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How to find the best franchise opportunity for you!

Written by: Jim Coen

Article Overview: Before you make any decision to invest in a franchise, sit yourself down and analyze your needs, capabilities, and limitations in relation to a franchise business. Be careful not to fall into the trap of deciding to invest based on emotions, it’s a business decision, judge the investment on the merits of the investment and your probability of success.

How to find the best franchise opportunity for you!

Finding the best franchise opportunity for you is a lot like helping your teenager find the right college, for those of you who haven’t gone thru the process just wait, its not which is the best college what is most important.

The best fit for your child, that’s what really matters. It’s the same with franchising. There are over 2,500 franchise opportunities out there. There are over 75 industries that have franchises operating.

The most important question is: what is the best franchise opportunity match for you? Which franchise opportunity is the best fit for you? Which franchise opportunity fits your skills, experience, life style desires, goals and financial situation?

Over the years I’ve learned that the franchisees that choose the best franchise opportunity were those who actively set up priorities.

Very often these happy franchisees came up with maybe five or six “must-have priorities” for their choice.

By answering these questions you can identify your “must have priorities”.

Where will the business be located? In the city, the suburbs, the countryside?
Do I want to commute? If so, what are the time limits?”
Do I want a home-based business?
Do I want to work five days a week? How many hours per day?
Do I want to be an absentee owner?
Is there a specific industry I want to work in?
Are there any industries, products or services that I will not work with under any circumstances?
Are there any specific characteristics that must exist in the business?
Do I want a product or service franchise?
Do I want an established system?
Do I want a large or small franchise system?
Do I want a system with slow and steady growth or a rapid growth one?
How important is name recognition?
Will I be happy with one unit or do I want to own multiple units or develop an entire area?
How much can I realistically invest in a franchise (money that does not have to be borrowed or raised elsewhere)?
How much should the total investment be?

By answering these questions you can identify your “must have priorities” and these priorities will help you identify which is the best franchise opportunity for you.

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  About 60% of all franchise opportunities have less than 50 units.

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Related Forum Posts
What makes a good franchise? - I have yet to find a comprehensive list of what makes a good franchise opportunity. What are the main components that entrepreneurs should look for before buying into a franchise? Any ideas from our expert forum members?
Franchising vs. Licensing - While Ken's definition of a franchise is correct, I disagree with his statement that a franchise and a license can mean the same thing. A franchise [u:2pwsjr5r]contains [/u:2pwsjr5r]two licenses. A trademark license (the name and fee) and a business opportunity license (a system and a fee). The combination of those licenses in the same relationship creates a franchise. If you want to license a business opportunity, you need to tell your licensee that they [u:2pwsjr5r]cannot use your trademark[/u:2pwsjr5r]. If this is your growth strategy, you will neglect to build a brand. While that is not always important, it often is. We tell our clients not to think of whether a particular business relationship will be, but instead to structure the relationship the way it makes sense from a business perspective. If it then turns out to be a franchise or a license, then so be it. The difference in cost between the two forms of expansion, done properly, is not very signficant. If you are interested in learning more, I would be happy to send you a free copy of a one hour seminar on "How to Franchise a Business." It goes into some detail on this topic. You can write to the email below or get it on my website.
Re: Which franchise would you buy? - The franchise to buy, the one that will succeed is the one that is either underrepresented or not represented in the community. Look at your community, identify what service is missing. That is the franchise to pursue. Too many people buy a franchise based on their "heart". A franchise is a "widget". I have found that once people began to investigate a franchise they had never thought of, but find their is a need; the entrepreneurial "gene" kicks in and they get excited. They began seeing the possibilities of success, and as they uncover the nuances of the franchise, they become more interested. It is the uninformed that are uninspired.
Re: Which franchise would you buy? - I know this topic is nearly 10 months old, but this is a question you can ask at anytime. It might be interesting to ask, now, once again, what franchise (or in what industry) would you buy at this time? I was recently on a forum and came by the discussion on whether or not a franchise investment in the Advertising industry might be wise at this time? Something along the lines of a sign business, multi-media opportunity, etc. Won't businesses be needing/using these types of franchise businesses more than ever to try and gain customers/clients?
Re: Top Franchises For 2007 - I like to watch the fast food franchise industry push the fitness/beauty franchise industry and so forth. Assuming there exist other correlations like this within business opportunity investing, what are they? (maybe a topic for a whole new post)


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