“you just don’t get it, do you?”

Just Don' tGet It

If given the chance, I’m sure you know of someone in business you want to say, “you just don’t get it, do you?” too.
What usually happens though is that what’s said behind closed doors is instead, “they just don’t get it, do they?”.

A case in point was today. I spent it working with a friend and colleague of mine, who owns a franchise business reliant on independent practitioners. Together with her business development colleague, we went over a number of scenarios to improve the booking rates of her practice. But the one phrase that was repeated over and over again was “they just don’t get it” in respect to their franchise comrades.

The main reason for this was due to the level of frustration directed at the independent practitioners who were generally not deemed to be business savvy. It was agreed it’s because they were/are not taught about the principles of business when at practitioner school and nor do they have someone around them, in their “A” team, that can assist with the transition either.

Typical eMyth stuff!

That said, it does not help the business owner who is trying to build a business based on the practitioners skill set.
So what do you do?

Do you interview many of them, in the hope that a select view will drop out of the mix as the ideal type of candidates or do you invest in training all of them to be better at the business of their craft? Regardless of choice, the fear is they will learn what they have to and before too long, may decide to leave and go out on their own, leaving you, the business owner, right back where you started.

So what other option do you have?

Maybe it needs to be built more on a Cooperative model? Or even a Legal Practice model?
There has to be some way for the practitioners to comprehend the commercial realities along with their own need to earn.

Given that in this particular scenario, the franchise model has already been cast, the franchisor is going to have to work really hard to bring the franchisees up to speed or otherwise the whole thing could fall over. And that won’t do anyone any good.

Would the same decisions be made today, based on what they now know?
I suspect not…

 

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