Considering a Business Franchise Opportunity

A Business Franchise is mostly a generic word which can often include the majority of franchise opportunities. The expression ‘Franchise’ could be applied to pretty much anything that involves a license to make use of a trade name or an idea. For this reason it is often used in the movie industry to denote a group of movies that are produced along a related theme.

In the same way, this warrant to work with a brand name or concept can easily be used in business and is sometimes called “business format franchising”. An organization that has thought up a great business idea and formula that proves itself to be successful, can in effect license out the right to use it to further folks who would like to setup in business.

Part of the reason that business franchising is so lucrative for brand names like McDonalds and Subway, are the potential to expand in this controlled manner additionally develops their brand awareness as their network grows. Individuals become used to seeing the branded franchised businesses and also the tested system ensures shoppers must always get the same service and quality no matter what store they pay a visit to.

Even with lesser known brand names, the energy of getting a bigger network behind you supplies possible customers confidence that they really are not dealing with a ‘one man band’.

In order to start your hunt for the most suitable business franchise, among the list of best ways is by looking at online business franchise websites. These can help to provide you with a good range of opportunities with effective tools that could help narrow down your selections by affordability, location and industry type.

You may also want to examine a number of franchise magazines, newspapers or pay a visit to a franchise expo in order to get a feeling for franchising and to have an opportunity to realise whats out there.

When you’ve gotten a short list of choices to think about, it is possible to make contact with the franchisors you’ve chosen and drop by their head offices. This really is an excellent way to meet them face to face and ask any queries you may have regarding their particular franchise.

It’s prudent to think about franchising as being a long term investment so its vital that you obtain a list of references from each franchise operator. These will generally be franchisees who are already running their own franchises which enable them to offer you helpful information and opinions on their experiences.

Consulting industry experts is also invaluable such as those accepted by the British Franchise Association. Franchise Consultants can assist you through the minefield of selecting a franchise business, whilst a franchise lawyer can help you with the legalities of purchasing a UK franchise opportunity.

Additionally make time to seek advice from one of the franchise departments of the major high street banks. They can advise on the total amount of finance they might be able to provide you. This might naturally assist in your choosing of a franchise system seeing as you may be in a position to afford more than you could consider at the outset.

Looking For a Carpet Cleaning Business Franchise?

It appears that any person thinking about starting their own carpet cleaning business today will probably at one point or another consider a franchise. All things considered it just seems to make sense to benefit from the experience of other people. The franchise is additionally appealing since most of the time the new business owner will have immediate name recognition and business assistance.

The field of carpet cleaning has numerous franchise businesses to take into account. The problem is that when researching a certain franchise for a buddy, I really could not find any genuine review which could not be attributed to somebody marketing a specific franchise. So I guess it’s time to provide an independent view of carpet cleaning franchise enterprises in general. Whatever the name of the franchise is, all of them have some things in common which a person must evaluate prior to accepting any contractual agreement.

First: why do potential business owners think about a franchise? In most cases an honest individual will claim its the name recognition or sensation of safety of being linked to a sizable business franchise. However in actuality, quite a few feel they’ll never be able to compete against the big franchise businesses so they may as well join them. We will consider the real truth of this later, but what does joining a carpet cleaning franchise truly include?

Any kind of franchise business is founded on the experience and business plan of the former of the franchise. This might seem great but logically think about what that will mean just about the service itself of carpet cleaning. For instance: if a franchise has created a company using high priced truck mount carpet cleaning machines you know what your own kind of cleaning will include? Of course you’ll need to possess the same apparatus whether its marketed directly from them or using their resources. The point that somebody not used to the field will not appreciate is the fact that cleaning technology has advanced by a lot during the past five years alone. Some of those truck mount operations can cost anywhere from $75,000 to $135,000 and even more and a lot of honest and knowledgeable operators will confess they do not provide the most effective service. If you notice in advertising and marketing, more and more commercials talk about making use of multiple methods of cleaning. That is because a lot of us in the field have stopped using the truck mounts years ago and started making use of newer and much less costly equipment. I’ve heard of guys through the country that have their truck mounts in the garage where they now concentrate on low moisture cleaning. Now the problem is the franchise nevertheless calls for exactly the same products they’ve used for the last twenty years.

This applies to any products used by a franchise. A few call themselves dry cleaning, low moisture, chemical cleaning, natural cleaning and on and on. The point is the fact that buyer of a franchise is going to be tied to any cleaning method, cleaning materials and machines employed by that franchise. Although you may come across something which supplies far better results, you’ll be hesitant to change. Naturally, generally you need to obtain your materials and equipment through the franchise and in some cases if not, you are still stuck with their equipment.

The franchise operations usually demand a specific regular payment dependent on a percentage of your business also. They claim that insures your legal rights and marketing costs on a national level. This could be legitimate but just how will you feel writing a check out to your franchise at the end of every month when you did all the actual physical work? After decades in the business I have come across a lot of men who dropped out of their franchise agreements to go it alone. The issue with that is they are still stuck with unneeded machines and supplies in most cases.

As stated earlier, many are searching for name recognition and security when joining a franchise. Coming from my experience and that of many of my contacts, a good business plan will serve you far better. Keep in mind those men with franchises have got to keep making use of outdated cleaning techniques and this also permits new operators to cash in on technology. These days people desire safe cleaning products, good results, fast service and fast drying of their carpets. Those of us skilled in the field recognize you can’t fill that bill by following the “corporate line” of any particular franchise. Thus for best results, find a good business plan from somebody experienced in the industry who’ll share the secrets of this business. Don’t throw your money away on franchise operations.

Dennis Estelle has been involved in the home maintenance field for over 30 years.

