Finding the right franchise for you
In these times of financial difficulty many people are wondering their path into the future. Alot of people are driven by motives of ambition, redundancy or sometimes retirement preparation and contemplating franchise business as a step in the right direction. Obviously franchise business and self employment is right for some and not for others.
Below are some tips for finding the right franchise for you. The tips will help you decide if in fact franchising will work for you.
1. Determine what it is you enjoy doing and what your strengths are. Deciding on a significant lifestyle change will usually work best if your work is focused around doing what you enjoy and do best.
2. Speak to your family and tell them about you desire to build your own business. Its important that the people that could be affected by any change in your employment status are clear on your reasoning. Make sure that those close to you will be there for you emotionally and if possible financially.
3. Admit that running any business is not an easy ride and can have its ups and downs. Happy franchise business is all about replicating proven best practise so this minimises the downs and maximises the ups. You can see why its so important that its necessary to follow a proven system.
4. Visit information rich sources online such as franchise directory sites and franchise exhibitions where you can study information about franchising and genuine franchise business options that could be of interest to you.
5. Call and arrange to visit the franchise companies that are of most interest to you. Speak to the key people that would train and support you. Do you like them? Could you work with them? Do you come away from your visit feeling confident?
6. Ask for contact details of their franchisees. Chat with them and ask about their experiences. Ask questions such as, do you feel happy with running this franchise? Are you profitable? What support do you get? How has the recession effected your sales and profit? Knowing what you know, if you were me would you buy the franchise?
7. Having completed your research, identify which franchise opportunities are of the most interest to you. Draw up a short list of options.
8. The next step is to speak to a lender. You can ask the bank for a report of what they know about the franchise systems on your short list. Lenders tend to keep records about franchises they know about. With this information you can gain an independent report about the bank’s view of your preferred options.
9. Banks will often lend up to 70% for a proven franchise start up. This is by virtue of the fact that over 90% of UK franchisees run profitable businesses according to the British Franchise Association National Franchise Survey and this gives the banks a lot of confidence to provide lending to franchise start up owners.
10. The final step will be to look closely at the franchise contract from the system you have identified to move forward with. This document rules the trading agreement between you and the franchisor. A British Franchise Association accredited lawyer should be consulted.
When you have completed the above steps you will be in a position to decide which franchise is right for you. The next steps would then be to sign the contract, arrangement payment of fees, set up training and agree on your franchise business launch programme.
Take your time, find the right franchise for you and then work with the franchisor and your customers to build a profitable franchise business.
Nick Strong is Managing Director of Select Your Franchise and a leading Franchise Expert in the UK Franchise Market.
Visit Franchises for Sale site to find out more about Select Your Franchise.
Processing your request, Please wait....
