You just launched your first franchise.
You’re pumped up and ready to hit the ground running.
You’ve been waiting months to start selling.
You’ve read every book with “10X” in the title and plan to go full-force.
You’ve got EOS dialed in, hired 3 remote employees, a director of ops, multiple sales people, and overstaffed technicians “just in case.”
You’ve locked in every single lead aggregator and have boxes full of guerrilla marketing materials.
You’re considering sponsoring kids’ sports, joining the chamber of commerce, running radio ads, and setting up a vendor booth at the fall home show.
The weeks go by and something unexpected happens.
Leads aren’t pouring in like you expected.
It’s a wave, then a trickle, then a wave.
The ones you get are looking for the cheapest quote.
Your “All Star” employees start showing up hungover or coincidentally calling out sick after payday.
Sales are much harder to get approved than you expected.
All while your bank account balance is bleeding out.
You must do something.
You start making cuts.
First, it’s turning off some of the lead sources, not sponsoring any more local stuff, then it’s firing a technician or two.
Things get a little better, but not enough.
You fire the director of ops & the salespeople.
“F*ck it I’ll just do everything myself.”
Once you’re in the weeds, you realize there are so many layups the team was missing.
The company is now extremely lean but highly efficient.
You have no other choice.
You start to make progress.
Sales are picking up.
High-margin referrals are coming in from jobs you did months ago.
You’re naturally ranking higher on Google
The bank account is looking a lot better.
You can actually take a small distribution.
There is light at the end of the tunnel.
Now you feel confident in rebuilding the team. This time you’ll go a lot slower.
Hand off operations, then sales, all while hiring more techs and turning up the marketing spend.
The business is now stable, profitable, and a lot more fun.
I’ve had this exact conversation with several people recently..
It’s also EXACTLY what happened to me with one of our businesses.
We had too many people, the wrong people, and no results to show for it.
We were too loose with spending money in the beginning.
We literally fired everyone and started over.
Now we’re making significant progress.
You must be a tightwad after launching the business.
Only hire when absolutely necessary.
Push your team to the limit.
Maximize two lead sources before adding more.
Cut any expense that doesn’t directly generate cash.
Make sure each piece works before adding the next.
Unfortunately, too many owners burn a lot of cash before learning this lesson.
If you’re currently experiencing this, I encourage you to take the necessary steps.
Be a tightwad
Cheers!
Brian
P.S. Going through this alone is brutal. You’re second-guessing every decision because you have no one to bounce ideas off who actually gets it.
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