I came across a thought-provoking article on Inc.com about getting rich—or not.
Now, not everybody wants to get rich. But a lot of people do. (That, in itself, is an interesting question: Do I want to get rich? If so, what’s my definition of rich? More about that in a minute.)
The article, by Inc. contributing editor Jeff Haden, purports to tell “the awful truth” about getting rich: “You can’t do it by working for someone else.”
Rich = $10M
For his purposes, Haden defines rich as having $10 million in the bank.
“How do you get there? Obviously you need to save that much money, and saving money means generating more income than you spend—a lot more. That will never happen if you work for someone else,” writes Haden.
He includes some numbers to help us understand the stark realities. In 2015, people with doctorate degrees earned, on average, $81,000. People with advanced degrees: $72,000. Men averaged $90,761 and women averaged $50,756.
“Even if you can manage to save $100,000 per year and you average a 7% return, it would take you just under 31 years to save $10 million dollars.”
Well, that’s depressing. And that’s not all. He continues:
“You will never become incredibly wealthy by working for someone else. And you will never become incredibly wealthy by living a safe, positive work-life balance [in a] time-clock-punching professional life.”
Hmm. This made me wonder about my own professional and financial goals.
There are plenty of people in the world, myself included, who don't necessarily want to “get rich.” Personally, I'm satisfied with my own definition of “enough.” How I've defined that makes me happy—for now, anyways. But there are plenty of people who aren’t made the way I am, and, for those people, the answer seems pretty clear. If you want to achieve a certain level of financial success, the research points in one very distinct direction: business ownership.
The path to wealth: business scalability
So what’s my point? (And, yes, I do have one!) Given that my job is to promote the idea of becoming a Great Clips franchisee, I find this statement pretty much sells our business model:
“The only way to become incredibly wealthy is to start your own business, one capable of scaling to a significant size.”
Scalability is a hot topic in the business world right now. What does it mean? It’s all about expanding a business without necessarily spending more. In the walk-in hair salon business, owners who operate more salons can usually operate more efficiently, delivering greater revenue, and ideally, higher profits.
And that’s exactly what some of the most successful Great Clips franchisees have done.
There are a variety of business models among Great Clips franchisees—those who own five salons, and those who own many more. We have franchisees who started small and grew slowly, and owners who started small and expanded rapidly. And, we have some who plunged in right from the start with a large number of salons—through a family business or a purchase of existing locations.
This is the beauty of the investing in a franchise business. Being a franchisee means you have the freedom and flexibility to determine your own definition of “rich” or wealthy. You can moderate your goals according to your definition or to changing life circumstances. How great is that?
Want to know more about being a Great Clips franchisee? Send me a note or give me a call. I’d love to talk with you!