So true, Don. I wonder how you can “fix” it?
Merv, it’s a leverage choice (potentially) for me.
I don’t think you can “fix it”. I think it’s so deeply ingrained in who we are as a society, but I also believe that’s why there is a lot of poor people.
Here’s a another neat little story that shows just how ingrained it is.
In Africa they used to use a fist trap to trap monkeys. How it works is like this:
They cut a whole in a tree then hollow it out. Then they put a nut in the tree that’s a little bit bigger than the hole. Monkeys are curious little things and they would come along and stick their hand in this hole and find the nut and think, great, got this nut. Then when they try to pull their hand out they can’t. They will actually stand there with their hand in the tree because they don’t want to lose the nut. A hunter can actually walk right up and shoot the monkey because of the fear the monkey has of losing the nut that he finds.
The scarcity mentality is deeply ingrained.
Here’s what I think I would do to “fix it”:
Get really happy with getting the short end of the stick. Make it so you can get the short end of the stick and have it be really profitable. Think on all of your deals how can I make this so valuable the other person is thinking, I like this Kevin guy, he’s not that smart(because of how much your giving away) But I like the guy. If you get really happy getting the short end of the stick you wouldn’t have the problem.
This is straight out of Eben Pagan’s playbook. I like following him, he has given me deep insight on a little of different issues. Scarcity being a big one.
The problem is getting the short end of the stick and still being very profitable.
This stuff is all so subjective too.
It’s all subjective, that’s what perceived value is.
There are lots of people making lots of money and getting the short end of the stick. Looking from the perspective of the buyer’s perceived value.
Don’t be the monkey with his hand on the nut.
A Franchise of knowledge would have probably been much more profitable before the internet, because with this forum alone, you now have the double edged sword of “Massive amounts of potential clients”, versus “Massive amounts of free knowledge.”
Mankind is a master of “working the system”, so when Joe Blow signs up for your franchise, if you irritate him or if he is just feeling generous, all of your “Valuable” information can be emailed to all of his window cleaning chat buddies, so your table has been turned and you are now making that $1k a week, but now ten other guys are making $4k a piece, would you still be comfortable knowing those other ten now made money off of your back, just as your original proposal for customers?
You can throw in some kind of breach of contract for leaking information clause, but the more clauses you write, the more leery customers will become. The more rules you create to protect your own intellectual content, the more of a villain you appear to the potential customers, as some have insinuated, franchises can easily be viewed in the same light as pyramid schemes, many people are just as leery of the rules and regulations.
As someone that is planning to open another branch in the spring, I would love to believe I could talk my employees into following a “franchise” type organization, but instead I will have to up the stakes and provide them with incentives to want to continue to work for/with me, because the same drive that makes them great employees is the same drive that would allow them to start their own businesses. As in the previous statement about mentors, the only way to prevent resentment is for the mentor to be humble enough to accept that a capable student will eventually become an equal, and must be treated as such.
Kevin, you never answered my questions, you simply delfected my questions by asking other questions.
Don -
The monkey mentality works for racoons too. They would rather sit and grasp onto their “treasure” and die there, instead of just letting go of it and living. Crazy stuff.
Kevin - I will make this deal with you: Gross me $600/hr, then take your 30 - 40% cut, and I will work all day, every day, sun up to sun down…(for at least a year or so…then retire myself). I’ll keep some great guys employed for top pay and benefits, and watch my bank account grow while sipping margaritas on a beach somewhere. I’ll make that deal with you as soon as the paperwork is here. Good luck…
The real question is this…my time my free time to do whatever i want to do with…what kind of time will the franchise give me?? How much income will the franchise produce in order to have my free time? How much free time do you want?? IF i can get a full days pay in 2-3 hours or get 2-3 weeks pay in 2-3 days…leaving me with free time to live, spend more time with family etc…!!
Wow, when I saw the post count on this I knew somebody struck a nerve.
I only read the first page and the 11th page.
Business can’t be guaranteed, money can’t be guaranteed and to be honest
I tire of all this ‘make $$$$$$$ per hour’ crap.
Money makes life simple but not easy… it certainly does not equal happiness.
My thoughts on a franchise would be WAY broader than $ per hour. I am not
going to get into it because it really does not matter what I think.
Don, I love to find someone mentioning Eben on a window cleaning forum (that is not me or Kevin)
Eben is the real deal and a great speaker.
In a sense, isn’t the 10% the franchisor gets the “short end” of the stick? it’s not 60% or something.
Probably why many new hires can be resentful and have to be fired for lousy “you’re giving me the short end of the stick” attitude about getting 30% of gross revenue - but that’s not the short end, they are just ignorant of all else that needs to be done and accounted for - basic business structure, it is what it is.
I disagree with the receiving a grand for doing “nothing” - wouldn’t they really have their own set of client fulfillment and satisfaction responsibilities that depend on the expectations and initial agreements?
Anyone just kicking their feet up and collecting for doing nothing for very long truly will have nothing in short order.
"If you can find JUST 3 people to get a window cleaning job, and then they each find 3 window cleaning jobs and so on, you’ll mak a bazillion dollars.
Once you reach the double platinum diamond titanium distributor level your overrides on each window cleaning job will now be . . .
window cleaning is so easy, i started in my garage and had umpteen people in my downline in no time, now we are debt free and in this gargantuan corporate building in Dubai and are a fortune 500 company with over 10 billion associates reaching over into other planets now that earth doesn’t have a big enough population to support the downlines necessary"
sound familiar? lol
when I was very young and I realized you could take the same speels and apply them to window cleaning (every one gets 3 jobs and then those 3 get 3), it hit me how collapsable, unstructured and unstable MLM as a whole is
But what if MLM could work somehow in window cleaning?
Sorry Scott, no intentional deflection. Which questions in particular? I’m not hiding from anything.
Point taken, Don.
I’m exploring the middle ground I suppose. Take Rolls Royce for instance. The mother company makes the dealers pay a LOT of money for the product, but the dealers get to do very well, too.
That’s what I’m exploring. How to make it seem more like a win-win.
Okay, nice direct application.
If your guys thought they could do better than you and had the guts to try, yes they will leave. I think it’s more of a personality factor more than anything.
If you could help them make more than anyone else in the biz by staying with you, I would propose that it might be enough to keep them on board.
A blend of autonomy and exclusive high value tools seems to be the best combination.
Ummm…thanks for weighing in and calling this whole conversation and thread focused on profitability “crap”.
In this case keep in mind, it’s win win, but there ain’t another way to be a Rolls Royce dealer either, so absolute exclusivity (and scarcity indirectly I suppose) also is at work right?
Is this the question Scott?
In this scenario, yeah you would/could/should receive help for all that stuff.
So why not provide those same two essential ingredients? I agree that they are vital in this scenario for it to work.
Oh and by “this scenario” I mean the window cleaning franchise issue under discussion.
