How Many Hours Do Franchise Owners Work?

Set your own hours; have others do the work while you reap the rewards - these are the oft-repeated sales slogans of franchisors hoping to sell their business model to would-be entrepreneurs. And they are both lies.

The truth varies from franchise to franchise and from owner to owner, depending on their needs, ambitions, and expectations.

What are your financial needs and expectations?

Owning a franchise can offer you a certain amount of flexibility in your work schedule, provided you choose the right franchise - the one that corresponds to your needs and expectations.

If you have a certain financial goal that you need to reach, the answer to ‘How many hours will I work?’ will probably be - ‘As many as I need to in order to meet my financial goals.’

If you have low financial expectations but your plan is to own a franchise, take a hands-off management approach, and let your employees do most of the work, the chances are that you will be able to find a franchise that meets those expectations.

What personality type are you?

Having a clear understanding of who you are, what you’re willing to put in, and what you expect to get out of your franchise will go a long way towards making sure you buy a franchise that is right for you. There is most likely a franchise that fits your particular personality:

You are a self-described workaholic who likes to be in control.

The good news is that there are more than a few franchises that could accommodate your personality type. As a franchise owner, you are the boss. You make important decisions and oversee all the projects and follow through with all services provided.

You are a globetrotter hoping to make enough money to go on extended trips around the globe.

If you know ahead of time that you are going to want to take off for extended periods of time, consider looking into a franchise that operates on a seasonal basis. Depending on your location, this could be water sport or ski equipment rental. Or, if you live in a location that has long, cold winters, a landscaping company would likely only be viable in the spring and summer months.

You are a homebody.

The good news is that there are many work-from-home franchise opportunities. Though, when you don’t make a clear distinction between home life and work life, you could find yourself putting in far more hours than you had initially intended.

To be a successful franchise owner, you will need to put in the hours. But the exact number of hours you will need to put in depends, largely, on how you define success. At the end of the day, the success of your business will depend on you. It is your responsibility, but this also means that you are the one that gets to define what is meant by ‘success’. It varies from owner to owner, as does the work required to achieve the individually defined ‘success’.

An Aggregate of Testimonials From Franchise Owners

Although there are a seemingly endless number of variables when it comes to the franchise-owning experience, by reviewing testimonials from franchise owners across a broad spectrum of activities, a few common points are raised.

“There is no such thing as a part-time franchise.”

Even if you set out to only work in the mornings or only work in the evenings, you will spend a considerable amount of your ‘off time’ thinking about your business, how it can be improved, and what steps you need to take going forward. Owning a franchise is a full-time job.

“You will work more in the first few months than you probably expected to.”

There is a significant learning curve to owning a franchise. While you will constantly be learning new things over the lifetime of your franchise, it is during those first few months that you are likely to have the most amount of new information to process and assimilate.

Eventually, you will build your franchise up enough to the point where much of the work can be delegated. But in the initial stages of your franchise, that is unlikely to be the case.

“Time is hard to manage, and getting a good handle on how to effectively manage your time won’t happen overnight.”

Even if you have good time-management skills, owning a franchise presents new challenges and new responsibilities. While most franchise owners report working less after a few years of owning their franchise than they did at the beginning, they also report being more productive, working more efficiently after a few years of being a franchise owner.

You’re the boss, but you’re not in it alone.

When you own your own franchise, you are ultimately responsible for its success and for how much of your time it requires of you. But you are also part of a team, part of a community of franchise owners each with similar experiences and insights they can share and help one another meet their goals.

Kitchen Tune-Up is a franchise system of committed professionals from all walks of life. We have franchise opportunities available all over the country - will you be next to join us? Read short testimonials from our franchise owners and contact us today to find out more about the franchise opportunities we have for you.