045 The Franchise That Works for You as Much as You Work for the Franchise (and the Magic of Franchise Validation!)

The Entrepreneur's Money Podcast - Smart Money Management For Small Business

In this interview, Michael Kawula and I delve into the world of franchises and look inside the process of investing effectively in entrepreneurial goals as Kawula takes us inside of the franchise and his own experience as a man with a vast finance background who burned out on corporate America and wanted to make a business work for him and his family with immediate cash flow.

Michael Kawula walks us through his experience, focusing on key concepts such as:

-Validating, a process not only advantageous, but crucial to investing in yourself and a buisiness. In fact, validation, a system of learing about the franchise model and assessing whether it is a good fit for your goals and your understanding of what it takes to run it successfully, is essential to a successful investment in a new business venture.

-The importance of asking 60 questions to learn about the difficult parts and the great parts of starting to run a franchised business

-Matching the franchise to your objectives, and how “business failure” is mistakenly used to describe businesses that closed when the owners failed to validate and became disillusioned.

-The need to ask “What am I investing? What am I getting?”. He talks about the significance of figuring in royalties, considering marketing requirements, and partnering up with coaches from reputable companies to help with the investment. Michael Kawula discusses the difficulties with finding coaches who will not get paid when you invest, but get paid to do the job of helping you make sure you are a good fit for a particular franchise.

-Guiding Business Transitions at http://www.guidingbusinesstransitions.com

and

-Benetrends at http://www.benetrends.com

He mentions the advantages of having the support system of other franchisees, as well as the opportunity to see the day in and day out inner-workings of the business.

Michael and I come up with two time-tested books with insight on investing in your business success and understanding the success of a big brand franchise:

-The E Myth: Why Most Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber

-McDonald’s: Behind The Arches by John F. Love

Most of all, Kawula stresses the importance of going above and beyond to make sure that you have passion to enjoy what you are doing. When you validate the franchise and you validate your needs, you will be able to navigate the challenges of investing in a franchise to achieve financial success.

More information about Michael Kawula can be found on his site: http://www.selfemploydking.com