Creating an Environment for Success

I wanted to share with you a ‘topic’ that was created through the leadership within the Step into Life business that I thought may be useful during this challenging time.

It came about as a result two avenues:

ONE – New franchisees (within first years) – A coining of a phrase to explain to new franchise candidates the importance of thinking about the new franchise business they were entering into as a business and not a hobby and how it requires their focus and attention and

TWO – When business challenges occurred

The topic was “Creating an environment for success”.

In the first example above, we designed a segment within our initial training that was then always referred back to as a mantra during the first year and beyond. We had new franchisees brain storm and make a list of how they can create an environment for success within their business.

Those included basics like a business plan, tidy office space; goals placed on the wall in the office, time management schedule etc. It also included education on ‘bigger’ more in depth topics like the psychology of being in business.

A large focus of this segment in training was the psychology of being in a new business. How to be positive, determined and to stay the course. This relied on a key aspect of running a business which was the topic of support.

Many people start a business or franchise without having a heart to heart discussion with family, partners etc and actually verbalise how they need their support. Many new business owners underestimate that starting a new business is like having a new born baby in the house, it takes time and attention. People create a rosy picture in their mind and then are not able to deal with the business reality.

Also, many franchisees don’t communicate with the franchisor enough when they are facing challenges.

Why was creating this environment for success so important? The answer is timing.

Every business has a life cycle and stages it will go through and how well you come out of each stage sets you up for the next. Right, now thousands of businesses are facing a huge challenge with Covid-19 which is largely out of their control but business owners must focus on what is in their control.

Business owners and Franchisors can control the education to staff and franchisees. They can use this time to build a culture of resilience and help create an environment for success.

You can build a culture now of strength so that as this challenge decreases your staff and franchisees will ‘feel’ that culture within the group and their ability to overcome any challenge.

You can’t do it for them but you can communicate and lead what is required to create an environment for success and if they wish, hold them accountable.

For example:

In the Step into Life business we identified the core daily/weekly tasks of the business.

They were: Sessions; administration and self-promotion.

Which do you think was the one task that franchisees always did no matter what? Yes, sessions. This would be the equivalent of opening the shop.

They would do their admin most of the time but the area they would always drop when things got tough was self-promotion because this was the area that took them out of their comfort zone.

Help your staff and franchisees create an environment for success by increasing their awareness as to what the core functions and tasks of the business are.

The core tasks of each business will differ but I suggest you identify them. Then once they have been identified, then I suggest you attempt to quantify them.

Example: Sessions 10 – 12 hours per week; admin 5 – 10 hours per week; self-promotion 10 hours per week. In your business this could be in percentages etc.

Give them a framework that they can see what an environment for success for your business looks like. Help them create a schedule for the week of when they will do those tasks. If they want they can then share that schedule with you. 

Environment for success workflow

Start thinking about and designing an Environment for success model within your business.

In-grain it into the ‘dna’ of the business. Communicate it and build it into the business as part of the mantra and culture of the business.

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