How to Find Success in Franchising - Mike Skitzki

Out of college I started working at Enterprise Rent-A-Car and ended up working in the fleet services division. During that season I met a man that had recently opened a Mr. Handyman franchise, he was so excited to get started but he only had two vans. Which was too small for the fleet services Enterprise offered but he ended up explaining to me there was a bigger opportunity via their network of other franchise owners. 

Fast-forward to when I was working with John Rotche to launch TITLE Boxing Club. We had the privilege to have Tom Monaghan, the founder of Domino’s Pizza visit one day. When I asked Tom what he thought of the business his answer underwhelmed me at first. After Tom looked around for a bit he just said, “your product is an experience and this is all great so just do this every time”. The more I thought about it I realized the profoundness of what Tom said. To be great at any business you have to know what your core competency is and deliver that every single time. 

Today we see a lot of growth in the franchise space and behind nearly every location is a local business owner. Like any small business owner, those franchisees have invested their sweat and equity into a business they hope will be successful. Where franchise owners get some extra help along their journey to find success is the network of other franchise owners and the franchisor. Together they are all trying to solve the same problems and sharing best practices that help everyone succeed. 

If you are considering if franchising is right for you or not there are a few questions to ask yourself. If you like the idea of having some systems already in place and some processes to follow while still making your own decisions every day then franchising is likely a good fit for you. Whereas, if you want to create something unique from the group up then a franchise might feel a bit too restrictive for you. 

I had the chance to co-author a book with John Rotche called Reach. Which is about making human connections. And about the critical importance of mentorship - received and given. The way we complemented each other working on the book was John was able to provide the backstories to experiences he had across his career and I wrote the application piece of how we applied the learnings from those stories into our businesses. 

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