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The American Dream, Part II of II

Written by: Bob Macek

Article Overview: This is part II of a two part article. The first part looks at the questions a prospective business owner must consider when pursing "The American Dream". In part II we will compare buying a franchise or existing business to starting a business from scratch.

The American Dream, Part II of II

Before we examine the franchise and existing business opportunities, let's look briefly at a few of the challenges facing the entrepreneur who starts from scratch.

High on his/her list of priorities should be location, advertising and marketing and financing. These three areas require time, money and expert planning. Most entrepreneurs starting a business have little expertise in these three
areas.

They choose the wrong location, spend, too little or too much on the wrong kind of advertising, and have insufficient capital to carry their business through the critical start-up period. This is why many of that 91 percent of start-ups
fail within the first two years of business.

The solid, well conceived franchise opportunity supports the franchisee in at least two of the above mentioned areas. Most have a regional operations manager who assists with site selection, using market studies on traffic counts, and
patterns, zoning and demographics to find the optimum location. The franchisor will employ a professional advertising and marketing staff to provide proven promotional materials, sales and marketing techniques.

In the area of financing, the franchisor may even offer help to the prospective franchisee. Many will go out of their way to assist you in getting the financing you need. Some may lend you the entire amount, with payments coming out of the
income from the franchise operation. Others will carry part of the financing and find you a lender to finance the balance.

Although franchising has enjoyed exceptional growth, and the failure rate is less than 10 percent, many who dream of owning their own business reject the restrictions and limitations often imposed on them by (be franchisor.

This brings us to the third category: the successful existing business.

The three problems we have been discussing — location, advertising and marketing and financing — have been addressed and solved by the present owner. The purchaser of a business in this category knows beforehand that the product or
service has been proven in the present location.

He knows, also that the advertising and marketing strategy has proven successful. Finally, because majority of the existing businesses sold are seller financed, and because they have a positive cash flow, the buyer will need little more than a down payment.

In conclusion, remember there are risks in any business venture. The bankruptcy courts are full of those who tried and failed.

Owning and operating your own business takes many hours of hard work. There islittle time for family, friend and vacations.

There is little security and no guarantee of success. However, for many there is noother way. Owning your own business is still the American Dream!

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Article Tags: business opportunities, demographics, failure rate, franchise operation, franchise opportunity, franchisor, marketing techniques, optimum location, own business, professional advertising, promotional materials, prospective franchisee, purchaser, regional operations manager, sales and marketing, site selection, start ups, time money, traffic counts, ups



Related Forum Posts
Re: Are Economic Recessions Good for Franchising? - [quote="RussellWebb":6xh1ztbv]As I understand it, when there are more corporate layoffs you have more workers looking into starting their own business. It makes sense in a backwards sort of way. My first impression is that Franchising would take a hit like everyone else... but the more I look into it: [i:6xh1ztbv]The opposite occurs[/i:6xh1ztbv]. There's a larger pool of very qualified workers that are disenchanted with the corporate world. They are often more than willing to take a bigger risk and seek self-employment, whether it's a franchise or not. In my opinion, there are lots of good opportunities out there, it's just a matter of doing your research and finding a nice fit.[/quote:6xh1ztbv] I agree with Russell. Initially everything looks like its taking a slight to moderate (and in some cases very "moderate") hit. But owning your own business is really (not to be cheesy) what the American Dream is all about - and this can most definitely be done in the cast of a successful franchise business. If you just think of a franchise as a very successful business plan, isn't that a pretty good place to start?
Patent information - I'm also interested in Part 2. Thanks.
Off to get married, Congrats - Hi Evan, I am married over 34 years. So go for the long haul. It's worth it every minute. I hope you will have a 24/7 time away from the Forum. Forget all about it and enjoy each other. Your Dream begins..... Regards Beat
Re: New Funding Source Now LIVE! - [quote="ideasuniversity":3lio17iz]I have checked the site and it seems it for American Entrepreneurs only. Please correct me if I am wrong[/quote:3lio17iz] You are correct. I wanted to limit it to the U.S. in order to keep the legalities more simplified and under control. Also, there are plenty of other organizations doing their part to help the "world". I was interested in helping my own neighbors and fellow American entrepreneurs.
Patent Process - Interesting to hear your experiences with the patent process - what's Part 2?


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