I have been thinking about the post I created a few weeks ago and wanted to share some further thoughts. I have let's say 2500 contacts and most know me thru my Recruiting Business Reid & Associates Executive Search or from my career in the transportation industry. I am not sure the exact time that I decided to make the jump to self-employment, but it was at least a year before I left my position to spend fulltime on this change. During that time, I consulted family and friends about my objectives and the risks involved, I did as much due diligence as I could while trying to deliver on the expectations of my employer. It wasn't easy. I looked at other businesses in Hospitality, Transportation, Retail and anything where I thought that my skills could be used to help me be successful while delivering the Lifestyle changes, I was pursuing. One thing I did well was building teams, and I enjoyed watching people grow in their careers. The more I thought about this the more I realized this was one of the most important ingredients in every business no matter what industry. Small businesses are different from the corporate world in that the owner doesn't have a staff to rely on for every decision. But that was actually one of the things I was looking for. So why was I so concerned about the risk involved? Starting a small business has terrible a success rate (80% failure rate). I also knew that buying an existing business brought with it risk, culture, performance issues, family and customer loyalties. After all this I couldn't ignore the Franchise industry and its incredible success rate of 80%! After opening my MRINetwork office, I realized the support and training benefits. I was independent but there were so many experts there to advise me, and the resources were very valuable not only in the startup phase but from there on in every phase of the business's growth, 23 years later they are still a valuable partner. This isn't an ad for buying an MRI franchise, but its endorsement for the franchise industry. There are over 420,000 franchise units owned in every business space you can imagine. My journey in franchising has been exciting, rewarding and has delivered the lifestyle I wanted to achieve.
Glad to see you are doing well. Long road from Curry College. Keep up the good work.
Office Lead at NFI Cal Cartage
6moGlad everything working out for you.