4 Corporate Skills That Transfer Directly to Franchise Ownership (No Design Experience Needed)

We talk through the most common fear we hear from prospective franchise owners: not having an interior design background. We share why transferable business skills often matter more than technical design at the start and how passion for design becomes the multiplier that helps you win clients and grow. 

• Reframing sales as service that creates real client value 
• Building trust through customer service and managed relationships 
• Using leadership to set culture and scale a team 
• Leaning on drive and tenacity when skills are missing 
• Applying marketing experience and learning marketing basics fast 
• Hiring for weaknesses and educating yourself to close gaps 
• Prioritizing work with strong time management as you grow 

Love Design, But Think Like A Business Owner? If You’re Ready To Leave Your Nine To Five And Want To Do Something That’s Buildable And Scalable Check Out Linden-Creek.Com/Franchise And See If Linden Creek Is The Right Fit For You 

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Transcript

No Design Background Fear

SPEAKER_01 0:00

When I get a chance to talk with prospective franchise owners, I get asked the same question very often, and it's this I don't have an interior design background. Is that gonna bite me in the butt and what challenges am I gonna face? Because I don't have that technical skill set in my career. And what's interesting and what I always love to convey and communicate is there are probably 17 other skills that you have from your prior experience that are gonna transfer into your Linden Creek ownership in a really beautiful way. So I thought it'd be really fun today for us to dive into an episode and talk about a few key skills that we see that come out of the corporate business world that transfer beautifully to Lyndon Creek, and we have watched firsthand set some of our franchise owners up for success.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

But do you have the ability to interact with clients, drive them to a decision point, um, and so on and so forth? You know, and kind of kind of jumping ahead a little bit too, but from a leadership standpoint, have you managed personnel? You know, have you because that's you're you're driving your team to a decision point as well. So I think that that's a key factor um and is going to be necessary as they build their Lincoln franchise.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Why does sales matter so much?

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Why does sales matter so much? Well, because that's what drives in your top-line revenue, you know? Um, and so that's what brings the dollars in so that you can grow your business, um, you know, in a lot of ways. And I, you know, sales is kind of it can be a taboo word sometimes. I think one of the things I appreciate about our industry and what we do is it's really the people business. And I know that sounds kitschy, and I know that sounds like a line. It's not like it really is like we are providing a value and service to somebody to really help benefit them, right? When we're staging a property, right? It's for the benefit of that seller. The way we do it, the psychology behind it, the methodology behind it, it's for their benefit. Um, and if you'll let the professionals come in and handle it, we can put you in a position to be successful, close that home faster, higher ticket value, all that kind of stuff. I think that's important. And on the interior design side as well, you know, that's a managed relationship. You know, this is a home that somebody lives in that they value, that they care about. And so really providing expertise in that field to give them that home that they just love so much, right? That's so important.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Well, and I think sometimes people underestimate the skill set that they bring to the table. Yeah. Um, you know, I've had conversations again with individuals and they're like, I don't have sales experience. I'm really intimidated by sales. And let me tell you, from a girl that is a finance numbers background through and through, I didn't have technical sales experience beforehand either. I learned a lot of the strategies. But I think one of the things that's important to understand is everything that everyone does has some aspect of sales in it. Like if you are a parent and you have gotten your children to eat vegetables, congratulations, you're a salesman. Like that is way harder than selling a staging job, to be honest. Um, and so I think sometimes it just comes down to like reframing and understanding that if you truly believe in what you're offering, if you believe that you're delivering value to your clients, if you believe that their life and their pocketbook is going to be better because of the service you provided, it's communicating that for their own good and their own benefit. Um so when you understand those things and bring that into this new business of design, um something really beautiful happens.

