Small Business Franchise Opportunities With Little Start-Up Cost to Enjoy Great Rewards and Profits

Would you like to start your own business through the power of leverage that builds on the success of an established business or company? If yes, you need to discover the immense benefits that await you on small business franchise opportunities you have always overlooked for a long time.

What is a Franchise?
In simple terms, a franchise is an avenue to set up your own business through the use of the logo, the brand and the products/services of another business without having to go through the hassles of building your own reputation and brand from the scratch.

Finding Small Business Franchise Opportunities
The term "small business franchise opportunities" refer to business operations that are generally affordable to run. In other words, they require minimal start-up capital. You can find these franchise opportunities in certain sectors such as restaurant chains, print shops, supply stores, and other service-oriented businesses. When you are looking for them, it's quite important to know the company that is associated with a particular franchise. For instance, if you invest in the restaurant industry, you would discover that it is highly profitable.

In order to find the best deal, first carry out market research on various franchising companies. Find out about their coverage in terms of the locations where they can be found. You would only consider the area that is open to you, provided that the location suits your preferences. Besides, you have to ascertain the profitability of the products/services of the corporation in terms of acceptability on the market.

Once you have been able to establish your franchise business, it would not be difficult to expand it so as to have multiple locations in your locality. Make sure you keep to taxation laws.

Basic Requirements on Franchise Deals
You would have to meet certain requirements when you're looking for small business franchise opportunities. They are as follows:

• Some fees are required if you want to work under the brand of the corporation that owns the brand you may choose.


• You would have to sign some contracts to the effect that you're willing to adhere to certain regulations and policies. Most often, the purpose is to ensure that basic quality as well as industry reputation is maintained. Therefore, you need to align your business with the stipulated guidelines.


• You are not allowed to operate a competitor's brand. Conflict of interests would not be taken lightly.

Pros and Cons of Franchise Opportunities
The Pros

1. Starting out with small business franchise opportunities would help you to be your own boss. You simply leverage on the business model of a corporation that is already confirmed and established as a reputable brand.


2. If your business location is close to the corporation's market location, you would be able to take an advantage of its advertisements on billboards, TV, and other media avenues in your area.


3. Adequate support from the corporation would help to boost your marketing and sales efforts. The best franchisor offers constant support to all franchisees. This usually begins with first-class training. Assistance is as well provided on the search for good locations that would serve as the best business premises for you. If you come across a company that does not have any provision for training or that does not offer any support, you should stay clear of it.


4. If the brand is very popular, its marketing funnel would undoubtedly offer you many privileges. Small business franchise opportunities that have national recognition would have influence on other local operations by virtue of its brand awareness. More sales are therefore guaranteed since more customers are likely to use the products/services.

The Cons

1. In some cases, financial implications may pose a great threat to most business franchise opportunities, though they might look strong and attractive at the face value. Some franchisors charge too much fee; some other ones don't even deliver on their promises. First find out the set-up cost and the running cost before you commit yourself to any contract.


2. There are franchisors that take much charge in the aspect of royalties. Setting royalties is even a downside with many small business franchise opportunities. Nonetheless, if the royalty is minimal, it should not be an issue as long as the brand is profitable.


3. Some of them are in a sector that may not be highly profitable. It's left for you to invest in the industry that would pay off for itself. As noted earlier on, supply stores, restaurant chains, and Business-to-Business operations mostly prove better than other sectors.


4. They cut down your overall start-up expenses.

Indeed, small business franchise opportunities are highly profitable, but you need proper research in order to ensure a successful partnership with a corporation that has all it takes to sustain the franchise. Once you are involved in the deal, you would be able to get good rewards and profits. Go, and start something today!

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Franchising Businesses Opportunities

Companies must take certain issues into perspective before franchising a company. The first would be to get the franchise registered with the U.S. Trade Mark office. A Trade Mark attorney would be able to take care of this process. The company needs to register the names of all the states where the franchisees are most likely to be opened. They must register for multiple units if relating to more than one franchise operation.

The company must have all the regulations, rules, and other procedures ready as manuals for the franchisees. This manual must cover all the financial, administrative, accounting, and legal aspects concerning the successful opening and running of a franchise. All the training that is to be provided to the franchise employees must be available as and when required. New strategies being implemented into the business must be available for the franchisee's perusal.

