As a career academic I have always been conscious of the adage that Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. Although I have always had a life beyond the ivory towers my extra-curricular activities have been in the consulting rather than the hands-on business operation space. Well, no longer.

My Christmas holiday this year was spent not enjoying the delights of the family beachhouse in New Zealand’s Marlborough Sounds but working 14 hour days in the cafe and bar my brother and I bought last year. If John Cleese had been holidaying in Picton he may have been inspired to develop a new Fawlty Cafe concept as he observed the professor struggling with the challenges of serving the public.

This experience with caf_ ownership may be instructive to those readers who are considering leaving the security of employment for the challenges of small business.

It is really my brother’s story; a not unfamiliar sea change tale. He was an academic on sabbatical leave to complete his PhD (a work in progress for a decade longer than anticipated). During this leave in the Marlborough Sounds it became clear to him that the PhD and academic career were not the most important things in the world to him.

A business opportunity presented itself – an established but rather tired cafe/bar with real potential, delightfully located with stunning harbour views and a long lease – and the rest is history.

I am painfully aware from previous investments that, with few exceptions, the prerequisite for successful small business operation is hands on proprietorship. I have the luxury of being an investor only because my brother works in the business and commits to it on a daily basis. There can come a time in the life of any business when it can be managed rather than operated by the owner on a daily basis but the start-up phase of a caf_ is not the time.

One of the key factors in the development of franchising was that franchisees were hands-on proprietors rather than passive investors. The rise of multi-unit franchising proves that franchising has evolved to the stage where it is no longer necessary that the person who owns the store actually runs the store.

But multi-unit franchising is not for beginners and in any event is not appropriate for every business. Those who seek the same challenge as my brother must accept that getting into business, whether as a franchisee or as an independent operator demands hands-on commitment. Day after day after day. Any prospective small business operator who does not accept, or who under-estimates, this commitment will be disappointed at best and bankrupt at worst.

Some readers may no doubt be wondering why a passionate advocate for franchising did not get into business through the franchise route. A franchise would certainly have addressed many of the issues we grapple with on a daily basis: the market niche, the image, the look and feel, the menu as well as a mass of back of house matters from bookkeeping to staff management to supplier arrangements.

There are a number of reasons. The question of a franchise never came up because the business was an established business. A franchise was not a necessary or logical entry point in this case. But even if it was it would not have been the right strategy for us. A prospective franchisee has to assess a range of factors – the concept, the business, the system, the franchisor, the financial equation – and assess their own capacity to be a franchisee, to work within the franchisor’s proven system.

In our case part of the real attraction was the opportunity to do it our way; to put into practice the ideas we had talked about for years; to develop a theme and an image.

We accepted that it would be a steep learning curve and that we would learn from our mistakes. In this we were not mistaken. It’s hard, it’s unrelenting. But it’s enormously satisfying and a lot of fun.

Andrew Terry is Professor of Business Regulation, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Sydney an a consultant to DC Stategy.