Still time, but don’t waste it. Please,

Still time, but don’t waste it. Please, support Prostate Cancer research by contributing to Translate My Moustache! http://ow.ly/7vZi9

MY MOVEMBER

I have to thank fellow Keylingo Franchisee, Chad Richardson for getting me into the Movember spirit.  I realized I had good reason to join the Keylingo Movember team called Translate my Moustache, and recent events just underscored my participation.

In case you don’t know, men are encouraged to grow a moustache during the month of November, hence the name Movember, in order to raise awareness about Men’s health issues in general and prostate cancer, specifically.  It has also become a major fundraiser for prostate cancer research.  Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in Canadian men, according to the Canadian Cancer Society website.  According to Movember Canada, In 2011 there will be more cases of prostate cancer diagnosed than breast cancer.  However, this is a personal blog.  If you want more information about prostate cancer you can go to www.cancer.ca or ca.movember.com.

As for my reasons for participating in Movember, well as the saying goes, “everything happens in three’s.”  First off, I was always an admirer of my Member of Parliament and leader of the federal NDP, Jack Layton.  He seemed like an honest, intelligent and caring man and it’s rare to see those adjectives applied to a politician.  He ran a strong election campaign and brought he NDP to official opposition status for the first time in their history, then died just a few months later.  Some say his strong election fight left him too weak to fight the cancer. Country before self is a rare attribute today.

Secondly, I have an old friend, Noel Verhoog, whom I have had little communication with in the past several years, since he moved out West.  Life does that sometimes.  However, recent communications have revolved around his prostate cancer.  Doctor’s have confirmed that it will claim his life.  Not necessarily soon, but too soon, regardless.  I can’t think of Noel now without feeling very sad,  because he is a man that brought a lot of joy into my life.  From lots of laughs and fun times during the bachelor days of our mid-twenties to introducing me to my loving wife.

He found love and started a family a little later in life than most only to be given even less time with which to enjoy them.  Not fair!  Cancer sucks!  I’m so sorry, Noel.  The very least I can do is grow a little facial hair to raise awareness and hopefully some money to accelerate the research.

Finally, and I apologize to anyone who is only finding this out now, my father has been in and out of the hospital for the past week dealing with a prostate issue.  Thankfully, it’s not cancer, but it’s more than just an enlarged prostate, which I have just learned will basically happen to all men that live long enough.  My dad lost a lot of blood from an infection, clotting, internal damage, something else, all of the above, not really sure.  He had an operation just yesterday to fix it…we hope…they think…for now.  We’ll know more in a week.

It’s all so sad and crazy and what the heck can we do about it?  Well, none of us are helpless.  All my Male friends and family should get regular annual checkups, especially if you’re over 40, to ensure early detection of any problems and thus provide a better chance to fix them.  All my Female friends and family should encourage all the men they know over 40 years old to get that checkup.

Another thing we can all do is donate a few bucks!  Nobody I know has to grow a moustache if they don’t want.  I’ll do that and Roanne will put up with prickly kisses for a little while.  All you have to do is go to mobro.co/Waynestach and support the cause.  For Jack, for Noel, for Gord.  It’s the very least we can do.  Please!  And thank you.

ELEVATOR PITCH

Day one on the job and after sending many emails I get my aching butt off the chair and get ready to go out for a nice dinner with some of my wife’s colleagues. I knew it would come up. Heck, I wanted it to come up. However, I was woefully unprepared for it.

Midway through stuffing a perfectly cooked and perfectly delicious piece of steak into my mouth one of my wife’s colleagues asks, “so with soccer over and the kids back at school, what are you up to?” Perfect. Let me tell you. Hold on. Where do I start? How do I explain it between bites. Uhm … Dam, where’s my elevator pitch. Oh, that’s right, I don’t have one. At least, not one I’ve practiced using the voice outside my head.

It’s amazing how important it is to practice out loud. I’ve gone over the elevator pitch in my head many times, but I always make changes. Little edits that don’t sound disjointed in my head. It all gets jumbled in the short time it takes to go from my mind to my mouth.

It’s a slow week for socializing from here on in and I got lucky because I was with an understanding audience the first time I uttered my nonsensical elevator pitch. Also, everyone was busy eating, so I had time to put down my knife and fork and repair the damage. I might not be so lucky next time, so onto this week’s “to do” list it goes; practice, practice, practice…my elevator pitch…OUT LOUD!

FRANCHISE ME 2 – KEYLINGO

I am chomping at the bit.  If you read Franchise Me a couple of months ago you know that I have been researching the possibility of purchasing a franchise for several months now.  Well I’ve signed on and I can’t wait to get started.  The whole process began when my wife had a rare lunch out of the office, with a former colleague.  The next thing I know I’m contacting Gary Prenevost at Frannet.  I didn’t know there was such a thing as a Franchise Broker, but Gary is one and a damn good one at that.