A Small Business Franchise Opportunity Is Within Your Reach – But Only If You’re Careful

Identifying a solid opportunity from the thousands of available franchises can be a daunting task-and the stakes are very high because you could lose your life savings if you make the wrong decision. There are three basic ways for an entrepreneur to determine optimal franchise performers: find a consultant; do it yourself using self-help books and other resources; or purchase a franchise analysis program that provides an analytic roadmap for an entrepreneur to use in doing it herself.

Using a Consultant
There are a professionals in the marketplace who have gained the knowledge and expertise needed to determine the best small business franchise opportunity for an entrepreneur. These professionals usually have expertise in specific products, services, or niches and can help you narrow your search down to a manageable number of choices. You can utilize the services of many of these consultants for free because they are paid a “finder’s fee” by the franchisor after you make the purchase. While free is usually good, it may not be in this case because a budding entrepreneur may never know if the consultant was influenced to recommend a certain franchisor because of the finder’s fee and not necessarily because of the quality of the franchise opportunity.

Like most professions, there are hardworking, ethic people who do great franchise consulting and there are people who will sell their opinion to the highest bidder with no investment in the ultimate success of their clients. Any entrepreneur who decides to go with a consultant needs to make sure the professional has a solid reputation with plenty of references from other entrepreneurs and does not have business relationships with any of the franchises being recommended.

Some consultants do not collect a finder’s fee from franchisors after a franchise sale. Instead, they charge the fee to their client who is looking for the small business franchise opportunity. While these people may provide a more impartial analysis and recommendation regarding a franchise opportunity, they often charge several thousand dollars for their expertise. If an entrepreneur has the financial backing to pay this fee, then great! However, most don’t when first starting out.

Go it Alone with Help from Books and Other Resources
If an entrepreneur isn’t comfortable with the risks found with using consultants, she can try to do it herself. There are certainly benefits with getting in the trenches and tracking down all the information you need to make a good franchise decision. By the time the process is over, an entrepreneur will know a lot about the particular product, service, or niche-information that will be very valuable as the business grows. For Type A people who aren’t happy unless they are involved with every aspect of the search process, this is the best option.

There are many good books on the market that will provide excellent outlines of how to analyze small business franchise opportunities and provide solid guidance on what red flags to avoid. However, it does take A LOT OF TIME to complete the franchise analysis this way and, if the entrepreneur is in any hurry to make a decision and get started, this option can be very frustrating.

Franchise Analysis Programs
If an entrepreneur finds herself uncomfortable or unable to utilize the services of a consultant and doesn’t have the patience or drive to find a great small business franchise opportunity on her own, then there is a 3rd option that should be considered. There are some highly effective program packages available on the market that can help an entrepreneur focus her attention in the right analytic directions while providing the freedom to direct the overall analysis in specific ways herself.

The way this option works is that the program package directs the entrepreneur by requiring the collection of specific information about small business franchise opportunities and then helping to create a model for each franchise that can be compared against standardized criteria or can be used to compare franchises against each other. In many ways, this option reflects the positive aspects of each of the other options because an entrepreneur can obtain specific guidance on what to look for in a solid franchise opportunity (like a consultant would provide) while maintaining the flexibility to collect the data and make informed decisions based on personally created franchise analyses. The program option also avoids the possibility of using a biased consultant, having to pay a consultant several thousands of dollars in fees, and having to spend a large amount of blood, sweat, and tears to go it totally alone.

Whichever option an entrepreneur chooses to find a great opportunity from available franchises, effort must be made to evaluate performance and chance for success for each potential franchise. Making this life altering decision based on the recommendation of a friend or family member or on “gut feeling” is certainly a recipe for failure.

If you enjoyed this article, check out Steve’s web site at [http://franchisebusinessopportunity.us] dedicated to helping people make good decisions when purchasing franchise opportunities. If you feel like you’re read enou

Small Business Franchise Relations – Rights and Responsibilities

Franchising is a fast-developing form of business in the US. Take into consideration some facts about it: according to the International Franchise Association, there were more than 3,000 franchise brands with 901,093 franchise establishments in the USA at the beginning of 2010. These figures can be compared to the European Union, where, as per the data of the European Franchise Federation, there were more than 8400 franchise systems in 17 countries in 2008. For example, a year ago there were 1,234 franchise brands and more than 49,000 franchisees in France; 842 franchise systems and 34,800 franchisees – in Britain; 850 franchisors with 59,182 franchisees in Spain.

Franchise statistics shows that this form of business provides the parties of a franchise contract with lots of benefits both franchisees (usually small firms that buy a small business franchise) and franchisors (they sell franchises to other companies-franchisees). But these benefits should be matched with disadvantages; this in turn can help potential franchisees buy the franchise suitable for their budget, skills and interests.

When a small firm decides to purchase a small business franchise, it means that it has an opportunity to operate the successful business model of the experienced franchisor with brand name recognition, training and other services or assistance, with growth potential due to the expansion of the number of franchised and company-owned outlets in a franchise system.

Buying a small business franchise and enjoy the support from the franchisor can cost some money. According to the specific franchise agreement, the fees can include the following:

- Initial fee and other costs to buy a franchise, to build or rent an outlet, and buy inventory and other expenses to start business;

- Royalty which should be periodically paid to the franchisor as a percentage of gross income to use the brand name;

- Advertising payments to a special fund to attract new franchisees and promote the brand name of a franchisor.

One of the specific features of a franchised business is a franchisor’s control of its franchisees in terms of the approval of the place to locate an outlet, design standards, goods and services for sale, methods of operation (i.e. working hours, uniforms, signs, advertisement, accounting procedures, etc.), limiting sales area to a specific territory or the ability of franchisees to open additional outlets, and moreover, the franchisor checks the financial reports of the franchisees and can terminate the franchise relations if franchisees breach the agreement.

If you would like to invest in a specific franchise, you should conside

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