A: One of the biggest opportunities in franchising is the ability to be your own boss. Choosing the franchising route of entrepreneurship means making an informed and courageous decision, and the newfound independence is of course part of the dream. However, it can be very challenging to adapt your mind and habits as you create a structure that’s going to work for you, your business, and your personal life. Once the initial relief of liberty eases, you may find yourself in a similar situation as many other new franchisees who are trying to find a balance in their new normals.
You may be struggling with self-direction and self-management in how you organize personal and professional demands, priorities, and activities. After all, this new life chapter allows you to to suit your unique needs and circumstances, something you may not have had autonomy over before.
These key tips will help new franchisees get organized and create a structure that will help them succeed.
The Three Rs and Three Bs
The three Rs: rules, rituals, and routines, are foundational and a prerequisite to attain the 3Bs: boundaries, bounce back, and bandwidth. All Rs and Bs are necessary guidelines to manage your energy, attention, motivation, and brain power. When you become your own boss, these abilities will be tested. By setting up your three Rs, you can protect your three Bs.
- Rules: These self-imposed creations can help you with decision-making, prioritizing, and navigating challenging situations. It’s how you decide what you’re willing to compromise on, and where you want to be steadfast. A good example could be a creed you develop that defines the way you want to set up and show up in your business relationships, and your expectation for others to do the same. By considering your rules for preferred conduct upfront, you save time, along with heart and mind space, when identifying whether clients, suppliers, or partners are a good fit.
- Boundaries: These emerge naturally from the rules you’ve set. They’re critical for effective time management, while keeping distractions and stressors at bay. The better you are at identifying and maintaining boundaries with quiet, calm assertion, the more efficient, productive, and peaceful your work/life can be.
- Rituals: These are the practices you undertake to develop greater physical, emotional, and mental strength. Rituals are therefore very personal to each individual and based on your current needs. All three strengths work in a cybernetic loop also known as the mind-body connection. As you strengthen one, the others develop too. An example of a great ritual that feeds the cybernetic loop is exercise. By strengthening your body, you also strengthen your mental agility, endurance, and willpower.
- Bounce Back: This is your level of resiliency in challenging and adverse situations. By practicing your rituals as you strengthen yourself mentally, emotionally, and physically, you can deal with and recover from adversity better. The quicker you recover, the greater your level of bounce back, which means the challenges feel more like blips than major bumps in the road. You’ll become the master of emotion regulation, stress management, and productivity.
- Routines: The human brain loves nothing more than predicting and preparing for what’s next, so routines are ideal to maximize your output. This includes setting up an organized schedule of priorities with brain basics in mind. A good example of this is blocking time for challenging, strategic work and setting meetings in the mornings when your brain is fresh, your willpower is high, and you’re in top form.
- Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the energy and mental capacity required to deal with a situation rationally and with best outcomes. The positive impact that routines have on bandwidth is profound. Low bandwidth can lead to irritation and overreaction, which can worsen tense situations. When you have plenty of bandwidth, you approach things with calm consideration to find resolutions for best outcomes. Through predictable routines, you’re expanding your mind space, and with it comes added bandwidth.
As a new franchisee, it’s imperative to find balance in your new normal, and you can start by defining the three Rs: setting the rules you want to operate by; identifying and implementing the right rituals for you to build physical, emotional, and mental strength; and setting up the routines for optimal brain power and output.
With these frameworks in place, you’ll develop healthy habits to protect your boundaries and eliminate distractions, bolster your ability to bounce back from adversity, and develop the bandwidth to manage any situation with ease.
Conny Millard
Co-Founder and Master Coach
POWERPODS
conny@powerpods.coach