Premise: To know more about people,

• Face a situation where you are angry.
• Travel together.
• Experience situations related to money.
• Live together.

Situation: One day, my mother said she wanted to run a chicken franchise business.

It was sudden. I had heard that even chicken businesses, which require a lot of physical strength, are impossible to do alone, even for those in their 30s, but she said she wanted to try it even though she was over 70. Even more surprising was her request that I use my business registration and obtain a loan through a corporate account linked to my business to secure the initial funding for the business.

She also asked me to help her with the online business, including setting up and stabilizing the delivery app, which she wasn't familiar with, and even with the physical tasks of frying the chicken, all under the pretext of minimizing initial costs. She seemed to have made a big decision, and her request, which was actually a bit unreasonable, left me speechless.

Current situation: Is this how a department manager feels when they are called to the headquarters of a parent company whose CEO is an elementary school student?

First of all, I have my own business to run. Furthermore, my mother's initial request for help from her family was unreasonable, as it required expertise in a field unfamiliar to both her and me, and it demanded most of my time. Moreover, from her words, there were too many criteria related to the business that were drastically different from my perspective, having run a few companies myself, and I was left speechless.

Business is always a personal project of the owner.

No matter what the purpose, item, or form, the start and end of a business always contain the owner's personal meaning and goals. However, my mother only mentioned the expected sales revenue when discussing this private business and its purpose. I couldn't hear anything about why she, as the owner, thought this item was a good choice or how she would offer differentiated value to existing players in the area as a latecomer.

Business is a marathon.

My mother emphasized the franchise company's claim that it's possible to achieve monthly sales of 40 million won after the first three months. But what if you don't reach the target amount after those three months? How would she, someone older than her 30-something siblings or couples, handle a business that even they find physically demanding to maintain for a year, even when operating from 11 AM to 4 AM every day? What if her experience running an offline store in the past, where she generated sales by targeting the flow of people visiting a specific building for items like clothing or glasses, doesn't help much with this unfamiliar business model where she has to handle everything online, from promotion and sales to payment and customer management?

The owner's sole responsibility is to face and take responsibility.

Employees can look for the boss when they encounter obstacles or make mistakes in their work, or even run away in the worst case. However, since it is the business I invested in and run myself, I have to stay there in any case. Therefore, the owner must inevitably aim to become an overwhelming presence in all aspects related to their work. This is because they are the only one who stands on the front line, silently facing and solving unexpected unforeseen variables. But my mother came up with a plan where she wouldn't even be the one to handle the business registration or the business funds. It would have been better for me to provide all the initial funding and observe her, but her decision to delegate all the official responsibilities for the new business to someone else instead of herself was essentially a declaration that she would only be taking on the role of a high-ranking employee who expects results but does not take responsibility.

Suggestion: It seems that she needs a process to become confident as a prospective entrepreneur.

Before sharing this decision with me, my mother had spent almost half a year visiting various small and medium-sized businesses in the area, directly checking out their spaces and interiors, and seeking specific and realistic advice from each owner about their business districts, brand competitiveness, and business capital. I remember driving her around occasionally to listen to her stories because she often said it was tiring to get there alone by bus, and I was happy to do it, thinking that these memories would someday become cherished moments. Seeing her gradually create a concrete direction for herself from the vague desire to eventually start a business of her own gave me a sense of pride and satisfaction. But in the end, her decision was closer to evasion.

Of course, I respect, admire, and love my mother. And I understand her fears to some extent. For a mother who struggles to even install the Baemin app on an Android phone, the franchise company's promotion about being able to achieve high sales in a short period of time by just renting a cooking space and using online platforms with low operating costs compared to her previous businesses must have been both sweet and frightening. But this tug-of-war between expectation and fear is an everyday reality that all entrepreneurs face. From my perspective, my mother had already demonstrated a strong sense of execution in the pre- investigation process. However, it seems that her fear of the expectations and responsibilities as a prospective entrepreneur, as well as her vague sense of expertise, froze her mind and body.

Thoughts I couldn't share

Through this incident, I realized my father's lifelong attitude toward my mother. I think her plan stemmed from her relationship with my father, who had silently resolved many things for her over the years. But even someone like him couldn't replace her role as owner, so what she needed was a small but clear process that would make her believe in herself. What if she had approached the owners of the brand stores she met and asked if she could learn to work there for a week, even for free? It's likely that working with younger employees or owners, even if given the opportunity, would be something she would find unbearable. However, if her goals are clear and her will is strong, wouldn't taking that one step, however small it may seem, to directly overcome the anxieties of being a prospective entrepreneur in a field that is slightly unfamiliar to her, be the best choice for her after all?

What do you think?