I never intended to become a multi-unit owner.

There wasn’t a master plan that said we would have two locations of Signarama by a certain year, then three, and finally four as we do now. In fact, every acquisition we’ve made started because the existing owner reached out to me. The opportunities presented themselves, and each time I had to decide whether that opportunity made sense for us.

Sometimes the best opportunities aren’t the ones you go looking for. If you build a strong business, the opportunities may find you. Keep your eyes open and be prepared to act when the right one does.

One strength I see in many women business owners is preparation. Where we can sometimes hold ourselves back, we wait until we feel completely ready before taking action. Preparation matters. Building strong people and processes matter. But eventually, you have to be willing to take a calculated risk and take that final step.

As we observe the fifth annual Women in Franchising National Appreciation Day (Oct. 14), which was created by United Franchise Group to acknowledge those working in the industry and encourage more women to own their own small business, I’d like to share that lesson and others from my experience scaling up my Signarama brand.

Lesson 1: Make a Plan and Be Ready to Change It

I always say I plan in pencil. A good plan gives you direction, but having alternatives gives you the ability to adjust when circumstances or opportunities change. I want to know where we’re trying to go, what could get in the way, and what our alternatives are.

Because something will change.

As a business owner, you’re rarely going to have 100 percent of the information you’d like to have. At some point, you have to make the best decision you can with the information you have.

Multi-unit ownership has made me think much further ahead. Where is the industry going? What capabilities will customers expect? What technology will change our business? Where do we need more leadership? What should we automate? What investments will make us more competitive five years from now?

But I don’t want a five-year plan to become a five-year set of handcuffs.

Lesson 2: Build the Organization Before You Start Adding to It

I had been in the sign industry for decades when, in 2016, I converted my independent sign company to a Signarama franchise. When the opportunity to acquire a second location came along in 2018, I wasn’t actively looking for another shop. But I could see the potential.

I could see we had the infrastructure to support growth. We already had production capabilities, equipment, experienced people, and industry knowledge that could sustain more than one market. Rather than simply duplicating everything, I saw an opportunity to leverage the strengths we had already built.

That acquisition worked, and it changed the way I looked at future opportunities.

The strength of the Signarama brand and network gave us access to resources, relationships, and shared knowledge that helped make multi-unit growth possible.

The question isn’t simply “Can I afford another location?”

It’s “Can my organization support another location?”

Those are two very different questions.

If the answer is no, that’s okay. “No” is a decision. Figure out what needs to change, so you’re better prepared when the next opportunity comes along.

Lesson 3: One Plus One Doesn’t Always Equal Two

You can’t simply replicate a successful single-location operation. When you have one location, communication happens naturally. As you add locations, those informal communication systems can start to break down.

Every acquisition comes with its own history, people, customers, and way of doing things. If you aren’t intentional about creating common systems, four locations can quickly become four separate companies that happen to have the same name.

Standardization doesn’t mean assuming the original location’s way is always the best way. The challenge is figuring out what should be standardized across the organization and where local knowledge and flexibility make us better.

We’re still figuring out some of that.

I don’t pretend we’ve solved it all. Every time we improve one process or integrate another part of the organization, we learn something that changes how we approach the next one.

Lesson 4: Multi-Unit Growth Is Really a Leadership Challenge

It’s easy to focus on revenue, equipment, customer lists, and financial statements when evaluating an acquisition, but the people may be one of the most valuable assets you’re acquiring. They understand the customers, the market, and the history of that business.

The owner’s responsibility is to recognize that talent, give those people opportunities, and help them see that becoming part of a larger organization can create opportunities for them too.

There’s also a practical reason to let go and trust your people. You simply can’t manage every decision across multiple locations. You have to develop people who can make good decisions when you aren’t in the room.

I still know the sign business, and I still love the sign business. I can get very interested in a complicated sign project very quickly. But my highest-value role today isn’t managing that individual project. It’s building an organization capable of successfully handling thousands of projects without needing me to manage each one. I look for leaders who take ownership, communicate well, solve problems, and genuinely care about both the customer and the team. Experience is valuable, but accountability and judgment are even more important.

Be Ready to Take Action

I certainly don’t have everything figured out. But that’s part of what I enjoy about business. There’s always another problem to solve, another opportunity you didn’t expect, and another way to get better.

So, plan in pencil. Be prepared. Keep learning. Make decisions. And when the right opportunity comes along, have the courage to act.

Dee Burkhardt is a longtime sign industry entrepreneur and the owner of four Signarama franchises in Wisconsin: Appleton, Fond du Lac, Menomonee Falls, and Pewaukee. She has spent decades building and growing sign businesses and was inducted into the Signarama Hall of Fame in 2023.