Building the brand didn’t come easy. Apter faced a lot of challenges, especially when they took the leap to set up the Anat Foods franchise. She says one of her biggest lesson in business was that she did not find a mentor or someone to teach her about franchising.
“We did not have a mentor to explain to us how to start a franchise and we didn’t know much about it. We thought we knew, but we didn’t and later in life, this presented lots of problems. It took me a long time to understand that actually I should have had someone who could have directed me, to teach me what a franchise was all about because you’re dealing here with people.
“People giving you money for your brand name and you have to be an expert about your brand and you have to know how to teach them to run that business.” During the 2008 financial crisis, the Anat franchise took hard knocks with franchisees.
From being on top of the world with more than 30 franchise stores, the franchisor had to close down most of them. When franchisees closed down, Apter was faced with paying the rent settlements of those stores.
“If your business is not strong, a financial crisis will affect you. It can close down your business. Do not be afraid to learn. Be humble and to learn and study what you don’t know.”
