Owning a business is something many people dream of. You get to set your own hours, be your own boss, set a creative vision and implement it. However, far too often the fears and barriers of getting a business off the ground prohibit the majority of people from making this dream a reality. If this sounds familiar, did you know there is a perfect solution?
Franchising is a way to own your own business and have the support of a parent company. It is the ideal middle ground between starting a business from the ground up and buying someone else’s already fully formed business. Read on to learn all of the benefits of owning a franchise and how to put your personal stamp on your franchise location.
The perfect way to describe owning a franchise is that you are “In business for yourself, but not by yourself”. When you purchase a franchise you are not only getting a business you get to run as a business owner, you also get the following:
- Strong brand recognition
- A well-defined operating system and marketing plan
- A mentoring program that comes from the franchisor
- Support from other franchisees
For anyone that has run a business that is not a franchise, you will know that those four elements take a lot of the risk and fear out of purchasing and running your own business. More importantly, the time that it takes to have successful tried and true systems in place will be done for you. Having well-defined systems in place and a support network will enable you to put your energy into growing the business and hopefully buying more franchises to build a successful network of locations!
One concern some have about owning a franchise that there is no room for creativity since all of the branding and marketing is done for you. So the question becomes, how do you put a personal stamp on a franchise business? While all of the branding will be done for you, this is not a limiting factor for you to add personal creativity and personality to your franchise.
The best way to define yourself as a franchise is to place a big emphasis on personalities. You as the franchise owner get to set the tone of the store by creating the customer experience. If a customer walks into the store not needing the product you are selling, but you have a dynamite team on the floor then who knows what they will walk out with!
Purchasing a franchise is essentially getting to run a business with all of the hard work done for you; with only the fun elements of business left to do. Aspects of building a business such as market research, product testing, and perfecting business systems have been done for you over and over and you purchase the tried and true systems. Owning a franchise gives you the independence of owning a small business, with the support of a big business network. You don’t need business experience to run a franchise as franchisors provide the training you need to operate their business model.
If you have the personality to own a successful business and want to build a dynamic team to take a business to sky high success, then purchasing a franchise is definitely something you should consider.
