Look for businesspeople
Whether you’re recruiting people to help grow your business or people are seeking you out for an opportunity to further their careers, you need to find out not only if they’re a good match for your company, but if they’re even a good match to run their own business or business segment.
The first requirement on your list should be to find good businesspeople, but wrapped up in that statement is a great deal of meaning.
A good businessperson has the financial backing to make the endeavor a success and the willingness to embrace and promote your brand and culture. A good businessperson also recognizes the level of commitment that you will need to build and maintain the business in a new market.
“We have to make sure that we provide the right leadership, that the owners at each club have the right character traits and leadership qualities, that they’re going to provide the kind of culture at their health club,” Dabish says. “We try to do the same thing on the corporate level to all of our executive-level employees and create a trickle-down effect that goes from top to bottom.
“A lot of people as they’re getting into a business think that they can come and go as they please. But really owning a business is more responsibility than being an employee somewhere. You are the one who has to be self-motivated and driven, you’re the one who has to care about the success or failure of the business, you’re the one who has to hold your staff accountable and yourself accountable.”
As you’re getting to know a potential field-level manager or franchisee, you need to gauge their aptitude in dealing with customers, leading employees, managing finances and marketing to a new audience. The best way to do that is to turn them loose in a work environment for a few shifts.
Dabish gives all potential franchisees a test drive in a situational environment by having them work shifts in each of the different gym models that Powerhouse runs and franchises. It’s similar to the education Dabish received as a teenage employee working for his dad and uncle, who founded Powerhouse Gym in 1975.
“When I started in the business when I was 15, I did most of the jobs and eventually worked my way up to owning my own business,” Dabish says. “With that in mind, we like to bring new people to our corporate office and spend a few days with them, get them out into some of our different gym models so they can see how each of them run. We let them work a couple of shifts in each of our gyms so we can see them in action and so they can make sure it’s the right fit, something that they’re comfortable with.
“You want them to know exactly what they’re getting into prior to making the decision to get involved. That’s why you need to have every manager learning how to do pretty much every job and have every responsibility within a business.”
When possible, Dabish likes to promote from within. Internal candidates are already trained in your cultural principles and business model, which means capable internal candidates generally have the easiest transition into a management-level role.
It might not work in every situation. In some situations, particularly as you grow your business abroad, you might need to bring outsiders into your ranks. But you should still work to keep the talent pipeline stocked so that you can take advantage of the opportunities you do have to promote from within.
Dabish and his staff try to hire people who are overqualified for their initial position within the company. If the new hires excel in their initial position, Dabish and his team can accelerate their ascension through the ranks.
It comes down to finding a cultural fit first, then technical skills. Finding a cultural fit is often of greater importance than finding a purely skill-based fit. Skills can be taught; values usually cannot.
“Really the character and people skills need to be first,” Dabish says. “You need people who are good at working with and serving individuals, people who feel really good about themselves and are self-motivated. If you project energy, if you find someone who is energetic and motivated, having a good time and enjoying what they do, people can see that. It feeds into your business, and then into your customers.
“That’s why you want to try and hire a more qualified individual and put the time and effort into training them, make sure they are committed to the company for the long term, not just a six-month or one-year run. If you find those people that you’re willing to train and promote, that means you’re hiring the right people, people who are essentially overqualified for the position they began in. It gives you a better talent pool all around.”
