Tweet

Should I Franchise My Business

Written by: Harold Kestenbaum

Article Overview: It is an important business decision whether or not a company should indeed franchise their business model. This article will provide some guidelines on how this can be accomplished.

Should I Franchise My Business

Should I Franchise My Business?



Entrepreneurs often ask themselves the question: Do I want to expand my business? If the answer is yes, then the question becomes, what is the most efficient way of doing this? Should I open my own units with my capital and my human resources, or should I let someone else use their capital and human resources and I will supply the systems, intellectual property and training? Those are the key questions facing the entrepreneur who is anxious to expand but who wants to do it in the most cost effective manner. The answer to this vexing question is that the business owner should seriously consider franchising his/her business model as the best way to expand. Then the question becomes, is my business even a candidate for franchising? The answer can be found below, as I have set out the four basic questions that the business owner must answer:

• 1. Have a successful model. It is impossible to create a franchise program without having at least one successful operation, a pilot, if you will. It is not feasible to think that if your core business loses money and is unsuccessful, that a franchisee will be any different. It is imperative that your franchisees be successful, otherwise franchising does not work.
• 2. Make sure your business model is replicable. You must be able to build clones of your operation, otherwise the system will not work. Have you ever seen a McDonalds without the infamous golden arches? That is just one example, but it goes beyond the look. It is the method of operation that must be duplicated.
• 3. Attain capital for your franchise. You must have capital in order to roll out the franchise program. You cannot believe that franchising will cure your cash flow issues, you need to have money in order to roll out the program. Do not view the program as a way to fund an undercapitalized business model.
• 4. Prove your model works! The concept that you are trying to franchise must lucrative. You must demonstrate that your concept works before you try to offer it to the public as a franchise. If the business model is a failure, your franchisees will inevitably fail as well. Franchising can be a wonderful business model, but your initial model must work first, otherwise franchising will not be possible.

These simple tenets will aid the business owner in determining whether the franchise model is the proper vehicle. Once that determination has been made, the business owner should enlist the assistance of seasoned franchise professionals who will assist in developing the franchise program. Franchising is a vehicle for growth using the capital and human resources of someone else (the franchisee). How great is that? It is simple, yet complex. The franchising relationship goes much deeper than building the unit and collecting royalties. It is a starting place for companies that want to grow but do not have the internal capital or human resources, like Starbucks, to do it by themselves. Franchising is not for every company, but for those who meet the criteria set out above, it is the most efficient method to expand with a minimal amount of cost.

Harold L. Kestenbaum, Esq.

Related Articles
  Franchising with all its Success
  About 60% of all franchise opportunities have less than 50 units.
  Why Use a Franchise Consultant?
  Did you know: NIIT Franchise was present in Malaysia in 1997?
  Master Franchises Explained

Article Tags: basic questions, business model, business owner, clones, core business, entrepreneur, franchise program, franchisee, franchisees, golden arches, human resources, intellectual property, li li, mcdonalds, money, nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp, pilot, vexing question



Related Forum Posts
Re: Enticing Franchises - Top 9 List - All Franchise listed above are in millions of dollars. Do you have the list of Franchise in thousands
Re: Info for would be franchisers... - [quote="Sebastien":1d29sdv1]Like Franchise Times, Franchise Update is a very practical magazine. There is no blah blah, just straight facts that anyone in the franchise community can relate to. I just want to mention that all these magazines are NOT franchisee oriented. I mean these magazines are for franchise professionals. If you're looking to buy a franchise, you won't find much information in there. To answer your question, getting published in Franchise Times was fairly easy. I don't want to brag too much but I think I am known in the franchise industry. I was the marketing guy at Franchise.com for a few years before joining my new company, the World Franchising Network. So people know me and I have a very good relationship with Nancy Weingartner, the Managing Editor at Franchise Times. I was talking with her at the last Franchise Expo South in Miami and she mentioned she'd like me to be profiled. I was like "ok, sure!". I like this franchise executive profile thing in Franchise Times as it is rarely BS. People are usually really natural in there.[/quote:1d29sdv1] Thanks for the follow up Sebastien! And I can't say that I'm surprised that networking with the right people and managing your relationships with them properly are the keys to being published. I guess the old adage holds true of "it's not who you know, but who knows you" that's important.
how much for a franchise fee? - Dear Colleague There is no easy answer to this question. Things to consider: [list=] The sizeof the Franchise Clent base Expected Turnover Intellectual Property costs (recoup) Number of Franchises Number of employees Original Set up costs Franchise admin costs An example: A franchise that I was involved in setting was to a simple "lawn mowing/home repair" franchise. The Franchise included national/local advertising - preparation of client lists - general admin - central accounting etc The Franchise involved 300-500 clients - and an annual turnover of about $300,000 . The annual franchise fee was $30,000. Hope that this gives you some idea Take care Ian[/list]
Fed rate cuts . . . - So just what do the newest Fed rate cuts mean to Franchise and Business Opportunity investing? Is it immediately felt? What timeframe do you think, or rather, where are we in terms of new vs. existing business investment? A similar question can be composed for the economic stimulus checks - will they a have any effect if consumers spend a little $$
Re: Hello EvanCarmichaelers, and Thanks! - "Carmichaelers" ..nice.. Over at the Young Entrepreneurs I'm going to start calling my readers "DSilvelers" - I like the sound of that! Welcome on board theFranchiseMarket. Do you run a Franchise Business or are involved in Franchising in anyway?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Working Across Borders

When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Log On

You Have A Website What Now

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.