COVID is horrible. Not just as a virus but also as another speed bump in your business. More than 500,000 small businesses have already gone out of business and cannot pay back the stimulus money. Many of them are franchisees who got stuck in doing business the same way they always have and the customers have changed their habits. In order to survive any major changes, you have to think bigger, wider, and more creatively.

I read the first part of chapter 4, The Brainiac Still Can't Figure It Out, to make the point that even really smart people are dying in business because they can't think of change as a good thing. If you know that the business model you use has worked for years and you don't want to change it, then you'll lose. Being smart isn't as valuable as acting smart. There is a disconnect between "knowing" and "doing". That's why the guy with no formal education can whup the guy who has been running businesses for decades. 

"If you're green you're growing. If you're ripe, you rot.", has been in my tool box for consulting for years. How you think of your franchise is how you and your team will treat it. Act like you have something to prove and that you want the entire community to rally behind you and, guess what, that will happen. Always think about growing your business.