There are many questionnaire’s and phone calls to go through before meeting with Gary for a three hour assessment that results in three options for franchise opportunities that look like a good fit for both sides.  Alarm bells go off when I have not heard of any of the three.  After all, buying a franchise rather than starting from scratch is usually done to benefit from an established name.   However, these were all business to business companies, so mass market awareness is not entirely essential.  What followed was a rather intense period of research, reading through massive and mind numbing documentation and many, many phone calls and discussions.  I talked to a lot of Franchisee’s – as Gary put it regarding how many one needs to contact, “keep going until you start getting the same answers.”  There were discussions with President’s and CEO’s, CFO’s, CLO’s and Franchise Support Executives.  The Franchise Disclosure Documents can run into the hundreds of pages and are filled with legalese.  Another great Gary quote, “Just keep one of those baby’s by your bedside and you’ll never have trouble getting to sleep.”

I eliminated an internet marketing opportunity fairly early on because I started to get the same answers from Franchisee’s after about four phone calls.  Lots of work, long hours, weekend work necessary, cold calls required and a marketing company no one had ever heard of.  Hey, I don’t mind working hard, but my wife already puts in a ton of hours and our family couldn’t handle the stress of both parents doing that.  Plus, it’s tough to sell marketing services for a company that doesn’t market itself very well.  Finally, I hate cold calling.

I thought long and hard about a sign company.  Not the ones you see on a major street or in a mall, but a large format sign company that would be located in an industrial park and provides signs to businesses for in store promotion, vehicle wrapping, postering, that sort of thing.  A bricks and mortar opportunity with absolute control over the manufacturing and great resale opportunity down the road.  However, the initial outlay is huge, there is significant overhead and the recession seemed to really hit the local Franchisee’s hard.  I saw no growth opportunity for the industry and franchise growth looked possible mostly via cannibalization.

That left me with the opportunity that was the most intriguing from the moment Gary brought it up, Keylingo Translations.  A company offering businesses one stop shopping for over 80 languages with access to more than 5,000 highly trained and tested translation professionals with great computer and desktop publishing skills.  I learned that the translation industry has been growing steadily, even through the recession and that it has tremendous growth potential over the next five to ten years.  The industry is incredibly fragmented with most of the work being done by small operations and individuals and as one study pointed out, the top 30 translation companies worldwide control less than a quarter of the entire translation market.  It’s an industry without a true leader.  All that, plus fantastic conversations with five Franchisee’s – I think there were only seven Franchise’s at the time – led me and my wife to a Meet the Team day in Atlanta, the home base for Keylingo and it’s Executive team.  I came out of that with a complete understanding of what each and every one of the Franchisee’s told me, they ultimately chose Keylingo because of the leadership.  Keylingo is in a very strong growth position.  That growth has to be managed carefully and the new Franchisee’s are going to need a fair bit of support from the Executive team at the outset, so strong, focussed leadership is a necessity.  Keylingo has it and now Keylingo has me.

It’s not a difficult process to open a franchise, but it’s a time consuming one. Lawyers, Accountants, banks, insurance, home office, new software; incorporation, registration, regulations, agreements, assignments, allotments, deductibles, loans, shares, names, titles, numbers, contacts, and so on.  This is all before the training.  Although having done all that and still being a week away from training and another from officially opening, I’m really chomping at the bit.

As you reach the end of this chapter in my tale I want you to think long and hard about something.  Do you or does anyone you know have a need for translation services?  If so, let me know.  Thanks!

ELEMENTARY MY DEAR WATSON

1st day of school, 2004

For our family this is not just the last day of school, but the last day of Elementary School.  It was ten years ago that I first walked this route with a tiny hand in mine making our first foray together into the world of public education. With a mixture of excitement and fear, anticipation and anxiety, we marched headlong toward one of the most scrutinized and criticized of public institutions. At that time Ontario was at the tail end of a very unstable and acrimonious period in the history of public education in our province.  So we had no idea what to expect and we just hoped that our kids would learn enough to move on to the next stage with confidence.

As I walked home this morning along this now very familiar route I thought of the closing of this chapter and how unexpected so much of the story has been.  I still walk with my ten-year old to school every morning because I have to walk the dog anyway, and my daughter likes the company.  I get to do it one more time at the start of the next school year, then that’s it.  It feels a little like I’m getting off the train that my kids will continue taking for several more years.  My youngest is about to take a big step into Middle School and for my oldest a big step up to High School, for me those steps seem monumental.

1st day of school, 2007

Elementary School in the public education system in Ontario has been a roller coaster ride from high quality, smart, caring and supportive educators to thoughtless, boring, uninterested individuals.  We have been angered by immovable bureaucracy and frustrated by clueless teachers, but we have also been delighted by creative administrators and excited by inspiring educators. Media and parental criticism without an offer of solutions or provision of support have been frustrating and infuriating.  However, the broader parent community, many school staff and the local media have provided tremendous support physically, intellectually and emotionally for the betterment of the system, the school and the kids.

A decade ago we entered the system wide-eyed and bushy-tailed and soon found ourselves wondering how we were going to keep up with the demands of school forms, homework, school activities, extra-curriculur activities and more while both working full-time and also wanting to be really involved in our kids school lives.  After a brief sabbatical for my wife and thus determining that we couldafford life on one income I became a stay-at-home dad.  That was unexpected, but now I could help out a little at the school and be home for my kids.  A few years later I was President of the Home and School Association and our house became a fairly regular after-school hangout for at least one friend per kid.  I got to meet a lot of great people in the playground and during pick-ups and drop-offs at homes, also at various school meetings and around school events and trips, and at birthday parties, play dates and various extra-curricular activities.

