Hi Steve,

I had a set back when I was told I needed eye surgery for a detached retina the very next day. It was that serious.

My problem is I have to rest for a month to heal. I had to turn down a gig, my two locations at auctions, and I had to leave my home improvement center location open. I have no contract with them and no way of knowing if it will be available when I get back.

So my question is, “How does a sole proprietor prevent this from happening again” Partner with another vendor?  Train someone to do your business from start to finish?

Thanks for your time,
-Jeff

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Hi Jeff,

Sorry to hear about your set back, but I think this may be a huge opportunity in disguise.

First, I would not rush into a partnership with another vendor. Partnerships are usually a permanent solution to a temporary problem. You are almost always better off running your own show 100%.

Can you be on your feet long enough to train one person to run your hot dog cart? You wouldn’t have to lift anything or bend over. Even if you could just sit in a chair in your driveway for a half hour, you could easily train someone by talking them through it.

If you can do that it would position you for expansion upon your return – big time. You should be scouting around for more locations while you heal.

In a month you can run one new location and leave the employee at your old location. Then just rinse and repeat. Before too long you could have many, many carts up and running.

Once you get the system down pat, the job of serving great hot dogs (with a great customer experience, of course) will fall to your employees. Your job Jeff, will be opening new locations.

That is what successful franchisees do. They get really, really good at opening new locations.

So when life gives you lemons, make lemonade right?

I wish you a speedy recovery Jeff. Let me know how it goes!

Steve