For many, running your own business is the epitome of the American Dream.
If you can own a house, own a car—why shouldn’t you also own a business and be your own boss? That’s why franchising is becoming the new normal.
1 in 12 U.S. companies are franchised. It offers all of the benefits of running a big business, such as: company brand recognition, built-in big marketing, employee training, and positioning. All you must do is run the day-to-day operations to reap the benefits
Here are the top 5 things to consider when buying a franchise.
- Fall in love with having a successful business, not a brand.
- It might be tempting to go for your favorite fast food or retail franchise based on your experience with them as a customer—don’t. Not only is the fast food and retail markets oversaturated, but niche markets and business-to-business (B2B) companies like cleaning services have far greater room for expansion at a substantially lower cost.
- Do your homework and make sure that the franchisor is turning a healthy and consistent profit with a proven concept.
- Top 4 Franchise Industries—Restaurants, Maintenance, Personal Care, Children’s Businesses
- Keep it simple
- You might want to go for a really fancy presentation and intricate concept—don’t.
- Getting stuck with an overly complicated system that you can’t deal with is a surefire way to tank your franchise. The easier the concept, the better it will do.
- Know your customers, not their wallets
- Sometimes the catch-all consumer base isn’t the best way to go. Between competition from mega-corporations targeting everyone out there, to economic fluctuations hitting the average consumer, you might want to go for a niche market that’s in consistent demand no matter the state of the economy. One that is also fast-to-market with minimal build-out time.
- Own something indispensable–cleaning services is always a priority market that never fails and always finds business
- Cleaning industry yearly growth-6.6%
- Apply for a franchise, don’t create one
- Once you have a shortlist of franchises you’d like to go for, research their recruitment process for new franchisees. Most franchises have a highly structured recruitment process available for viewing and are happy to explain the process and answer any questions you may have along the way
- Start small but think big
- Once you find an established franchise with a solid track record, hitting a niche marketing and with an ideal low cost, fast-to-market concept, it wouldn’t hurt to make sure they’re also open to long-term plans of expansion at your own rate.
- Even if you only start with a single location, that doesn’t mean that’s all you’ll ever have to settle for.
Start small, think big and work with the right people!
