The newspaper industry is one of the most turbulent, unstable industries today and has been for the last twenty years or so. I know this first-hand. I spent twenty-five years in the industry working in various management, leadership, and director level roles for most of the nation’s largest media companies and a few smaller, locally owned publications. I was often tasked with deciding who would be slated to lose their jobs in the upcoming fiscal year. I personally endured two position eliminations before retiring from the industry in 2019 to begin building my own businesses. That’s actually far better than the multiple consolidations, downsizings, and layoffs that many of my peers have endured throughout their careers. Those who remain, year after year, are under immense pressure to deliver more results with fewer and fewer resources, with their livelihoods hanging in the balance.
When I opened my franchise brokerage, from day one, there was a special place in my heart and mind for the men and women, whom I also consider friends, who are still enduring the decline and untenable daily pressures of the industry, feeling trapped, stuck, not knowing what to do next after giving their entire careers to an industry that is now betraying them. My goal was to reach back into the community of newspaper professionals and offer them hope, a lifeline, a vision of a different future, one in which they are in control of their life, work, financial well-being, happiness, and destiny.
In August, 2023 I began using a LinkedIn lead generation tool to make connections with professionals looking for a change. One of the campaigns I launched was directed toward newspaper executives. Within a few weeks, a newspaper publisher named Steve responded to my LinkedIn connection request, agreeing to an initial phone call. There was an immediate rapport. We spoke the same language, knew some of the same people, and nearly crossed paths a couple of times in the past without knowing one another.
That initial conversation led to the completion of the Zorakle Entrepreneurial Assessment, a few days of research, a brand presentation, and introductions to three different franchisors including a quick-serve restaurant concept, a window treatment brand, and a residential and commercial outdoor lighting franchise. Steve resonated most with the outdoor lighting brand as he lived in a rapidly growing, affluent part of the country with significant residential and commercial construction underway and projected to continue for many years into the future. The franchise also offered him a very large geographic footprint.
Steve and I had weekly strategy calls as I coached him through each step of the due-diligence process. He would often remark on those calls, with a smile I could feel through the phone, about how I invaded his world, blew it up, and gave him something to feel excited about and look forward to, a new direction for his life, career, and family that he had been longing for, but couldn’t see on the horizon until we met. I knew I had done good work for another human being when he told me that the brands I presented to him, and the franchise development people he interacted with, were all surprisingly aligned with his personal values, personality, and long-term goals.
While I was enjoying the fun, fellowship, learning, and networking at the Franchise Broker’s Association annual conference in December, 2023, Steve and his wife were on their way to Richmond, VA for Empower Day (often referred to as Discovery Day by other franchisors) to meet the franchisor’s team in person and finalize their commitment to one another. And on Friday, December 8th, Steve was awarded his Outdoor Lighting Perspectives franchise.
People often ask me what I do. I could answer simply, “I’m a franchise broker.” But for me, I don’t simply own and operate a lucrative business. When I’m asked what I do, I explain that I help people to remember who they are, why they’re here, and set themselves free to be and do it.
This isn’t just a business to me. This is a mission. And I’m so grateful that on one early spring day in 2023 the Franchise Brokers Association reached into my world with an unsolicited LinkedIn message, blew it up, pointed me in a new direction, and gave me the opportunity to change hundreds, maybe thousands of lives in the years and decades ahead. If you’re reading this and can resonate with the need for a new direction in life, I’d love to meet you. It’s as easy as introducing yourself at www.letsbeginabiz.com or scheduling a call at www.acallwithwill.com.
FBA is proud to feature our Broker, William Huffhine, as a special guest author. Thank you for your contribution and being the GOOD in franchising.
