Is Franchising Right For Me?

Mindset, Motivation & Momentum

Successful entrepreneurs have been known to say business success is achieved by doing the right things in the right order at the right time. Sounds easy, right?

Well I’ve got to be honest, after building my own 6 and 7 figure businesses and influencing the success of many other small businesses over the last couple of decades, I’ve come to know that achieving business success also relies heavily on how well you play your ‘inner game’ and not just the outer game.

So, what do I mean about Inner Game and Outer Game? The outer game of business is fairly straight forward. It’s operating the business. It’s what you do every day, the strategy and the daily tactics – in other words the actions you take to generate leads, convert those leads into paying customers and how you deliver a ‘wowing’ customer experience, among all the other elements such as hiring and leading team members, managing key business relationships, juggling the books and wearing the many other hats we small business owners wear. However, we tend not to shine a spotlight on the inner game, yet I believe it’s the most important element to achieving business success.

The Inner Game is your Mindset – your mental muscle

Studies have shown that the thoughts you think every single day – both consciously and unconsciously – can have a profound effect on the daily momentum you build and the long-term success that is created. I’ve got to be honest, when I’m not working on my mental muscle – that is my inner game – my business has often been like an unpredictable rollercoaster with all the highs and lows and twists and turns, generally resulting in revenue peaks and troughs instead of consistently growing and achieving predictable results.

Business and life, just like sport should be taken a little more seriously. The sooner we learn how to play the game better and specifically the game of money and the game of business, the easier the game will become. And just like professional sports, you and I must practice. If you want to be at the top of your game, it’s critical you take time every day to practice both physically and mentally.

So, whether you are just embarking on the journey of small business ownership or you’ve been playing the game of business for a while now, grab a cuppa and take time just for you; learn how to build your mental muscle by upgrading your thoughts and beliefs and start winning the Inner Game of Business Success.

Success Begins with you

Often in a franchise system it is common for a franchisee to lay blame on the franchisor for their lack of momentum and success. Achieving success in your franchise opportunities, regardless of whether it’s an established brand or a new brand building its footprint in the market, relies solely on you. It’s important you show up with the best version of yourself every day, empowering your team, engaging and wowing your customers and creating the culture and environment where people want to belong and be a part of.

You can get started by setting your intentions for what it is you want. Get clear about:

What do you want the ‘Bigger Picture’ to look like?
What about each and every day? How much money do you really want to make?
What do you really want your business to achieve?

You don’t have to know the how right now, you just have to be clear on exactly what it is you want.

Think about other elements of your business, not just the financial bits. If you were your own customer, how would you want to be treated? If you were your own customer, would you choose to do business with you?

The next step is to ask what level do you want to play the game of business at? Is it 2nd grade, 1st grade or Pro Level?

Are you Interested or Committed?

It’s NOT a question we ask ourselves often, if at all. Imagine this… I walk up to you at a networking event and after a few minutes of conversation I ask you this… Are you interested or committed to achieving success in your business? Of course, without hesitation you will more than likely reply with: I’m committed of course! Or you may come back with a question of your own such as: What’s the difference?

When a person is just interested, they will do what is convenient to them. When a person is committed, they will do whatever it takes.

So, take a moment right now to think about what type of business owner you are? Are you committed? Or are you just interested. The results you currently have in business and in life will clearly reflect to you the answer. Try not to justify reasons why you may be just interested and not committed in certain areas of your business or life. Simply acknowledge it and make a decision to make some changes, then take consistent daily action to close the gap and move towards what it is you want.

Motivation – What is Your Motive for Action?

I often hear business owners saying they’ve lost all motivation. By reframing what motivation means to you, you will literally be in a position to make some quick shifts and start to build the momentum you want. Motivation put simply is your Motive for Action. It’s not too dissimilar to your why. The reason why you get out of bed every day and do what it is you do.

Sit down for half an hour and write out what your motive is for taking action every day. Is it your family, is it the holidays you want to take each year, is it the lifestyle you want to live? Whatever your motive, it’s important to understand it – read over it every day.

Here’s a tip: Instead of just taking action and feeling burdened by it, take inspired action – driven by your why and your motive for taking action every moment in your business.

