What is a franchise & is buying a franchise the right choice for me?
Are you considering a career change and possibly self employment via franchising and wondering what franchising is and if buying a franchise is the right choice for you?
Firstly you need to understand exactly what is a franchise and why businesses choose to franchise. A business may decide to grow through franchising for many reasons, some may include;
- Fast growth targets, perhaps to maximize market share in a new or highly competitive sector
- Flat management structure – They would prefer to work with business partners ( Franchisees ) than grow through employing staff that may let them down & raise operating costs
- Capital – Franchising enables a business to grow much faster by raising capital for equipment, premises etc via it’s Franchisee’s.
So what is a franchise? Well the definition of a franchise is replicating exactly an already trading & successful business through a combination of documentation, training & support. Effectively a franchise business model is a clone of an already tried and tested business model.
Would a franchise be right for me?
It depends. You need to understand the relationship dynamic between yourself, the Franchisee and the franchise business or Franchisor. You are not staff, you are your own business but you have an extremely close legal association and obligations to the Franchisor. In other words you are given a blueprint or template for running the business that you must stick to. If you are the sort of person that has a hundred new ideas a day and wants to change things and move away from systems then running a franchise is not the right choice for you.
The systems put in place by the Franchisor are done to ensure tried and tested methods are used to maximize a Franchisees chances of success, the more you make as a Franchisee, the more the Franchisor will make but you need to be able to follow a system and take guidance for a franchise to work.
In addition to far higher success rates with a franchise their are also many other benefits you may receive including;
- Centralised purchasing, lowering your business costs
- Day to day operational support
- Operational software, CRM
- Accounting software and/or support
- Exit strategy planning
- Preferrential funding arrangements
- Cover when sick or holiday
Why not find out more about franchising with our free franchise guide, to get your copy please complete the form below;