Easter holidays, a dark cinema, two small children and a bucket of popcorn. This was the early days of the network I launched in 2011 and I was exactly where I wanted to be.
Then my phone started lighting up in my lap, and while my children watched the film I sat there running through every scenario those calls might be, working out what I would have to fix the moment the credits rolled. I was there in body and about forty miles away in my head.
That, more than any sports day I made it to, is what flexible actually looks like when you get it wrong.
I got it wrong for years, and I now spend my working life talking to franchisors and franchisees about it. The word is doing a lot of work in this industry.
In February 2026, the bfa asked its members what they thought the number one motivation was for women pursuing a career in franchising, and 62% said flexibility and work-life balance. Low risk came a distant second at 21.6%.
Meanwhile, the 2024 National Franchise Survey found women now make up 40% of the franchisee population.
Flexibility is the promise most franchisees are buying, and for franchisors it is the promise most of you are selling. It is worth being precise about what it means.
What flexible actually means
Flexible means you choose which hours you work. It does not mean you work fewer of them.
Every assembly I went to in those early years, I paid for later that night. The laptop came out once the children were in bed and it stayed out. I wasn’t working less than I would have been in a job. I was working differently, and often more.
That is not a complaint, and I would make the same trade again tomorrow. Flexibility gave me the moments I could not get back, and no salary would have bought those. But it gave me control over the diary, not a lighter load.
No business is easy
This is the part that still gets lost. There is no version of running a business that does not ask something of you.
Every business has commitments that do not move, customers who need you on the day they need you, good weeks and thoroughly bad ones. A flexible business is not a different species. It has all of that, and you simply get to decide when you deal with it.
If anything, working around a family means digging deeper rather than coasting. Nobody is standing over you. There is no office to walk into, no colleague noticing you’ve gone quiet.
There is a washing machine, a dog, a phone and a hundred small reasons not to start, and every one of them is legitimate.
You need more self-motivation to make this work, not less, because the distractions are real and they are all justified.
What I know now
Get a grip on the day, and do it early.
For years I was available to everyone, all of the time, on whatever channel they happened to pick, and I mistook that for good service. It is not.
There are rules now about how and when people reach me, and I am not on all the time. Holding that line took real self-discipline at the start, and it made a huge difference, not least to the people I work with, who know exactly what to expect.
The other thing I have learnt is to pause.
When you work in the gaps between other things, the temptation is to fire off the reply while you’ve got two minutes in a car park. I sit on an email or a decision for a day or two now.
The answer is nearly always better, and the ones I still regret are the ones I rushed.
Say it properly
Had I known any of that in that cinema, the phone would have stayed dark and I would have watched the film.
Flexible is a brilliant thing to offer and I would recommend this route to any parent. Just never let it stand in for easy.
