Follow the System, Trust the Process

Getting into business for yourself can be daunting, therefore a great option is buying a franchise. The advantages of buying a franchise business, instead of a traditional start-up, are many, such as brand name and awareness, training and support, systems and processes, and ultimately, proven success.

In today’s article, I want to focus on systems and processes, specifically, following the system, and trusting the process.

Follow The System

One of the best things about buying a franchise is that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Your franchisor has already done the hard work for you and created the appropriate systems that deliver successful franchise outcomes.

Regardless of the type of franchise you’re involved in, there’ll be systems for every facet of the franchise model, including sales, marketing, operations, purchasing, training, and so on.

I can assure you that the creation of these systems came through trial, error, and plenty of expense over a long period of time. Your franchisor would’ve made plenty of mistakes, so that you, the franchisee, don’t need to make the same mistakes.

Having comprehensive systems in place means that franchisees can achieve their business goals faster, and with a lot less headaches. Given this is the case, you could assume that having great systems in place means that every franchisee will be successful. Wrong!

Unfortunately, some franchisees want to start tinkering with systems and implementing their own changes. Maybe they want to shorten a system to reduce expenses and/or speed up the time to complete a task.

Perhaps they believe they are better marketers than the franchisor. Either way, these changes to the system can damage the franchise brand and negatively impact the other franchisees.

Whilst part of me appreciates a desire for continuous improvement, in a franchise model, these systems are in place because they are proven to deliver results.

When you hear the phrase, ”Rules are meant to be … “, what do you think of next? Most people will say” … broken.” When it comes to franchising, the opposite applies as, “Rules are meant to be followed”. The franchise systems have been designed with effectiveness and efficiency in mind, your job is to follow them.

Trust The Process

Trust the process is all about believing that the franchise systems work, and consistently taking the right actions to implement these systems.

In a world that’s filled with instant gratification, trusting a process can be a hard pill to swallow. Over the years, I’ve met plenty of franchisees who tell me that they tried a strategy ‘once’, and because it didn’t have the desired results instantly, they stopped that strategy or changed to something different.

They would get disgruntled because things didn’t work, and then come up with numerous reasons why it was never going to work. Essentially, they never had trust in the process.

Another part of trusting the process is to control what you can control. Take selling for example. A franchisee can control what they say, how they say it, and the supporting materials they provide, but they can’t control whether the prospect buys from them or not.

What normally happens is we measure our success on whether we close the sale or not. Instead, a better approach is to measure your success on how you implemented the system and trusted the process, because this is entirely within your control.

Another element of trusting the process is consistency. When I was a young boy, I remember being told about the fable of the tortoise and the hare. For those who are not familiar with this fable, it’s about a tortoise and a hare that have a race.

Ordinarily you’d expect the hare to win, however the hare doesn’t take the race seriously, skylarks, and even takes a nap. Meanwhile, the tortoise is consistently putting one foot in front of the other. In the end, the tortoise wins, with the moral of the fable being “slow and steady wins the race”.

This same message applies to success in franchising. I describe it as C.A.P.E, which stands for Consistent And Persistent Effort. When you consistently and persistently implement your franchise systems, focus on what’s within your control, and trust that success is just around the corner, you will achieve your franchise goals.

Summary

In my experience, the most successful franchisees are those that follow the system and trust the process. They recognise the effort that has gone into creating effective franchise systems, trust the process, and believe that consistently implementing these systems will deliver amazing outcomes.