I have been more involved in the kids lives and the school during this past decade than I ever imagined and it has been very rewarding and educational for me. During this time I believe my kids have built a solid intellectual foundation for their future and have learned many helpful lessons to guide them through the next stage of their life and beyond.  I think I have, too.

Happy Day, Dad!

I remember going to an Argo game and sitting in front of two women who were drinking wine and discussing the players bums. An RCMP horse left a load in one of the end zones and a player scoring a touchdown went for a truly memorable, celebratory slide. I don’t remember if the Argo’s won, but it was a ton of fun and started me up as a life long fan. Thanks, Dad.

I remember going to Cape Cod with my parents, NO BROTHERS! It was great fun having my folks all to myself and getting asked what “I” wanted to do. In Cape Town, upon learning it was a haven for gays, although not being entirely sure what that meant, I asked rather loudly about our lunch waiter, “Hey Dad, is he one.” A rare time seeing my father a little embarrassed. Dad and I got up early one morning and found a little church for mass. One of the last times I went to church. I like sand dunes and salty air. Even quaint, little villages here and there. Thanks, Dad.

I remember throwing the ball around, early morning rides to far off hockey arenas, talking politics at dinner. I remember convincing my dad to stick with Pierre Trudeau in 1979 and him proudly proclaiming to anyone who would listen that I predicted Trudeau’s resurgence in 1980. Thanks, Dad.

He arranged the meeting that led to my first job as a busboy at the curling club. He got me in to see the owner of the Shell carwash for my second job. He set up an interview that started me on a 22 year career at CBC. And every time he said, “I’ll get you in the door, what happens from there is up to you.” I interview well. Thanks, Dad.

I remember being scared to death upon hearing of a near fatal car accident and not knowing if I would ever see my dad again. Now I cherish the generous hugs that only started after I did see him again. I’ve learned to also cherish every moment with my own kids and to ensure I instruct them to be considerate and kind, but also strong and principled. Thanks, Dad.

One can never say thanks enough for all their parents do and have done for them, but at least once a year we should try. I’m sure I say thanks and I love you more often than that, because that’s the way I was brought up. Thanks, Dad.

FRANCHISE ME

I’ve decided to get back into the world of paid work. We so undervalue the stay-at-home parent that the only way money can change hands for anything a stay-at-home parent does is if they get someone else to do it.  Aside from that, the time just feels right to look at new career options.

Now, how do I find work that let’s me still be available for my kids, but also gives me new connections that I get to leave the house to visit once in a while. Something with flexible hours, good working conditions, a reasonable boss and good money. To find all that I believe one has to work for oneself.  So, I tried a couple of startup options that turned out to be non-starters. I’ve done a little writing, but that’s a low paying challenge under the best conditions.  With no experience and no connections that quickly goes nowhere.

Recently the idea of buying a franchise cropped up and before I could finish saying I don’t want to own a fast food joint with all those low-paid labour headaches I was made aware that 40% of franchises are, in fact, not food service companies.  Even better, there are many options available for business to business franchises.  So here I am, knee deep in Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDD), engaging in many phone conversations and weighing three very serious, high quality, franchise options.

I did NOT go to a franchising show or try my luck at the one-armed bandit that is the internet.  I DID engage the services of a Franchise Broker who will get paid by the Franchisor I ultimately choose to go into business with.  He has been holding my hand every step of the way and I don’t know how anyone buys a franchise without a broker, or why they would even try.  His knowledge, experience and support are invaluable.  He represents many Franchisors and after several conversations, meetings, surveys and questionnaires, he proposed three.  A digital marketing consultancy, a sign shop and a translation business.

While digital marketing interests me and helping businesses utilize the new media tools for promotion and lead generation to increase their visibility and hopefully profitability would be fun and rewarding, it feels like a lot more work than I – the father of two busy girls and husband of a 45-55 hour a week PR Executive – have time for.

The sign shop is a very interesting consideration as it gives me somewhere to go every day, a real tangible product and a lot of control over that product and my lifestyle.  The model has proven very successful for many Franchisees and would be a fairly comfortable fit for someone who managed the business of a Design shop for several years.  However, the initial investment is quite high and I don’t know what the future is like for any kind of printing business.

The translation industry is very fragmented and the top 30 companies control less than 25% of the market and there is no real industry leader.  In other words there is a lot of room for growth for a well run, properly positioned and honestly promoted company.  While the company I’m looking at has been around for over seven years they just started franchising a year ago and only next month will the first Canadian franchise open it’s doors.  A little risky, but then again the upside is huge.

As I wade through these massive FDD documents, have discussions with company leaders, question current Franchisee’s and do some market research and number crunching the picture is becoming a little clearer.  On this blog I will share the logic of my ultimate decision and my experiences moving forward from that decision, so stay tuned.

Oh, one last thing, while I work toward my life-altering choice…any thoughts?