FranByte

This sick season has been WILD.

We’re barely five weeks into the school year, and we’ve already had to dodge or battle:

RSV.
COVID.
Whooping cough.
Hand, foot and mouth.
Flu A and Flu B.
Nameless respiratory virus and cough.

And on top of all of that, we’re transitioning our little one into daycare, sleep training, trying to get him to eat more solids, and weaning from breastfeeding.

I am exhausted. I'm knee deep in snot. I’m sick. And some days, doing the littlest things feels like a major accomplishment. 😩

Needless to say, I’m not being nearly as productive in my business as I’d like to be right now.

But thank goodness I am working for myself.

I may answer to clients, and I can prioritize commitments and responsibilities as needed, but I don’t have to explain to a manager why my child is sick again or why I’m operating at 50% capacity today.

I genuinely don’t know how the rest of you parents with traditional jobs are managing this sick season.

If that’s you… seriously, how are you doing it?

Last week I asked a couple I am working with how they planned to exit their business.

They looked at me like I'd lost it because they hadn't even bought one yet.

One asked: Why are we talking about the ending before we have even begun?

The other asked: Wait, you can actually sell a franchise business when you are done?

I laughed and said, yes, most times you can sell your franchise business, and how you eventually want to leave a business should influence what you buy in the first place.

- Do you want to build equity in it and sell it someday?
- Do you want to hand it to your kids?
- Do you want to draw income from it long after you stop working in it?

Each of these paths needs a different structure, because not all franchise models give you the same ownership or exit options.

Take Chick-fil-A for example. It is one of the most wanted franchises in the country.

Yet, you can’t sell it.

When you're done, you hand the keys back to the brand. No equity. No ownership. Doesn't matter if you ran it for 25 years.

Other franchises let you build real equity, goodwill, even hard assets you cash out when you sell. Some let you pass the business and the income straight to your children. Others make your kids apply from scratch, like strangers.

I have actually worked with franchise owners who owned a business for over 20 years only to find out that they will walk away with nothing to show for it when they were ready to exit.

Needless to say, they were not so happy about having built no equity they could cash out on over the long time period they had the business.

If you're weighing ownership as your next chapter, you deserve to see the whole map before you take a single step. That's the work I do with people before they invest a dollar.

You know you’re a business owner at heart when you accidentally build an entire business
idea over a lunch date with your husband.

We were eating some delicious vermicelli noodles when I noticed a transaction happening between the restaurant manager and a vendor.

I must have been smiling as I stared because my husband looked at me and asked: “What are you thinking?”

Me: “I just thought of a business.”

Husband: “What is it?”

Over the next few minutes, I explained it…and realized I had already figured out the basics:
→ The problem I’d solve
→ Who I’d sell to
→ How I’d reach them
→ The value proposition
→ How I’d price it

It would not be easy. It would take hustle, hard work and hearing a lot of “no’s.” But it was actually a very doable business.

I am not going to start this business because I have my hands full.

But it was comforting to know that I had a way of figuring out how to make money if I lost my job, and had no prospects lined up.

Being a business owner changes how you see the world around you.

And I think that mindset matters, especially right now.

You develop the confidence of knowing that your income is not dependent on having someone hire or fire you.

He bought the kind of business every acquisition expert tells you to look for.

A few years later, it was no longer operating.

I recently came across a business for sale while helping someone acquire a business.

It was an established home services business with years of operating history.

But the owner wasn’t selling the business. He was selling the assets after having to suspend operations.

So I wanted to understand what happened.

A few years earlier, this owner had done exactly what many business acquisition experts tell aspiring entrepreneurs to do.

Instead of taking the risk of starting from scratch, he bought an existing, successful business. He found the rare gem all influencers tell you to find:
- Proven revenue.�- Strong cash flow.�- Years in business.�
He did his due diligence and paid a premium to acquire it.

But he couldn’t maintain the business success.

In all his research, he never thought to evaluate whether this was the right business for HIM to own.

