As I shared in my introductory post, I'm currently trying to improvise my father's B&M business.
I would like to share another layer of my professional life, which has currently wound me up. I applied for franchisee of a courier company exactly a year ago, and was approved. But the problem is that income from this business in this small town is less than $0.90 a day.
I have to collect the manifest every non-holiday at 1:15pm from the bus driver and have to distribute the consignments throughout the town. I have to begin picking-up from my regular customers almost right after and then hand the bag(s) over to the bus driver at 5:45pm. It's almost 5 hours a day, i.e., Less than 16 cents an hour! I didn't care about any of these until May 03, 2014 when I was in a hospital taking care of my father in a different city.
He was running his business till May 02, 2014, evening of which he had a mild stroke. My mother can run the business, but it becomes a burden for her after doing all the household work. Suddenly, the issue that drilled my mind was "Who would distribute the courier consignments?". I requested one of my relatives to collect the bags from the bus driver for me and keep them with him, so that I could deliver the consignments once I return. Then, when I was thinking about the future, I felt like I was expecting too much from the courier business. The driver-charge claims were not being processed either. Most of the employees get away saying 'it takes time'. All of these things have discouraged me from sticking to that business. I am ready to drop it off. But I will delegate it to a student who wants to work on a part-time basis.
By this time, you have got the kernel of the story:
I bought the franchisee because I didn't research enough about the company's system before applying.
+The company has a great network across the country, and the service is competitive enough in the market. But, this industry has been commoditized as well. So the company is putting pressure on the franchisees to 'brand' their counters.
+Recently, I had a chance to meet some of the employees, one of whom told me that '<Company name> should be like dishes in your income stream. You cannot make it a whole meal in small towns like yours.' - That person had an experience of over half-a-decade in this company itself. What a support to my recent thoughts?!
Finally, after trying find a part-time employee to work on the courier stuff by word-of-mouth, I gave a local cable TV channel ad 5 days ago. Getting good responses from people. A student came here today. We'll decide whether or not to delegate the works to that guy tomorrow.
I'll update post with the updates tomorrow.
I would like to share another layer of my professional life, which has currently wound me up. I applied for franchisee of a courier company exactly a year ago, and was approved. But the problem is that income from this business in this small town is less than $0.90 a day.
I have to collect the manifest every non-holiday at 1:15pm from the bus driver and have to distribute the consignments throughout the town. I have to begin picking-up from my regular customers almost right after and then hand the bag(s) over to the bus driver at 5:45pm. It's almost 5 hours a day, i.e., Less than 16 cents an hour! I didn't care about any of these until May 03, 2014 when I was in a hospital taking care of my father in a different city.
He was running his business till May 02, 2014, evening of which he had a mild stroke. My mother can run the business, but it becomes a burden for her after doing all the household work. Suddenly, the issue that drilled my mind was "Who would distribute the courier consignments?". I requested one of my relatives to collect the bags from the bus driver for me and keep them with him, so that I could deliver the consignments once I return. Then, when I was thinking about the future, I felt like I was expecting too much from the courier business. The driver-charge claims were not being processed either. Most of the employees get away saying 'it takes time'. All of these things have discouraged me from sticking to that business. I am ready to drop it off. But I will delegate it to a student who wants to work on a part-time basis.
By this time, you have got the kernel of the story:
I bought the franchisee because I didn't research enough about the company's system before applying.
+The company has a great network across the country, and the service is competitive enough in the market. But, this industry has been commoditized as well. So the company is putting pressure on the franchisees to 'brand' their counters.
+Recently, I had a chance to meet some of the employees, one of whom told me that '<Company name> should be like dishes in your income stream. You cannot make it a whole meal in small towns like yours.' - That person had an experience of over half-a-decade in this company itself. What a support to my recent thoughts?!
Finally, after trying find a part-time employee to work on the courier stuff by word-of-mouth, I gave a local cable TV channel ad 5 days ago. Getting good responses from people. A student came here today. We'll decide whether or not to delegate the works to that guy tomorrow.
I'll update post with the updates tomorrow.
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