Success Stories

5 Ways to Achieve Life Balance through Franchising – The Entrepreneur’s Source Franchise Friday

How to Achieve Life Balance through Franchising – The Entrepreneur’s Source Franchise Friday

Last week on Franchise Friday, host Paul Segreto was joined by The Entrepreneur’s Source franchise owner and marketing expert Isabell Estes. Isabell shared her personal experience in achieving life balance through franchising.

About Isabell Estes

Isabell Estes is the franchise owner of The Entrepreneur’s Source in Tulsa, Oklahoma, an international network of business ownership coaches who work with individuals and companies considering franchising as a career alternative or a method of expansion. She also provides B2B coaching and support to existing businesses.

Prior to opening the Tulsa branch, she worked several years in marketing and public relations for Tele-Communications Inc., Tulsa Public Schools and TV Guide. She also had her own public relations and marketing consultancy called Estes Communications. She opened the Tulsa office of The Entrepreneur’s Source in order to assist others in what she did for herself.

Below are five key highlights from Isabell’s Franchise Friday show regarding how to achieve life balance through franchising.

5 Ways to Achieve Life Balance through Franchising

1. Create boundaries. I had to make a decision and say, “I am going to have life balance. I am going to spend time with family. I am going to spend time with my husband.” When I was at TV Guide, I created my own monster. I would have East Coast meetings early, and then had to stay late for West Coast meetings because I didn’t put up boundaries. You have to decide the hours you’re willing to work and put boundaries on it, because if by nature you just like to work, you’ll work 24/7 and not think of time.

2. Realize you don’t have to do everything yourself. When I first started out, I thought I had to do it all myself. I was everything that you have at a corporation: marketing, finance, HR and operations. Entrepreneurs need to divide and conquer so they can be strategic. I am successful because I have help. You can hire somebody to do your books or to make some calls or to help you with marketing. Entrepreneurs have a difficult time letting go because we want control. However, I realized there’s a whole bunch of people that are so much better at doing certain tasks than I am. I can focus on what my gift is and in this case, it’s helping people figure out what they want to be when they grow up.

3. Define what life balance looks like to you. I had reached a point where I loved my corporate career and the people I worked with, yet I was unhappy because I wasn’t being the kind of parent and wife I wanted to be because I was so consumed with it. I decided to begin with the end in mind. I still wanted to have a career, but I didn’t want to give up what was important to me. You have to decide you want your life to look like, and then figure out the vehicle that’s going to get you there. For me, it was business ownership and franchising with the Entrepreneur’s Source.

4. Make a plan for success. In Corporate America, when I had to put together a marketing plan for my corporate office, I had to give them deadline dates and if I missed my deadline, my head was going to get cut off. We often don’t do that for ourselves in life or in business. You must say, “Okay. I need to achieve X amount of dollars by a certain date and if I don’t, I have to make adjustments.” With life, we often don’t apply that knowledge and you must do that in order to achieve what you want in life.

5. Redefine the work world. In my other business, I didn’t have a system where I could save time. Time is money, and I spent a lot of time those first couple of years figuring things out myself. It took me a lot longer to ramp up than it did when I decided to participate in the franchise system. Franchising is a huge advantage—there is a system in place. I had a website in place that was very turnkey. I had a lead flow that was very turnkey. I’m good at marketing and public relations and I’m good at finances, but not necessarily at putting it all together. With franchising, I could have a brand my marketing dollars could stretch versus doing it independently.

Listen to Isabell’s entire Franchise Friday show here.

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