Instead of taking a business from concept to reality, many entrepreneurs choose to invest in established franchise opportunities. Obtaining a franchise provides entrepreneurs with the rights to market and sell the businessā products and services within a specific area or location in exchange for a monetary investment.
Unlimited Number of Franchises
There are franchises to fit every franchiseeās interest, prior work experience and business aspirations. For instance, a health care entrepreneur may be interested in senior care franchises that provide non-medical services such as companion care to elderly adults. Restaurant franchise opportunities vary from fast food to full service and even fast-casual dining.
For a future franchisee interested in helping children there is a plethora of opportunities. Children and child franchises are geared towards a variety of things such as entertainment, health, hair services and education.Ā Those types of franchises are in addition to the usual daycare franchises.
Additional opportunities available include cleaning and maintenance, pet services, automotive, finance and coffee.
The amount of money required for an initial investment depends on the specific franchise. For example, senior franchises are relatively inexpensive starting as low as $20,000. Some franchises require $100,000 or more for an initial investment.
These types of opportunities depend on the kind that an individual is interested in pursuing. Most entrepreneurs are familiar with the business format of franchises. These are the type of opportunities that allow an individual to invest money to receive the rights to own and operate a specific business such as Pro Clean, Liberty Tax Service or Kona Ice.
Other types of franchises include brand name or trademark licensing which provides a franchisee the right to use logos, brand or names for their own business endeavors. Distributorships, such as automobile dealership franchisors sell their products to a franchisee. The franchisee is then allowed to sell specific products such as a type of car under the distributorshipās name.
How Franchising Works
An individual investing in a franchise is known as a franchisee. He or she acquires the franchise such as a restaurant or child franchise from a franchisor. The franchisee pays an initial fee to purchase the rights to the franchise. After the initial payment, he or she may continue to pay a percentage of gross sales for the life of their franchise contract. Other fees franchisee fees involved may include a one-time franchise fee and/ or royalty fee.
In exchange for the investment, a franchisee receives privileges not given to other entrepreneurs such as the proven business model and established goods or services. Also, they receive training, ongoing support from the franchisors and established business practices.
However, the entrepreneur must follow standard guidelines established by the particular franchisor. Guidelines can include how a franchisee can operate under the business name, where he or she can sell and quality control requirements.
Franchise opportunities provide entrepreneurs with a less expensive way to jump into the business world. In return for their investment, they receive an established company with a proven business model and existing customer base. Also, entrepreneurs receive a corporate image and training. Most importantly, it saves entrepreneurs money and time to go into business with a proven business model instead of starting from scratch.