Carolyn McManus, who has five The Coffee Club outlets around Townsville and is also the first franchisee of a Ribs and Rumps outlet, says a good multi-unit franchisee needs to be able to detach themselves emotionally from their businesses.

It’s the hardest part of growing your business, McManus says, but is essential in making sound business decisions.

“Handing over control was the key for me. It happened at about store four, when it became very apparent that I was too emotionally invested in the business. Some of my decisions, when I looked back, I realised that they were skewed based on emotions. That was when we brought a general manager into the business, to run it from a business perspective,” she told Franchising.

“If I talk to people that are planning to go to that multi-unit level, they always get caught saying, ‘I don’t know if I’ll be able to let go or if I’ll be able to give up that level of control’. It’s not easy to give up that level of control … it just takes practice. It took me nine months before I actually, truly let go. You definitely need it though because if you look at any corporate business you need that extra level in there. You’re absolutely still a franchisee but when you’re that big as a multi-unit, you have to see yourself as a CEO. Your perspective needs to change.”

What makes this very important emotional distance possible is hiring a team of people, who combined, have all the right skills to run a successful of business.

“You have to be able to keep tight controls on your KPIs, and you have to include people in the decision making. As a multi-unit, once you start to get that extra layer of management in there, they need to be part of that decision making process, so you have to be collaborative.

“Also, if you’re a numbers person then you need to make sure that the person you employ as your right-hand man or general manager isn’t the same as you, they can’t be a numbers person too. So for me, my strength is the big picture stuff, the visionary stuff. I don’t like detail. So my general manager and financial controller are very strong on detail. The key is to recognise what you’re good at and make sure you balance it with someone who has different skills to you.

“You also need to recognise that you’re going to drive each other up the wall sometimes because of that.”

Read all about Carolyn’s franchising career by clicking here.