Research Episode / Experts Episode / Franchisee Interview

Franchisee Interview: Lance Sparling

Sometimes franchise ownership becomes a family affair. While there is no one right way to build a business with your family, there are many ways to run into problems. And when the family is involved, there can be great rewards and great potential for risk.

Our guest, Lance Sparling, shares his story as well as some extremely important insight on how they successfully navigate the challenges that might otherwise trip up a family unit.

Lance’s story starts with parlaying his experience in bringing a new Canadian-based franchise system to the Vancouver Lower Mainland market. While there were no formal plans at the onset to include the rest of the family in the business, they were soon all involved. This included Lance’s wife, Terry, and his 3 adult-aged children.

Starting from an operations perspective, Lance talks about the success of the business, family as a whole, and each member on their own. Of course, when the family is involved, there is an added level of responsibility to how spouses and offspring are leveraged and managed. Lance shares his leadership expertise on:

• How and when to bring on family
• Key communication aspects and how to actively manage them
• Bringing on outside help and making them feel like family too
• Allowing offspring to develop their careers
• How to handle it when they want to move on

And most importantly, Lance shares his wisdom on building a successful business and building an even more cohesive family unit. If you plan to build a franchise with your family (or have even the slightest designs to do so), this is an extremely insightful episode for you.