The Death of a Franchise: 5 Lessons Learned

So, remember that Marble Slab Creamery I told you we owned? Weeeeell, given the economy, it didn’t survive. People just aren’t buying $5 ice cream these days. We shut down over a week ago and are working to get everything out and move on with our lives.

That being said, I want to share 5 lessons I and my partners learned from this failure.

1.  Don’t be afraid of failure. I once was afraid of failure. What would it say about me? What would people think? When we tell people that Marble Slab closed, we get that look of sympathy. “Ooh,” it says, “well maybe you weren’t cut out for running a restaurant.” And maybe I wasn’t. But I know that we tried our hardest to make that place work (heck, I did all the marketing!) and it still failed. And that’s ok.

2. Stick to what you know. I live, breathe, eat and sleep marketing. I love it. I’d do it even if I didn’t get paid for it. Ice cream, well, I like it a lot. My first job was at Baskin Robbins. But I was never passionate about running that business. Strike two.

3. Go into partnerships with friends veeery carefully. Our relationship with our long-time friend turned business partner is ok…but strained. My husband and I feel responsible for bringing him into what turned out to be a bad deal. We’ll probably need a break from one another when this is over.

4. Have extra capital. We bought the business from a (thought-to-be) friend and just assumed the loan. What we should have done, given that this was 7 months ago and banks would still give you a loan, was take out extra to use for expenses like when every single piece of equipment broke down within two months. Or when things were slow and it was hard to make payroll.

5. Life goes on. I’m not crying in my pillow about this situation. If you’re an entrepreneur,  you’ll have more than one success and more than one failure. We’ve had a few (”where is that oh-so-lucrative gift basket company you started in college, Susan” you ask) failures, and this is just one more. Life goes on.

So now that you’ve had full disclosure from me, share your failures. Come on, don’t be shy. We learn from one another. After all, isn’t that why you’re here?