Coming up with your own idea for a business is far easier said than done. Most of the good ideas are already taken, and trying to force a new one into the market can be a major challenge in itself. This is of course why franchises are a very popular route to running your own business. You use someone else’s idea and framework, but your own business acumen and abilities. Attractive indeed, but what does it take to get started?
Identifying the opportunity
Step number one is, as you’d expect, picking the franchise that you’d like to buy into. There are many choices out there – some good and some not so good, so you will need to be prepared to do some legwork. Check out what people are saying online about the franchises you think you might be interested in, and make a judgement call from there.
Cost is naturally going to be a big part of this – some franchise opportunities are going to be well out of your price range, and some aren’t going to be worth your time. The expected time it takes to recover these costs is of course going to be another major consideration. Different franchisors will also give you differing levels of support – InXpress for instance give you a dedicated business coach to work with and extensive training courses, visits and ongoing support as well as providing you with marketing and networking tools however, nobody can work out which franchise is best but you. For example, Lloyd Claycomb shared a lot of insights in opening up a franchisee for a yoghurt store.
When you’ve figured out where you want to go, it’s time to start thinking about contracts with the franchisor. Again, no two will be the same, and there are different levels of committal. Sometimes you’re given a complete business blueprint to work with, and other times you’ll be little more than a supplier of their goods or services. You’ll want to aim for a contract that works for you, and you may want to get your own lawyer involved through the process. During this part of the process, you’ll want to ask the franchisor every possible question you can think of.
A sound business plan is the final key to successfully setting up as a franchise. This may come as you’re negotiating with the franchisor, but it may also come after. Either way, this is a plan just like any other business plan. Just because you’ve been given a structure to work with doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have thoroughly worked out what you’re going to be doing within that framework.
Running a franchise isn’t the easy way of running a business. It’s got its own challenges, but if you plan well, set realistic goals and crucially, pick the right franchisor, you can make a real success story.