You were invited here to learn more about how I may be able to assist you to explore career opportunities that don’t involve returning to corporate. When you read to the end, you will see that it all starts with education. But first, a bit of backstory.
When I purchased the rights to my FranNet franchise in early 2009 there were a number of new terms being used extensively. All in the interest of sidestepping the negative connotation associated with mass layoffs. You probably recall reading the newer, more PR-friendly versions of downsizing like; Rightsizing, Smartsizing, Rebalancing, Streamlining… While the use of these terms may have made it slightly less gut-wrenching to read (or less agonizing to write), they didn’t really help you if you were caught up as one of the subjects when you were downsized. Or, rather rightsized.
I didn’t pay as much attention to these terms when they came in style, as I was already downsized in November 2008!
Then there was a new term that surfaced: The Accidental Entrepreneur. It is folks who wind up owning their own small business – not out of desire to finally follow their dreams, but due to the fact that landing another corporate job became a significantly less likely option. I guess I fit that mold too. I didn’t set out to own by own business. After frustrating weeks and months of looking for my next role without any promise, a sales recruiter casually uttered these words as we wrapped up our (unpromising) call: “Grant, have you ever thought of owning your own business?”
In all honesty, self-employment or business ownership was not on my radar. But the lack of options at the time meant that I should at least have a look at what is out there. Each time a door closed on a possible job, or a week of unemployment turned into a month, the idea of self-employment grew.
Flash forward to present day (early COVID-19) and it is pretty easy to see that a giant wrench has been thrown into the works. Strong economies are being brought to their knees (and already weak ones like Alberta’s are unfortunately worse off than they already were).
I’m not an economist and don’t know what recovery will look like and when it will happen. But I know about terms like Macroeconomics and Microeconomics. Macro being “E.I. Applications jump to over 500,000”. And Micro being “What am I going to do?!?”.
I want to do what I can to help people out – at the micro level (while considering in the macro factors). Unlike a lot of businesses who are scrambling to revise their business models on the fly, our advantage is that we continue doing what I’ve done for the last 11 + years.
- Provide education about franchising, to help people:
- Learn about options with business ownership as a career alternative
- Understand the range of investment and what’s required
- Gain a deeper understanding about franchising in Canada
- Develop the Game-Plan (your personal/professional/financial/lifestyle criteria)
- How to conduct proper due diligence
- And more
- Work 1 on 1 with serious prospective franchise owners to find and research the smartest, safest opportunities that align with their budget, skills preferences and goals.
A lot of my clients’ career-transition circumstances prompt them to seriously look at business ownership. Not out of a desire to finally follow their dreams, but out of necessity (thanks to dwindling options). The Plan-D becomes the Plan-A. If this crisis is like others, we can expect to see a increase in Accidental Entrepreneurs in coming months and years.
Don’t trust your success to be an accident though! The goal is to avoid a Ready-Fire-Aim situation. The decision to purchase a franchise comes at the end of extensive due diligence. The decision to consider looking at a franchise comes after education, preparation and planning.
Almost everyone who reaches out to me is at the very beginning of their search and education is the obvious starting out. So, I invite you to take the opportunity to learn. You can decide where to invest your time wisely in your search.
Here are a few resources to kick-start your education:
Upcoming web-based information sessions (click the subscribe button on Eventbrite to receive email notifications about future events)