Leadership Beats Technique

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Yeah. I hear the conviction in your voice too. When people know that you really believe in something, like that's magnetizing, you know? And so when we get to come to the table from a genuine place of assisting other humans, I think that people can see that authenticity and they're attracted to it. Right? That's key. So yeah, so so sales and customer service would be kind of one. We already kind of touched on it, but number two is like, what does your leadership skill look like? Um, have you managed a team before in your prior place of work? Um, what did that look like? What kind of results were you able to get? Um, because in this business, in our franchise model, you know, you will become the lid to your organization. And so at some point you'll have to replicate yourself, you know, and that's really key, and rally your team members to get your location to a specific place. Um, maybe that's number of installs, maybe that's a number of clients served, number of design projects throughout the year, so on and so forth, or maybe to rally for a really big opportunity that falls in your lap and your location to represent the brand well. I think that that's really key. So leadership is essential, and what kind of leader are you?

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Well, and it may sound really controversial what I'm about to say, but I would say through and through that leadership as a skill set um is more important than design technique as a skill set when you're walking in danger. Yeah. Because you are gonna have to build a team. And so you need to know and understand how to set expectations for your team, how to build a culture within your company so that the attitude and perspective is right, how to really create a vision for your team so that they have something to strive after, um, how to train them, educate them, get them skilled and ready. All of those skills are truly skills that are oftentimes harder to learn and harder to build than the technical side of how to create a beautiful space. And so again, I think oftentimes we get to have so many conversations, often with business owners or often, often with those that are in the business world, and they go, I just don't know anything about this industry. And I'm like, you have all the intangibles and all the skills that are so necessary to set you up for success. You're just pivoting the topic. That's right. Instead of talking about, you know, cybersecurity, you're talking about design and decorating. And so understanding that like those fundamentals are what's most important is so crucial.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

Yeah. Critical thinking is key. So what kind of critical thinking skills do you have? Let me say one more thing, too, um, from the sales side, again, to help clarify. I think more important even than sales, I think your analogy with vegetables was perfect for the kids because we live that on the daily. But um I I think that I want to know what your drive is. Like what kind of drive do you have? You know, we have some franchise owners that have said what you have said. I don't have any background in sales, right? Um, but you know what? They say right after that, they say, but I'm gonna figure it out, and failure's not an option. You know, those are the people that are gonna go far, go far in life because they're just gonna dig deep and they're gonna realize that like I there is no exit strategy here. Like I've got to move forward, I have to grow this thing. And I think that's a very appealing attribute.

Marketing And Learning The Gaps

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Well, I think it that's the intangible, right? Like somebody has that or they don't, um, but oftentimes that's less of a learned skill. Sure. So um I was on a call with um an individual not too long ago, and um, it was before she had signed her franchise agreement, and she said, Listen, my kids have a stomach flu, but I was not gonna cancel this call with you. And so they were in the bathroom around the corner, and if I suddenly come off the camera, it's because I'm catching vomit, but like I've got this and I'm gonna be here. And I remember hearing that and thinking, this girl is not gonna let anything stop her. And that sheer tenacity is 10 times more effective than like how well can you decorate a space. Right. Um, and those are the things that are gonna make her successful as a business inerk because even if her design skills are not, you know, 10 out of 10 today, that doesn't mean she can't hire a designer that has the 10 out of 10 skills, right? Um, and so those are the intangibles. Another big one um I would say that we've seen firsthand has been marketing. So we have a franchise owner whose background is heavy in marketing, and she jumped out the gate and her social media was so stinking on point. And she was creating reels and stories and getting engagement and paying attention to, you know, CTAs and click-through rates and you know, all of these technical things because that was all her experience. And so she was able to take, you know, her 15-year career in marketing and immediately apply it to what she's doing today and hyper focus there. And that became her superpower. And so again, it just comes down to understanding and knowing that so many of these skills are really transferable. Love design, but think like a business owner. If you're ready to leave your nine to five and want to do something that's buildable and scalable, check out linden-creek.com slash franchise and see if Linden Creek is the right fit for you.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

What would you say to those people though that don't have like a like for me as an example? I don't have that marketing sort of acumen. I don't know what looks good on Instagram kind of thing. You know, um, what would you say to that kind of person?