Five Keys to Maintaining Motivation

We all know our motive for action doesn’t always stay super strong so here’s five keys to maintaining motivation.

1) Ambition

Dream Big. It’s important you create goals that help you grow. Next, review those goals daily and remember, a goal is nothing but a wish without a plan. So, be sure you develop a solid plan and take inspired action to execute that plan in order to achieve your business dreams and goals.

2) Expectancy

In business – and in life – I am a big believer that you get what you expect. When you expect great things will happen, they have a way of showing up. Start to be aware of what you expect to happen every day.

3) Focus

This is not too dissimilar to my previous point. We all have choices every day. We can choose to focus on the good or the not so good. For example, I had a client who owns a chain of burger stores. One of his stores was more of a destination store rather than blessed with a lot of foot traffic. He could have – like many – focused on the negative, that he had to spend more on advertising to drive the people to his store and instead he focused on the opportunities that this brought to the business. He was proactive in building a database of everyone who walked into his store, collecting mobile numbers and email addresses. Every day he would assess his revenues by 11.30am, if they were down he didn’t focus on the doom, instead he sent a SMS broadcast out to his customers letting them know of the lunch specials. As a result, he predictably grew his business simply because he chose to focus on opportunities instead of the negative.

Remember, what you focus on expands. Be sure you maintain a laser beam focus on what it is you want. Time for a self-check. Where do you predominantly direct your focus? Is it on the opportunities, or is it based on lack and fear, stress and overwhelm?

4) Make Your Attitudes Your Allies

How do you show up every day? Are you blaming and complaining, whinging and whining, moaning and groaning or are you showing up with an attitude for gratitude, a zest for life and a love of what it is you do? How we think shows up in how we act, it’s as simple as that. Our attitude or attitudes are simply a reflection or a mirror image of our thinking. When you are enthusiastic, soon you will have enthusiastic followers. Remember, people want to hang around those who are enthusiastic and inspiring, that goes for your customers too.

5) Your Environment Matters

We all know that we are the average of the five people you spend the most time with, yet many of us are still hanging around the wrong people. Take a look at your environment. If it’s filled with stinking thinking then take a leap in the other direction. Often times it’s not as simple as that, the people who are dragging us down may in fact be family so a golden tip for this is – silence is golden… keep your dreams and desires to yourself; guarded from those who are pessimistic and say it will never happen.

As a franchisee, you are fortunate to be part of a great network and community so ensure you rub shoulders more often with the franchisees who are doing exceptionally well. Think about joining other network groups or online communities who can lift you, inspire you and enable you to offer support to others too. Your environment inside your head also matters, so be sure you commit some time to meditation and mindfulness. Watch your self-talk and correct it when it gets off course and finally I would recommend you retrain your brain with some neuro-reconditioning and deep level brain training techniques, so you can win the inner game of business success. Reach out if you would like to know more about this one.

Ditch Procrastination to build momentum faster

I am often found teaching my tribe how to eliminate the F word. You know the one I’m talking about, don’t you? Fear! Not this time though. Although it is worth mentioning that fear put simply is False Emotions Appearing Real. When you can manage how you respond to those emotions and you practice daily everything I’ve mentioned here today you will move through fear with confidence and certainty.

Over the past 12 months, I have seen a shift in many business owners – from fear to procrastination. Although one could argue fear and procrastination go hand-in-hand, for the purpose of the point here, when I speak of procrastination I mean delaying or putting off the things we know we should be doing and replacing them with the things that could honestly be done another time. It’s really the lack of prioritisation which is procrastination. This happens to be the case especially for service based businesses.

When you know what you want, and you have total clarity around your revenue and lifestyle goals, you are clear on the actions you need to take on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis, you increase your chances of building momentum and closing the gap between where you are and where you want to be faster. Oh, and just remember… It’s your time to thrive!

Tania Allen

Vision Alliance | PopCorn Marketing | Tania Allen Group
1300 76 49 20 | 0419 481 203
tania@vision-alliance.com
visionalliance.com.au
taniaallen.com
popcornmarketing.com.au

TRUSTED GLOBALLY FOR OVER 30 YEARS IN FRANCHISING