As Seen in Forbes, Franchising is the Ultimate Leadership Training Ground
After more than 30 years in franchising, people still ask me the same thing they asked when I started: Would I ever buy a franchise myself? My answer is usually no, but not because I don’t believe in the model. It’s because I know what it asks of the people who do. I’ve come to see that franchising, as hard as it is, might be the best leadership training there is.
Years ago, I stepped into my first role leading an entire brand. I came in strong in some areas and completely green in others. There were whole corners of the business I had never touched and suddenly owned: the legal side, the licensing, the permits. I learned most of it on the fly, usually about five minutes before I needed it. That stretch taught me the thing I would tell anyone weighing whether to buy a franchise: You will not walk in knowing how to do all of it. Nobody does. The real question is whether you’re willing to go find the skills you need and don’t yet have.
Franchising Calls For Bravery
The International Franchise Association projects that franchise businesses will approach 845,000 U.S. establishments in 2026, employ nearly 8.9 million people and account for more than $920 billion in output. Behind all of that are hundreds of thousands of people who did something brave. They put their own money on the line.
If you’re considering ownership, be clear about what you’re signing up for. This investment isn’t a job you clock out of. It’s your livelihood, your retirement, your child’s college fund. You have all that riding on the outcome, but nobody hands you a script or makes the hard calls for you. You must lead like your life depends on it because, in a real way, it does. That takes nerve, and it is the first thing ownership asks of you.
Franchising Is A 360, Not A Single Lane
In most corporate jobs, you run a lane. Maybe you manage five people, maybe 500, but you’re responsible for one function, one vein of the company. Franchising is a 360. You’re working across every part of a business at once. Skills transfer, but it’s unlikely you’ll walk in having done every single thing it takes to run a business.
That’s why ownership grows your leadership skills the way it does. On any given day, you might make payroll, put out a fire at 7 a.m., manage your people, chase down a vendor, read a contract and set the vision for where you’re headed. It’s a lot, and it requires you to build leadership muscles you didn’t know you had.
Franchising Requires A Commitment To Partnership
I like to compare the leadership process to dating. Anybody can hold it together through a nice dinner. The real relationship shows up a year later, under some stress. Whether it’s a personal or professional relationship, the most critical communication skill isn’t talking. It’s listening, figuring out where friction is really coming from and acting from a place of trust and understanding.
Gallup found that when employees strongly “trust their leaders, one in two are engaged.” They’re also “61% more likely to stay.” When employees believe you have a handle on things, they stop pushing back and start working with you.
While authenticity builds trust faster than almost anything, transparency with no filter is just word vomit. The first thing that pops into your head isn’t the first thing that should come out of your mouth. Part of our job as leaders is to be the steady one in the room, akin to a flight attendant in bad turbulence. You admit things are rough, then you get everybody focused on the fix. You make calm out of chaos.
Franchising Builds Strong Leaders
So, back to the question I get asked all the time. Would I buy a franchise? Probably not. But I have spent 30 years watching the people who do, and I’ll tell you what it makes of them. It takes someone with nerve and turns them into a real leader. That’s because franchising asks for all of it: communication, trust and steadiness. And it asks for them all at once.
Nobody hands you that in a classroom. You earn it by doing the job, on the hard days as much as the good ones. If you’re weighing whether you have what it takes to own a franchise, here is the truth. You won’t have all of it on day one. But if you’re willing to keep learning, you’ll build the rest. That’s the part no one puts in the brochure, and it might be the best return on the investment of all.
Kelly Crompvoets serves as President of ARCpoint Labs, Chief Marketing Officer of CRESSO Brands LLC and a Forbes Council member.