Going into business for yourself is exciting. Business ownership allows you to control your life, your ability to earn what you are worth and the chance to take charge of your time and your future. Becoming an entrepreneur is a dream come true for many people who’ve spent their careers in a corporate straitjacket.
But, leaving the comfort of a regular paycheck takes guts, resources and a willingness to embrace a certain degree of unpredictability. However, not every business comes with the same high level of uncertainty.
The Truth About Start-Ups
It takes time to start a business from scratch. You must research the market, test your concept, select and purchase equipment and find the right creative team to develop branding materials. Depending on your resources and scale, you may not be able to buy enterprise-quality software or the top marketing minds in your chosen field.
Buying a Business has Unique Problems
Buying a going concern may help you avoid some of these barriers, but, let’s face it, finding the right operationally healthy business for sale at the right price is like looking for needle in a haystack. Many sellers spend years making their business look good so they can maximize their return.
Franchises Offer a Wealth of Risk-Lowering Benefits
Investing in a franchise mitigates a variety of risks. For example, each franchise organization has a detailed playbook with tried-and-tested concepts, operations and procedures so you don’t have to invest your time creating them.
Buying into a known brand with effective corporate-quality marketing materials gives franchisees a massive advantage over other types of small businesses. Effective sales and marketing materials are expensive and time-consuming to develop.
Franchisees can also take advantage of the buying power and expertise of the brand’s centralized purchasing department, where experts research and negotiate the best software and equipment.
In addition, the best franchise brands have active owners’ groups where you can turn for support, information and creative solutions to common business issues.
Brands also offer franchisees and their employees high-quality training resources. Because of the level of support provided by the franchise brand, you don’t have to be an expert in the industry regardless of whether it is carpet cleaning, pest control, IT or something else.
Although the franchise brand won’t run your business, it will provide the tools to allow you to focus on revenue generation from the get-go. You won’t need to waste time finding someone to design a logo or the long and involved process of researching, buying and finding the right vendor to supply and install point-of-sale and other systems.
In addition, some franchise operations are specifically designed to allow you to be a semi-involved owner. This means you can leverage your franchise to generate wealth while you keep your job, spend your time on the golf course or travel the world with your spouse. I ran my fitness industry franchise by working around 10 hours a month, leaving ample time to do what I love – helping other corporate executives become entrepreneurs.
Franchising won’t entirely eradicate the risks of opening a business, but investing in this type of business means buying into a business concept you know is making money for other people. All you have to do is follow the best practices and leverage the brand’s resources when you need help.
There is a saying, as a franchisee “You’re in business for yourself, but not by yourself.”
David Busker is the Founder of FranchiseVision and a senior consultant with FranChoice, the premier national network of franchise consultants. David helps candidates exploring franchise ownership to set their criteria and matches them with the perfect franchise, then supports and guides them through due diligence and franchise signing. You can learn more about David at FranchiseVision.