This is the part of due diligence I see aspiring business owners underestimate all the time.

People come to me after taking a business acquisition masterclass or following influencers and already have their criteria:
- $X revenue.�- $X cash flow.�- X% margins.�- X years in business.�
But when I start talking about business fit, they think I am too focused on the “soft stuff”.

What they don’t realize is that fit determines whether they will actually be a successful business owner.

For the seller I mentioned at the beginning, those beautiful historical financials told him how the business performed under the previous owner.

They didn’t guarantee how it will perform under his leadership.

That’s why I help people find what businesses are most likely to perform well with them as the owner.

Because buying a successful business and successfully owning one are two very different things.

Have you had one of those days where there is just a lot happening at home that demands your attention, but you still need to work?

If you’re lucky enough to find a way to work from home that day, you know how it goes. You’re running between your laptop and your life. Keeping the computer active so the status light stays green. Answering messages fast enough to prove you’re there.

Getting laundry going, prepping dinner, scheduling appointments… all while constantly worrying that someone will notice your absence.

That was one of the things I hated most about my corporate career. Even on days when there wasn’t anything truly urgent to accomplish, there was still this pressure to look busy.

We underestimate the mental load of constantly feeling like we have to prove ourselves, manage perceptions, hide the reality of our lives, and hope someone recognizes our value or how hard we’re working.

It’s like having a second job running quietly in the background of your real one, and it’s exhausting in a way that’s hard to name until it’s gone.

Now, as a business owner, when I have one or two hours of real work, I do the one or two hours of real work.

I can spend the rest of the day doing everything else life requires of me without the guilt or anxiety of wondering whether someone is going to question where I am or what I’m doing.

My responsibilities at home get taken care of. My business gets taken care of. And my mental health doesn’t have to pay the price for either one. At least not any more than it needs to.

Because let’s be real…raising two little ones, building a business, caring for aging parents, and managing the day-to-day realities of life is hardly a picnic.

As a business owner, I have the freedom to let my priorities change with real life instead of constantly trying to make real life fit around someone else’s expectations.

How do you know whether a business will survive the next crisis?

No one can predict the future but we can learn a lot from the past if we know what we are looking for.

Anyone can look successful when the economy is growing. The real test is what happens when the world changes around you.

Over the past six years, we've had two major stress tests for businesses.

The first was COVID.
The second was the tariffs.

Both disrupted supply chains but impacted businesses very differently.

During COVID, many franchise businesses actually had an advantage over independent businesses. They often had the buying power, established supplier relationships, and system-wide support to keep products flowing when individual business owners were scrambling to figure things out on their own.

But when the tariffs hit, some franchise businesses in industries that rely on imported goods, couldn't pivot fast enough compared to independent business owners. Without brand-approved supplier requirements, they sometimes had less flexibility to change vendors or adjust their sourcing strategies.

That's why due diligence isn't about proving a business is "good" or "bad." It's about understanding where the risks are, deciding whether you're comfortable with them, and knowing how you'll respond if they become reality. That's true whether you're evaluating a franchise or an independent business.

If supply chain risk is important, for example, make sure to understand two things:
- Can the business continue operating when disruptions occur?
- And how easily can the owner adapt to changing circumstances without creating new problems?

Those answers can look very different from one franchise system to another, and they're often very different for an independent business.

This is also why I tell people not to assume that all franchise opportunities are created equal.

Some franchise systems are exceptionally well designed. Others have weaknesses that only become apparent when the business is under pressure.

My job is to help you see the risks, the opportunities, and the tradeoffs clearly enough to make your own call.

Someone I spoke with recently told me they'd already used AI to research franchises before we ever got on a call.

A lot of people in my line of work would have felt threatened by that.

But I was glad because it told me they were serious, and willing to put in the work to properly evaluate their options before making a decision.

So I didn’t talk them out of their AI research, I showed them where I came in.

They'd already pulled together the basics: franchise fees, brand history, the polished stuff that lives on the website.

