What does semi-absentee ownership actually mean? And perhaps more importantly, what it does not mean?
What is a semi-absentee owner? First, I want to tell you what it is not. A semi-absentee business is NOT an instant ATM machine. There is this false expectation that you can just put your money into the business and that it’s just going to produce a financial result without any effort from you. That is not going to happen in any business endeavor. That’s an investment in the stock market or maybe a passive real estate investment. But that is a very common myth in franchising that a franchise that is semi-absentee will be this plug-and-play or an instant ATM machine. Because it’s a proven brand.
It’s common to assume, I’m going to open the location. People are just going to flood right in and I’m going to make all kinds of money right from day one. But very, very rarely is that ever true. Businesses take time to ramp up and they require owners who are leaders, owners who can build teams of people.
Let’s talk about what a semi-absentee owner is. A semi-absentee owner is someone who can work ON the business rather than IN the business. These businesses will typically run from a specific location with a brand. That’s going to allow the owner to spend time on the marketing rather than in a direct sales environment. The location is acting like the sales agent, if you will. The CEO of a semi-absentee business will be hiring to the experience of the business. So this means that you do not have to have experience in this industry in order to be successful. For example, to be a successful Massage Envy owner, you do not have to be a massage therapist. To be a successful Supercuts owner, you do not have to know how to cut hair. But what you do need to know how to do is hire, train and lead teams of people. As the semi-absentee owner of these types of businesses, your job will be to build a culture among your team, a culture that wants to show up to work and create an experience that your audience wants to come back for or come into the store for and come back for that experience. This allows you to not have to be there again, working ON the business strategy, financials, multi-unit growth, versus IN the business, sleeves rolled up, giving a massage or cutting hair. A semi-absentee owner will often have a full time job in the beginning.
There are many people who think about owning a business, but they realize they can’t really afford the ramp up period without income. So a semi-absentee business is a great sort of bridge investment that allows them to straddle both worlds to have one foot in Corporate America and one foot in their entrepreneurial future. As the business starts to ramp and produce cash flow, they’re not going to leave their job and then go work in a business that didn’t need them in the first place, right? But now they’ll be able to leave their job and maybe focus on multi-unit growth. So scaling that business, which is always where the wealth will be created in a franchise, or they could leave Corporate America and be semi-retired, or they could call Kim Daly back and we could find them another investment for their future depending on their goals.
A semi-absentee business provides many options for the owner to be full time employed, to have other businesses, to have other investments that they want to manage, to be a volunteer in their community, to be a soccer mom or dad, to be a chauffeur to their kids, all while still building income, equity, cash flow, tax deductions, all while enjoying the benefits that all business owners have but not tying up their time. This semi-absentee ownership allows, again, for scalability to multiple locations, which allows you to grow your wealth. When no one location needs the owner every minute it’s open, then that’s going to allow you to be able to grow multiple locations in a faster amount of time, thereby growing that wealth exponentially. And that’s really the value of being a semi-absentee owner. The opportunity to have this bridge from Corporate America to entrepreneurship. The opportunity to be semi-retired, but to still be building cash flow that you own and equity in something that’s a value that you could sell when you’re ready to be fully retired, or the opportunity to build this as an investment in your portfolio of other businesses where, again, the business doesn’t need you every minute that it’s operating.
If you are interested in learning more about semi-absentee ownership, I would love to meet you! Please send an email to The Daly Coach today.