Time Constraints

So, the one complaint common to almost every small business owner I know - time! Time to do everything you have to do; time to fit everything in. I'm sure lots of people can relate to this one. My issue is finding the time to market and promote the franchise and do everything else that I need to do as well.

I've been trying to set aside one day a week to concentrate on the franchise, but for the last three weeks, it just hasn't happened like that - a meeting's has got in the way, or something else has come up. I've booked a meeting with myself for tomorrow to get bits and pieces done, so I'll see how that one goes.

Nightmare...

It's a new business!

The more I become immersed in the franchise, the more I realise that I've actually got a new business on my hands - one that needs nurturing and supporting right from being a baby through to growing up into a child. Funnily enough, even though I've been through this process with the main business and this is now into child stage, I've almost forgotton what it was like to start a business from scratch and the range of emotions that you go through.

Also, it's really tough at the moment to balance the two, as I need to keep on getting clients for the current business as well as talk to potential franchisees. I find I'm tending to spend more time on one than on the other and I'm having to go through that learning curve again.

Even though I've heard (and experienced) other people who've started a different business from their existing one and seen how they've found it a shock to the system, I've never really believed it would be that different until now - yet another learning curve to add to the book.

Messed up!

I have started promoting the franchise now and received six enquiries over the last week or so to which I sent out the information. One of them read the information and asked me quite a few (very valid) questions about the franchise by email. Knowing how easily email can get misinterpreted, I should have asked for his contact details and answered these by phone. But, instead I made the mistake of replying by email.

Unfortunately, I misunderstood some of the questions he had asked and replied in the wrong way. He (quite rightly) wasn't very happy with some of my answers and said that he no longer wanted to progress things any further.

So, why am I writing about this? Well it made me really annoyed and frustrated with myself and how I had handled this. The big learning curve for me is to never go against what I would normally do - that is, ask for someone's phone number and speak to them in person, rather than replying by this ineffective tool (email) that we all now rely on. I don't intend to react this way again and I really hope that this person reconsiders and contacts me again, but to be honest I wouldn't blame him if he didn't as I definitely messed up!