As 2011 draws to close, I think it instructive to look back over the previous year and determine if there is anything to be learned from the events of 2011. One event in particular I think is extremely educational. In 2011 Americans experienced the first ever downgrade of the United State’s credit rating. But instead of using the term “experienced” we really should use the phrase “participated in”. For the credit rating of our country is nothing more than a macro-economic evaluation of the many micro-economic challenges each American faces. The S&P downgrade to AA+ is an instruction to the buyers of our debt that the United States is less qualified than other countries who maintain their AAA status. Given that the Unites States is nothing more than a collection of its constituent parts, what happened this year was Americans were told that they were less qualified in 2011 than they had been in previous years. This must necessarily be so for if the credit worthiness of the United States was untethered to the individual credit worthiness of its citizens then there would have been little reason for the issuance of massive amounts of debt by the Unites States government because it would not have been needed. That was not and is not the case.

We in the franchise lead generation business have heard the cacophony of complaints about the deterioration of lead quality. (Although if the truth be known there are relatively speaking just as few complaints now as there were doing the good ‘ole days of the mid-2000’s.) As the aggregators and collators of American’s interest in entrepreneurship the lead quality of our leads is nothing more than a reflection of the individual credit worthiness and the consumer confidence levels found in the larger American economy. Regardless of one’s opinion about the effectiveness of franchise recruitment sites the vast majority of the recruitment sites do nothing more than collect, aggregate, and collate information from both the franchisor and the prospective franchisee. While we are active promoters of franchising, we are also the passive aggregators of individual interest. So if the Unites States government has been downgraded then so has— in theory– the average American looking to start his own business.

Few American’s blame themselves for the downgrade of the United States’ credit rating. It is somebody else fault. Maybe that guy down the street who has been out of work for two years; or maybe the gal who works for the defense contractor is partly to blame; or maybe it’s just every other citizen of another state (its only “pork” when somebody else is eating it). And so it really comes as no surprise that many a franchisor is casting about looking for somebody to blame for low lead quality. Many times the spinning wheel of blame lands on the franchise recruitments sites. Fair enough. As the supplier of leads—although not the producer of leads—the recruitment sites must share some of the blame for the decreased lead quality.

But here is a little secret that few want to admit to being true—(just like no one wants to admit that federal money brought back to their state is “pork”)—were the economy in the same shape today as it was in 2005 or 1997 or 1987 there would be a whole lot less talk about low lead quality. Everything changes when people have money to spend and the credit lines are open. The one thing that would not change would be the manner in which most franchise recruitment sites generate leads. We would still be supplying the leads, it’s just that the producer of the leads i.e. the over-all economy, would be producing better leads on average.

But that is not where we are today. The United States has lost its preeminent position in the credit rating world. We must find a way as citizens to get back on track. It will take sacrifice and hard work. But we are up to the task, I believe. We are not fundamentally different people. We are the same people simply with different economic circumstances than we once had. Similarly, the “unqualified” leads that we in the industry hear so much about are not nameless, faceless denizens of some third-world country. They are American citizens. They are real people. Many of them were the well qualified leads of three years ago. Here is another insider tip: many of them will be the well qualified of leads of tomorrow.

And so while some of these individuals may not currently have the financial wherewithal to buy a franchise or start a small business, the fact that they submitted a lead to a franchise recruitment site is proof that they have a desire to be part of the entrepreneurial community. Thus I find it disconcerting when people use language that disconnects the “lead” from that of the person. The same way I find it problematic when people claim that it was somebody else’s fault—everyone else’s but their own– that got us into the economic malaise the country is mired in. The great English man of letters G.K. Chesterton when responding to the question of “what is wrong with the world” stated simply “I am.”

As 2011 comes to close I think we would be well-served to ask ourselves “what is wrong with our economy?”
I submit that we should all answer “I am.” Why? Because we are all knitted to one another in the great fabric of American social and economic life. Notwithstanding the atomizing effects of the social media craze, we all are our brother’s keeper. And the only way we are going to get out of this economic funk is to take some personal responsibility for the problem—even if it may not be warranted. History proves that this county rises and falls together, and while there may be more wealth disparity today than there has been in the past we are in far better shape than most countries in the world. So the sooner we can look at each other and honestly say that we are doing our best work and at our highest level of output the sooner the United State’s will regain its AAA status. And the sooner we do that, the sooner franchise sales will be at the levels that WE ALL want them to be.

That is my New Year’s wish for us all.