Finding The Right Franchise

Whether its hamburgers, pizza, telecom, coffee, Internet, muffler parts, or seniors services, there are Franchise opportunities available to evaluate. There are great Franchise systems, good Franchise systems, and bad Franchise systems. The challenge is to ask the right questions to find the right system that will fit your goals and dreams. The key is to ask the questions and listen closely to the responses. Only then can you determine if the Franchise opportunity is the right fit for you. So whether its food services like burgers or coffee, professional services like telecom or IT, or manual services like cleaning or oil changes, ask the questions and record the answers.

What Are The Franchisors Growth Plans?

You may think that a Franchisors growth plans are not important to you once you become a Franchisee. However, there are a number of factors that illustrate that a Franchisor that has continuing growth plans will increase the value of your investment.

The opposite of growth would be shrinkage. That doesnt sound too good does it? The middle point would be stagnation. Thats not too attractive either. So why is growth important?

One important factor is related to the penetration goal stated above. If there is room to penetrate, and the Franchisor doesnt have strategies to meet that market, guess want will happen. Yep, competitors will penetrate, and through their growth strategies, they might eat some of your lunch. It is logically better for you that the Franchisor has growth strategies that will address that market need, and grow value in the Franchise system, as opposed to rolling out the welcome mat for competitors.

A second factor is that a normal phenomenon in Franchising is that each Franchise that is added to the system, and each new customer that is added to the system, and each new employee that is added to the system, will increase the value of the brand. Volume carries clout in price negotiation. Messages are carried by more lips. More signs, more transactions, more bank deposits, more customers, more vendors it all translates to increased brand recognition. Increased brand recognition should translate to more business for each Franchise.

In addition, growth strategies will generally drive up the Franchise Fee. That means that if you pay $2 as a Franchise Fee, and growth strategies drive the Franchise Fee up to $5, then that becomes the base value for your Franchise because the market will pay that price. Thats a nice return on investment if its achieved over a reasonable timeframe, which of course is driven by the Franchisors growth strategies.

O.K., so there are lots of good reasons that growth is important as opposed to shrinkage or stagnation. However, you must also feel comfortable that the strategy is sensible. Thats why you need to ask the questions, and you should expect well thought out answers that makes sense to you.

To receive a free copy of an E-Book titled Franchise Opportunity Making The Right Decision by Dennis Schooley, email that request to corp@schooleymitchell.com.