Franchising! In its humblest form
I didn’t plan on this happening this week.
This week was the first week I was able to “franchise” my market stand!
I didn’t plan on doing it this weekend, and honestly, I didn’t seriously plan on doing it at all before the past few days.
Here is how it happened:
I had accumulated close to a double setup preparing for a big festival that I did last week.
I accidentally double-booked myself for 2 festivals in mid-May.
My twin agreed to vend one of them for me, so I bought the last few things missing from the setup.
Then, less than 24 hours before this week’s market, I realized that I could ask my little sister to vend at our local market for me while I went to another one nearby.
She agreed, and I packed up the car!
She is only 13, so she was a little nervous, but she said she wanted to go!
A couple of things I had to do to prepare for this “franchising” were:
Making sure the entire setup was cohesively packed
I wanted to make the system as seamless as possible. I didn’t ever want her to have to wonder “what I am supposed to do next?” or “How do I do this?” Not because I don’t trust her ability to figure things out, but so that I can create a simple system that can be copied as needed. If the numbers work out, I can eventually keep multiplying.
I had to make sure she knew that sales pitch.
She has heard me say the pitch many times, but I still wrote an outline. That way, I can also use it as a reference for others.
I wrote an outline of how the payment system, etc., works
Sometimes, certain payment systems will not work, so I had to make sure to write out all the ways to give the customer alternative ways of payment and how to troubleshoot the problem.
Photo y Shahbaz Ali on Unsplash
My biggest takeaway is that if you want to branch out/franchise anything, you have to have a solid system.
You can’t expect others to do the problem-solving that you do and to care as much as you do (I am not saying this about my sister particularly, just about franchising in general 😁). So, you have to create a system that leaves as little room for error as possible.
I didn’t get it 100% perfect on the first go, but as the book The Slight Edge teaches, our life is a series of constant micro corrections that keep us on track.
Hope you have a great week ahead!
God bless,
Serena