Making the step from employee to being the boss, as many franchisees do, brings with it many responsibilities as well as freedom.

The equation between employee and employer is generally well understood. An employee receives a wage to reward them for spending their time undertaking the tasks required of them by the employer. Good employers communicate their expectations clearly with well-written job descriptions, which include working hours.

Stepping from a career, which may have spanned 20 years or more, of employment into becoming the boss of your own company is often a major attraction of starting a business, buying a franchise or buying an existing business. New entrants dream of an improved work-life balance, freedom to set their own working hours and flexibility to work the needs of the business around family responsibilities. In short, the prospect of not being answerable to an employer is often appealing.

However, the need for self-discipline and motivation is crucial for leaders of successful businesses. Not only do they need to be driven and have vision themselves as their business grows and brings on new employees, they need to be able to inspire others around them. Having a joint vision and goal is one of the most powerful drivers in teams who excel and customers and staff alike will look to the business owner for a clear lead.

BusinessDictionary.com defines motivation as: “Internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in people to be continually interested and committed to a job, role or subject, or to make an effort to attain a goal.”

It continues: “Motivation results from the interaction of both conscious and unconscious factors such as the intensity of desire or need, incentive or reward value of the goal and expectations of the individual and his or her peers. These factors are the reasons one has for behaving a certain way. An example is a student that spends extra time studying for a test because he or she wants a better grade in the class.”

Franchisors are often aware of the potentially huge shift in emphasis when an individual moves from employee to business owner. Initial training, focussed development with a head office team member or fellow franchisee, a clearly written operations manual and ongoing mentoring, supervision and development are all structures usually in place in order to nurture and support new franchisees to make the transition successfully.

At Promedica24, a leading live-in care provider offering one-to-one live-in care as a desirable and cost-effective alternative to nursing home care, the training and development package is a pivotal part of the model. The franchisor fully appreciates the step made by new entrants and no stone is left unturned to equip them as they start their business journey.

Promedica24 franchisees are enrolled into an initial training course at head office covering all parts of business knowledge needed to equip them to hit the ground running. Covering operations, marketing, advertising, PR, sales techniques, overview of company ethos, strategy-setting, handling business finances, time management, administration, there’s a comprehensive range of training to set new franchisees firmly on the path to success. As it’s a Polish company, the initial training also includes all-expenses paid trips to the main head office in Warsaw and, a few months into trading, to Rzeszow – the central hub of the recruitment of care workers for the UK. The new franchisees enjoy first-hand not only the benefit of having the support of the UK head office but also the breadth of vision of being part of an international organisation.

But the support doesn’t stop at initial training with Promedica24. The dedicated national franchise development manager, Tammie Johnson, runs an intense support program over the first three months to ensure new information is embedded and the transition into being a business owner of the franchise is smooth. Clear goals are set, key client meetings are accompanied and the new franchisees are guided through the steepest part of their learning curve with the benefit of Tammie’s 30 years of experience in both the care industry and business development. After all, a huge advantage of a franchise model should be access to highly experienced professionals in their field like Tammie. The whole head office team, including the marketing manager and centralised lead generation team, are also there to support and nurture the network.

After the first three months, franchisees are often pretty confident with the day-to-day running of their business and have settled into the routine of working for themselves. But the support and supervision is ongoing and tailor-made to the individual needs of the franchisees and includes business development goals and vision-setting to support individuals with establishing their own priorities. Working closely with the franchisees to understand their drivers and challenge them to grow is an important responsibility of any franchisor.

In franchising there are two main ingredients which spark a great partnership between franchisor and franchisee. Firstly, the franchisee being encouraged to unleash their inner focus and drivers and, secondly, the franchisor to provide direction and support to enable the franchisee to flourish.