The Benefits of Transition: Why It’s Not As Scary As You Think

Many of the people who contact me are going through some kind of transition. Often, the transition isn’t voluntary. Some of my candidates have been pushed out by their employers due to ageism. Others work in dying industries and are trying to develop a fallback plan before it’s too late. Still others have spent too many years working a grueling executive schedule and need to find balance before they lose their health, their marriages, or both. Under such circumstances, it can be hard to recognize the benefits of transition. But benefits there are. Hidden behind the challenges are opportunities, and you can make the most of them if you know what they are.

Freedom

Both for me and for many other franchisees I know, freedom is the greatest benefit of transitioning to franchise ownership. If you’ve spent decades climbing the ladder at a company, or in an industry, you can easily develop tunnel vision. You forget there’s an entire world beyond your current experience.

Transition is an open door to that world. Big changes have a way of bouncing us out of our ruts and opening our eyes to new possibilities. Transitioning out of the corporate world gives you freedom to experiment with new industries and new ways of doing business. You also gain freedom to shape your schedule to suit your life and family, not the other way around.

Professional Development

Plenty of corporate skills–like leadership and financial management–translate well to franchising. But franchising is also a different world. When you make the transition, you gain a whole new range of professional development opportunities.

The most obvious opportunity: you get to learn a new industry and a new business model. And thanks to the freedom of franchising, you get to operate with a level of independence you probably never experienced in the corporate world. That means new opportunities to exercise and develop decision-making, problem-solving, and leadership skills. Overall, you’ll find yourself working new parts of your brain and using your past experience in exciting new ways.

Networking

Especially if you like connecting with colleagues, networking is one of the primary benefits of transition. A franchise is not an isolated business. It comes with access to an entire network of other owners, and the best franchisors have a culture of mutual support that you’ll love.

As a new franchisee, you can vastly expand your personal network and enjoy new relationships with people who will challenge and uplift you. Your fellow owners can offer advice, help you find suppliers and employees, and even provide opportunities for you to mentor them.

Wealth

Executive compensation at large corporations is extremely generous, but it has a cap. Every job has an approved salary range and benefits package. No matter how hard you work or how many innovations you create, you’ll never get more than the maximum the company allows. Even promotions and bonuses have a ceiling. And at the end of the day, the biggest return on your work will pad the company’s bottom line, not yours.

Think of transition as a chance to blow all those limits to pieces. There’s a reason the wealthiest individuals in the world are business owners and entrepreneurs (or their heirs). When you become your own boss, the only limit to your wealth-building potential is you. Instead of the corporation taking the lion’s share and a small percentage coming to the employees, franchise owners pay just a small percentage in fees to the franchisor and keep the lion’s share for themselves. And if you want to work harder, lead your employees to better performance, or open new locations, it all benefits your business–which means it benefits you and your family.

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Ready to talk about how to turn your unexpected transition into an exciting opportunity for you and your family? Book a call with Dave to start the conversation.