Hey I’m looking for advice. I’m a 30m I had an amazing opportunity that lead to me owning 3 small store fronts in a franchise pre covid. After covid the franchise started putting pressure on me to sell due to a buy out of the company. I was doing very well for myself in comparison to the rest of the company. The new owners of the franchise kept making me offers twice a month to sell and everytime I would turn them down. Services I was able to offer thru the company would “magically” get shut off due to “system” issues until the next meeting where they would make another offer. These services account for 60% or my gross. They were trying to force a sale and eventually they succeeded but they crushed me in the process. How do you bounce back from something like this? I feel like they ruined me and my confidence is destroyed. Im trying to figure out how to get my life back and quit feeling like shit everytime I look in the mirror. I Build those store with my blood, sweat, and tears. It was all stolen from me and I can’t figure out how to move forward. Anybody that’s ever been thru something like this, how did you come back? I feel so lost.
I went through something very similar around 20 years ago and have 2 bits of advice for you.
- Grieve for it. What you are feeling is totally normal and you should feel it. Don’t be ashamed
- You cannot pay for the education you just got anywhere else in the world. This sticks with me in everything i do nowadays. I took the lessons i learned from running and being screwed over in business and applied them. I can walk into board level roles and hit the ground running as although my skillset is in tech i can also do margin in my head, commercials, marketing, PR, people management, problem solve and vendor management etc etc etc.
I have a very well paid job and now a side business thats broken through 6 figures and starting to run away order wise.
In a few years pick yourself up and try again. You have the skills to go it alone and dont need a franchise.
It doesnt help right now but set a reminder for 1 year and read point 2 again and come back and tell me i wasnt right.
Good luck OP
Start on your own. You must have gained all the necessary skills to procure the needed stuff without the franchise owners by now.
There is a story I heard once that might help.
There was an older gentleman in a Chinese village and his son was the best fighter the best horseback rider. One day he was climbing a tree and fell out of the tree and broke his leg.
All of the other villagers came around and said oh what a shame your son has broken his leg.
Several days later the Chinese army came around looking for young men to be soldiers. They took all the young men in the village except for this man’s son who had a broken leg.
Moral of the story is that you could have a broken leg, or you could have a broken leg. It all depends upon how you look at it.
There may be some economic downturn that you missed out on that could have taken your business down. Or maybe this was a stepping stone so you could learn how to make the product that they were offering and sell it yourself and make more money.
Personally, this sounds like they went into breach of contract and you were materially damaged by their lack of action.
You could be a multi millionaire if you get good legal counsel, hope you have good records.
When people play hardball, you need to play harder.
Grieving over the loss of what you created is normal.
Now you need to get up off the mat and brush yourself off. Winners don’t stay down.
You clearly learned a lifetime’s worth of knowledge and business experience that will shorten your next learning curve & play a big part in your future success.
You’re in a great situation right now. You’re completely unencumbered with no strings attached, a free agent!
You get to do or be anything you want and that includes starting a similar business and burying those guys.
All the best.