SPEAKER_01 8:28

I think what it comes down to as a business owner, um, congratulations, you are now the entire corporation that once existed. So you are HR, you are marketing, you are sales, you are accounting. That's the fun one. Um, you are the manager, you are the designer. Like you are all of these things on day one. And no business owner is good at all of those things on day one. So there are gonna be things you're gonna be like, I'm crushing at it, I'm fantastic, and I have this skill set. And there are gonna be things you just don't know because you haven't had to have the exposure, and that's okay. And so my recommendation is twofold. Either one, hire quickly somebody that has that skill set that maybe is a deficit for you. And number two is educate yourself so that you strengthen and build up those skills. Um, you know, we've talked about this in another episode, but AI is a great tool for learning. Um, and there's so much information out there now. When I first started Linding Creek, um, sales was my biggest my biggest weakness and really made me nervous. And so every time I was in the car, I would listen to this sales podcast. And it was top-performing sales agents across all these different companies that would spend an hour talking about what they do and how they got to be on the top. Um, and so I think I took a, you know, a hundred-hour crash course on how to be the best salesperson just by listening to these conversations. And so, you know, it doesn't mean you need to have a special degree, it doesn't mean you need this formal education, just surround yourself around educational tools that can provide and fill in those gaps for you.

Time Management And Priorities

SPEAKER_00 9:53

I think from a marketing standpoint, if I could add to what you're saying, right, you know, outside of the socials, outside of the digitals, outside of all of that, right? It's and it goes back to drive as well. It's just the determination to develop authentic relationships with your customers. You know, um referrals will become organic at some point, you know, from that. But really, just there's there's no substitute for pounding pavement, man. There just isn't. There's no substitute for just letting as many people in your market know that you're there and the services that you provide in a very casual sort of like I'm here to help you approach, right? That's really key.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Okay, one more skill set that's less technical but hugely important is very much so. Uh time management.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Um, I think if you have the skill set going in and saying, hey, here are 17 priorities that are all competing with each other, I know that this one and this one are the ones that I'm gonna hyper focus on, and this is why. That is gonna bode so well in your day-to-day. Um, as a solo business owner, when you start or with a small team, you are juggling so many different priorities and expectations. And so the ability to analyze your list, know what to prioritize, know which fires need to be put out versus which things you can kind of let slow burn is going to be crucial, not just on day one, but as you continue to grow and scale your business.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Absolutely. I don't really have anything to add to that. I I think it's just so key that you understand how to prioritize because you will get bogged down uh in the details that really aren't necessary or pertinent at the moment, you know. So being able to prioritize your time is so key.

Passion And Final Takeaways

SPEAKER_01 11:22

And then I would say for one final little comment on all of this. Um, going back to the big question of like, I don't have the technical design experience, is that okay? The short answer is yes. Um, most of our franchise owners don't have the technical design experience, but they learn it. But there is something that we do all share. Um, and that is honestly a love and a passion for design. Um our eyes light up, um, they dance a little bit. I can't tell you how many people have told me the story of when I was a little girl, I moved my furniture around my bedroom 17,000 times. So having that level of passion, I think, is the superpower that gets put on top of the fundamentals that you already have. It's it's the sparkle in your eye that people see when you have these conversations that win them over, that help them understand the value and the power of what you do. Um, and so I would say that's an important characteristic. Um, but passion is is much easier than that firm skill set. We can teach those things. Thanks for spending your time with us. Um, time is often our most valuable asset, so it means a lot that you spent it here today. I hope, if nothing else, the biggest takeaway that you had is just how transferable skills really are. Um, no matter what industry you're pivoting, where you're making your career change. It's a terrifying journey, so own that. Um, but it's a wildly rewarding and exciting one. Um, if you want to continue listening to more conversations like this, subscribe. But this is in good space, and I'm not sure if you're not a good idea.