In the last blog, I shared with you all a little bit about why anyone would franchise their business. As promised, we are continuing the series with why anyone would want to own a franchise. What is the risk reward factor for someone investing in a franchise?
If you are anything like me, you may have thought franchising was shady, or made you less of an entrepreneur. If I can’t come up with my own idea, my own concept, than I am not worthy of owning my own business. It wasn’t until I started exploring the idea of franchising that I realized there were many benefits to opening a franchise versus opening my own business. To start, you are buying a brand so you don’t have to think about branding. Known business practices and concepts are developed and shared. Franchise companies provide you with training on how to set up your business, run your business. They give you a play book for the things they have tried, that have worked, and have not worked.
This in turn can give you instant gratification on things like brand recognition or faster set-up time. It can also give you a community with other franchise owners within your brand, maybe (we will get into this later). Essentially, opting to own a franchise may help you achieve your entrepreneurial dreams in ways you never imagined.
Franchising does have many benefits, but with everything it also has some trade offs. I did say you are buying a brand which means you are required to adhere to brand guidelines the franchise company has established. You are usually required to use certain systems or techniques. Another words, if you want 100% freedom and flexibility with how you run your business you may run into issues with choosing to own and operate a franchise. Understanding the pros and cons of choosing to franchise is just the beginning of the process. When you start exploring this as an avenue to meet your desires to open your own business you will come across other questions. You will start to learn about various franchise companies and will realize quickly that you will need to reflect on if the opportunity presented to you will fulfill your goals, does it reflect your vision, is it a match for you, your partner(s), and your families life. We will explore some of these questions in my next blog including the concept of community within a franchise company.
