Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. If you’re interested in going into business or yourself, you can either grow and nurture your own idea, or you can buy into a franchise-model. What are some considerations for this? The following contributed post is entitled, Considering Investing in a Franchise? Here’s Everything You Need to Know!
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The majority of people fall into one of two categories when it comes to making money – they tend to either be an employee working for someone else’s company, or they take matters into their own hands and create their own business from scratch. There are, of course, benefits that come hand in hand with each of these options. When you are employed, you benefit from contracted working hours, sick pay, annual leave, parental leave, and you are likely to get a redundancy package if your job falls through. If you run your own business, you get to keep a much larger share of the profit that you are actually earning. But it’s important to remember that these aren’t the only options out there. There are alternatives. One alternative is to take control of a franchise. Here’s everything you need to know on the topic if this is something that you could potentially be interested in!
What Is a Franchise?
Let’s start out by establishing what a franchise actually is. Put simply, franchising is a form of licencing relationship. When a business takes off, the business owner controlling it might recognise that there is demand for more branches of the company to open up, but they may not want to have to control the extra branches themselves – after all, this would be a lot of responsibility. So, these business owners may then decide to open new branches, but relinquish the majority of control over these branches to someone who is willing to buy the franchise from them (a franchisee). If you become a franchisee, you will generally have to follow rules and guidelines set out by the original business owner. You may have to keep their branding, operate under their brand name, and provide particular products or services that their brand is known for. But you do gain the control of running the business yourself and profiting from the business. There are seemingly endless types of franchises out there – you can find anything from fast food outlets to a tick control franchise for sale. So, there’s likely to be a franchise out there that genuinely interests you and that you would enjoy running.
Sticking to Terms and Conditions
If you do decide to go ahead and invest in a franchise, it is absolutely essential that you stick to the terms and conditions laid out by the original business owner. So, make sure to read through them and ensure that you are happy to abide by them before investing. The main terms and conditions tend to revolve around maintain the franchiser’s brand. This, of course, can be relatively frustrating if you want to make changes or alterations to the products and services that your franchise is offering and you are denied permission. However, remember that the brand is what is going to make you a lot of money with little input from yourself in the long run. When you invest a franchise, the business owner has already put a whole lot of hard work, time, effort, and financial investment into establishing the brand. People are already going to know what your franchise offers and there are likely to be loyal customers already in the area, who will be happy that a franchise has opened near them. This will save you the time and effort of carving a space for yourself in the market, and you can start making sales and generating profit a lot faster.
Expanding
If you do want to make changes along the line, make sure to open up a line of communication with the business owner. There’s always a chance that they will take your ideas and suggestions on board and you never know – they might grant permission for your plans to go ahead. It’s always worth at least asking.
Moving Forward
If, over time, you do find that franchising isn’t allowing you the creativity and control that you want over a business, you can always sell your franchise and move forward. But remember that engaging with a franchise is a great way to ease yourself into running a business and to familiarise yourself with how businesses work. You can then use this knowledge and experience moving forward to establish your own small business that you will have complete control over!
As you can see, franchising could prove to be a great business opportunity for anyone considering taking a little more control over their own careers. Whether you intend to stick with franchising or use this as great experience in running a business with lowered responsibility to start out, it’s worth looking into and getting involved with!
