Limit Your Time and Resources to Truly Master Your Universe

For some, punching a clock and working for the ‘man’ for an entire career is not as rewarding as working for yourself and building something of value with legacy potential. The challenge confronted by many business owners is to establish limits on not just their resources, but on their time as well. There is an old adage out there that goes something like this: “A truly rich man is a man that has time.” Following this logic, if time is the true measure of wealth, how exactly do we go about accumulating time?

Let’s address this question with an interesting case study: I am currently working with a married couple who are seriously considering joining a specific franchise. Financial resources are not their concern, however the amount of time required to operating their new venture was very important. His priority is his medical practice and her priority is the children. Based on our discussions, I know this is a suitable candidate and will ‘fit’ well into the franchise system. The only concern is the personal time required. In order to properly research this question, I advised the couple to interview franchisees. As a franchise coach, I suggested they ask the franchisees how much time they are investing in their business. The results were an interesting contrast in management styles and time management.

A Tale of Two Franchisees

The Micro-Managing Franchisee

The first franchisee they interviewed informed the candidate that they are dedicating long hours into this new venture. They are working days, nights and weekends. The business has taken over their life. Obviously this was not what the candidates wanted to hear, but they persevered and interviewed another franchisee in the same system.

The Delegating Franchisee

The second franchisee gave a polar opposite report. In fact, they now operate 7 locations in 5 different states. They dedicate, on average, 1 hour a week to each location and focus most of their time on identifying more locations to expand into. They are very pleased with the investment and the legacy business that has been developed.

What’s The Difference You Ask?

The franchises are identical, as are the operating procedures. The main difference is the management style of the franchisees and how they choose to be masters of their own universe. The first franchisee wants to control and micro-manage everything and really doesn’t feel comfortable turning control over to employees and/or trusted managers. The second took the time to find and train the proper managers and then empowered them to grow their business.

Create More Time by Training Good People and Empowering Them

The key point here is that if you are looking for a supervisory type franchise, you need to look inwardly and make sure you are truly comfortable empowering managers. Note the phrase ‘empowering’ – we use that purposefully. Empowering your managers and/or employees does not mean surrendering control – as an owner, your control is absolute. You need to decide if it is more important to spend some time reviewing financials or dealing with a chronically tardy employee. Put simply, you should focus on making money the old fashioned way; let others earn it for you by creating an environment that’s conducive to their (and by extension your) success.

Fear of losing control of an investment is a major obstacle encountered along the road to success. Mastering fear and enabling yourself to work with and trust others with your investment is something that takes time and practice, yet the rewards outweigh the risk in the long run. If time is what you seek, then you must begin your journey by mastering your universe.

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