Step 1: Be Like McDonald’s
Duplication, not hamburgers is the key to McDonald’s success. A written plan of how to duplicate was at the core of McDonald’s rise from a local hamburger shop to a global superpower. How can a wrestling promotion (or any business) succeed without a plan… a written plan of every factor of the business? That business plan must detail every ounce of minutia from Bell to Bell, from A to Z and in between. Once it’s written, it must be followed. Then, it is copied. Over and over again.
But this takes time. McDonald’s didn’t open on Monday and go national by Tuesday. It took years. Wrestling promotions that open nationally are doomed to fail. Not one has ever made it. Now, a regional promotion can grow into a national and eventually, a global company. But it must have a blueprint to follow as the business marches from small to large.
Ray Kroc sold milkshake machines when he met the McDonald brothers and when Kroc’s love of automation and customer service combined with the brother’s food, the rest was history. But there had to be a manual written for the real key to McDonald’s success… franchises.
What I am talking about is duplication. Write down every step along the way. Exhaustive manuals that spell out what to do and how to do it will be the key to selling franchises… turnkey operations to anyone who can afford it. They will have all the tools from the marketing and branding to what kind of ring to use.
Even if I never sell one franchise, I will have a manual that I will allow me to walk away from my business when I feel like it. How many great wrestling promotions have suffered from “owner burnout” with no one able to step in and run things? A complete, written manual on every policy and procedure will allow an owner to do just that. This is applicable to every business, not just a wrestling promotion.
Ray Kroc finally died in 1984 but the book has continued to be written long after his death. In fact, the day the book stops being written, the company will begin to die.
