In other words, you can't expect to erect the legendary Arches and watch customers stream through your doors. You have to be an entrepreneur, not just a small-business owner. You have to sweat. Fortunately, notes Mines, the McDonald's system is set up to coax the entrepreneurial spirit out of franchisees. And despite the operating and marketing standards McDonald's has set forth, there isn't anyone breathing down franchisees' necks and telling them how to make their restaurants work in their communities.
Most franchisees just figure that one out on their own.
Mindy Mayer seems to have figured it out. Mayer, who owns four McDonald's franchises outside Portland, Oregon, has been a franchisee since 1990. In those nine years, she's depended on McDonald's not only for operational support but also for assistance in giving back to her communities. She's done everything from raising scholarship money to establishing the McTutor program, in which at-risk students come into one of her locations to play, eat and learn. I never had the resources to do that before.