy? The one which gets you to your goal the quickest, fastest, easiest, and best. With a plan and a personal strategy in place before you start to look, you may wind up being very surprised at which business that turns out to be!