But here is what their research couldn't tell them:
-That one brand had quietly tightened the background it wants in an owner. I knew this because I talk to these brands directly.
-That the "investment" number they found was just the startup costs. It left out the total investment they'd need to keep the business alive until it can pay its own bills, and theirs.
-That their local market already had competition, and other candidates circling the same territory. And what they would have to do to position themselves as strong candidates with a higher likelihood of being awarded the business.

I walked them through what funding options worked for this brand, and the total liquid capital they would need to afford the business and by when. I know those numbers from working directly with the lenders who fund these deals.

Then we talked about the parts you can't get from the internet like how to prep for this particular brand’s interviews, which owners to call for honest validation, and the red flags that surface during due diligence.

And once I understood what they actually wanted long-term, I pointed them toward a few brands they hadn't even considered.

So I don’t mind if people use AI to help their research. It does the legwork, and it frees me up to fill in what it doesn't know, and help you decide with your eyes open.

If you've been quietly researching franchise ownership on your own, keep going. You're already ahead of most.

And when you're ready to pressure-test what you found before you spend real time or money on it, let’s talk.

Check out my website www.franbyte.com, or just send me a message.

A few weeks ago, I realized I am doing something I would have never believed was possible years ago.

I arrived 10 minutes early to my child's field trip to a water park.

I sat in my car, knocked out one item on my work to-do list, then stepped out and spent the next few hours in full summer-fun mode with my kid.

As I drove home, I realized that days like these aren’t a one-off anymore. This has been my new normal for a good part of the year now.

Life is the priority. Work gets squeezed in between the moments.

Four years ago, it was the complete opposite. Work was the priority, and life fit into the gaps.

I didn't intentionally set out to create this shift. It happened gradually.

When I became a mother, I knew I wanted something different.

I wanted the freedom to prioritize what mattered most to me without feeling like I had to dilute who I was or put limits on my career or my financial future.

So I did the thing I'd always planned to do "later." I left my corporate career and started my own business.

And somewhere along the way, I built a life I didn't even know was possible.

Looking back, I don't think I realized how unfulfilled I was, living around my work schedule instead of designing my work around the life I wanted.

Business ownership has given me something I never expected.

The freedom to truly change how I live my life.

Business ownership isn't just another career option.

Sometimes, it changes your life in ways you never even knew were possible.

If you can't even get a job interview anymore, the problem might not be your resume.

A recent Stanford study found evidence that AI hiring tools used by 90% of businesses disproportionately screen out qualified candidates from certain racial groups before a recruiter ever sees their application, with bias significant enough to meet the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's definition of "adverse impact."

I wasn’t surprised. In fact, this issue of historical bias in AI model training data was something a very small group of us were raising back in 2017, when I was working in data science and AI in corporate America.

Here’s what many people don’t understand about AI.

AI models learn from historical data. And historical data reflects the decisions, behaviors, and biases of the humans who created it. If those patterns aren’t intentionally identified and addressed during development, AI doesn’t eliminate bias. It learns and scales it.

What’s even more dangerous is that many people assume computers and algorithms are objective. If they believe the technology can’t be biased, they’ll never think to question the decisions it makes.

Back in 2017, solving this problem wasn’t viewed as a business priority. It was expensive, complex and because the consequences were difficult to measure, there wasn’t much appetite to invest in solving it.

Today, AI development is moving faster than almost anyone can keep up with. Companies are racing to build more powerful models, and there is very little incentive to slow down and ask the tough questions.

As AI becomes more involved in hiring, lending, healthcare, education, and countless other decisions that shape our lives, we have to remember that AI isn’t objective simply because it’s AI.

I hope we continue pushing for AI systems that are more transparent, accountable, and equitable. But I’m also realistic enough to know that problems this large are incredibly expensive, technically complex, and unlikely to be solved anytime soon.

So if the system isn’t working for you, don’t spend your career waiting for it to change.

Sometimes the best way to beat a system that wasn’t built with you in mind is to stop depending on it.