Do you have the skills to pay the bills as a franchisee?

It’s hardly a secret many franchisees from time to time require a helping hand to build and expand the skills needed to start and run successful businesses.

It’s vital to recognise that whether you succeed or fail is often influenced by external factors, some of which are beyond your control and some you can guard against. However, the one key internal factor that determines whether or not you’ll leave your competition shrinking in the rearview mirror is you – the owner of the business and the skills you have.

People sometimes assume they can start their franchise journey simply using the skills they already have or believing their franchisor will provide them with everything they need. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case and a reasonable amount of self-development will nearly always be required, particularly if you haven’t run a business before.

Thankfully there is a lot of help at hand for those looking for it. There are many good business books with most being available to download from the likes of Amazon and some very informative videos on YouTube.

I think a great place to start is a book called The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E Gerber where he explains that a business owner needs to have the characteristics of three different people: a technician, a manager and an entrepreneur. Having only the skills of one or even two of these people is likely to lead to failure. You need all three to be really successful.

The technician knows the detail of the service or product supplied by the business and can roll up their sleeves, deliver, improve, repair and develop the company. They are very much at home doing the job, making the goods or delivering the service.

The manager is the detail-oriented one, who dots the Is and crosses the Ts, the one who remembers to pay the bills, does the book-keeping and understands the accounts. Managers want a well-organised world with no surprises, where things happen in an orderly and predictable manner.

The entrepreneur lives in the future and not so much about the now, thinking about what could be achieved. He or she is a marketer and is prepared to reach for the stars and bring everyone else along for the ride.

In other words, your self-help journey will involve you in learning more about marketing, networking, selling, finance, accounting, managing, monitoring, motivating, health and safety, communication and negotiation, leadership and delegation as well as the extremely important skill of time management.

Business is a fascinating world and by studying these topics you will not only help you in business but many of these skills will also be useful to you in your private and family lives as well.