The Dream is Free, the Hustle is Sold Separately, the Middle Third is Your Opportunity

Many people dream about doing something big, yet very few actually follow through with it. Why? Because the hustle is sold separately.

Let’s start with the prospective franchisee—one who dreams of making a better life for themselves through independent business ownership. They meticulously hunt for the perfect franchise opportunity; perform exhaustive due diligence; and then jump head first into owning a piece of that brand’s puzzle in their local market.

Yet, when I ask franchisors about their happiness with their franchise organization, most use the rule of thirds to define their ultimate happiness.

“Thirty-three percent we are thrilled with. Thirty-three percent we are happy with, but want to shake because they have so much potential. And thirty-three percent we wish we would have passed on them as an operator,” they say.

Let’s start with the positive: the 33 percent they are thrilled with. The answer behind that one is typically simple. They follow the system. That’s it. There is no silver bullet in great franchisees—they simply follow the model they bought into. They understand that they just paid a hefty franchise fee to operate that brand, so why risk that by trying to change the model that works?

The next 33 percent are those who say the right things but have short term memory loss. They know the right pathway, and understand it, but just don’t know how to jumpstart their motivation to help lift them into the top performers of the brand. They, however, are, in my opinion, the most valuable franchisees because their upside is so incredible. If you can shake their tree, just a little, it can propel them into the top of the class. These franchisees should be the ones who have the most potential at scaling. They are the future multi-unit owners—but only when they find this incredible velocity. Your attention should go to them. But in reality, that attention typically goes to the next group: The bottom.

The bottom 33 percent are the ones who always complain, without backing it up. In fact, they don’t want to hustle—they think that, just because they bought your brand, they’ll magically make oodles of money the second they open their doors. They have great opinions, too, and know how to fix all of your brand’s issues. Typically, this comes in the form of more menu items, more support, national media buys and less expenses.

The middle 33 probably are willing to spend more on marketing—they just need help knowing where to spend it. They need a great coach, whereas the bottom are not coachable. In retrospect, would you still have made the decision to approve them and bring them into your system? Of course you would have, and that’s because you wanted that franchise fee check. You need those dollars to pay for the cost of running your business. But that doesn’t mean you should have.

What makes the top great? They dream and they hustle. What makes the middle great? They are willing to hustle—they just need a personal trainer. But what can make the bottom great? For starters, process and procedures, proper communication through the sales process and a setting of right expectations.

Clearly, the bottom once had a dream to be a part of your brand. If you can remind them of that—if you can help lead them to hustle—you might be able to move a third of them into the middle. But is your hustle on the bottom third worth it? Or should you be hustling to help make the dream of the middle better?

Weed the lower performers out. Disqualify the next one. Model the next growth pattern of your system off of the middle-class. Catching lightning in a bottle with the top 33 percent is not only an art, it is luck and timing. Catching the middle and keeping them motivated to move up the ranks is much more feasible.