 The training must be scheduled as per the training manuals provided and the manuals must also contain updated training procedures for existing employees. Advertising and promotional related aspects ought to be covered in the manuals provided to the franchisees. The franchise must be able to follow all these rules strictly and must not make an exception unless absolutely necessary. If needed, the company must be able to provided trained employees to the franchise during the initial stages.

Another important aspect is to develop the Uniform Franchise Offering Circular that provides the franchisee an insight into the company's history, and background information on the current stockholders and owners of the company. Financial statements for the last three years, details of current franchisers, the company's lawsuit history, and franchising agreement are also part of the UFOC. The franchisee must be able to look in detail into the company's current profits and past losses before committing to franchise for the company. These documents must be in the applicant's hands at least 10 days before the agreement is signed and the franchising fee is paid, as per the

Federal Trade Commission.

The company must be able to provide market research for increasing the profits of the company. The details produced by such research must be accessible to all the franchises, possibly through a monthly newsletter. The company must also be able to conduct regular trainings for all the existing employees in all the franchises.

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Pros and Cons of Owning a Franchise Business

How exciting it is to decide to start a business of your own. You are going to be your own boss. You are going to make lots of money. You have decided to buy a franchise; after all they have all the systems in place and must have worked out all the bugs. What you lack in inexperience of running your own business, they have figured out. They will train you, help set up the business and even train your staff. Everything is going to be fantastic or is it?

I have personally owned or been a partner in several franchise businesses, not as a working partner in the franchise but as an investor and managing partner. I have made lots of money in some franchises and I have made no money or lost money in other franchises. Please learn from my experience. It is free.

I will start by talking about the franchises that I made millions in. My husband and I built and operate several very successful hotel franchises. After doing the due diligence we carefully selected locations and the franchise. These projects were multi million dollar projects so found investors to partner with us (hopefully as silent partners) and contribute the equity required by the mortgage company to be able to fund the project.

At first I would invest a small amount of cash and perhaps own 2% of the project and gradually I worked my ownership portion up to as much as 22%. This was over the course of 10 years. Would I recommend an investment in a hotel franchise? Yes I would if after the due diligence it looks like it will be a good investment. Out of the 20 some hotels that I have invested in, only 2 turned out to not make any money and until they are sold, which at this time they are not, the investment cannot be deemed a loss yet.

The disadvantages of this franchise for you may be that you are looking to create a job for yourself, but with many partners you only have control if you own 51%. A large amount of money is required for this. We had managing partners that we fired for nonperformance so they only bought themselves a position for awhile. Incidentally to remove them as manager we ended up buying them out.
These are long-term investments. You may see a cash return on your investment in 2 to 3 years or it may take 10 years or longer to see a cash return.

The franchises that I invested in that made no money or even lost money is restaurants. We did alright at first. My husband and I would hire a manager and make them a partner and again raise capital with other investors. The businesses did alright as long as the managing partner stayed but they never made more than a salary so in a few years got complacent and moved on to something they though would be more lucrative.

We were left with the business and had to find a manager to run it. In short after about 5 years of feeding the business we sold it or closed it down. They only way we made money with these businesses were by being the landlord of the business real estate. Unfortunately our investors usually did not want to be a part of this arm of the business so they were lucky if they got their initial capital investment out.

The points you need to consider in a franchise you are thinking of opening are the following:
1. Initial training is very good, you are paying for it dearly, however what about follow up training or training for the new staff. Remember your initial team of employees will be a part of the training but what happens when they leave. How does the new staff get trained? Normally once the store is open and the initial training is done, you are on your own.

2. Construction of your business may be dictated by the franchisor. You may pay considerably more because they say. We negotiated our own construction for one store and saved more than 50% by doing it ourselves.

3. Advertising dollars are controlled by the franchisor and may not benefit your location at all. We owned one franchise that was the first in our country and asked to keep that money to advertise in our country as they were not spending anything locally or regionally. They refused so we paid them out of the franchise and started our own. Big mistake for them as they lost millions in franchise revenue.

For us we kept the money.

4. You will be creating a management job for yourself but trust me, you will probably be working more than your employees and getting paid no more than you are making now. Perhaps even less.

5. Costs must be controlled. If they are not any cost uncontrolled is coming out of your pocket.

6. Franchises can change the rules after you get in. We owned one restaurant that did well for the first couple of years, and then they started giving away salad and breads and making us run specials where there was no profit left. They didn't care as the franchise fee is paid on gross sales not net. We ended up closing it down. Incidentally every one of those stores in the country did not make money, not just us.

As an entrepreneur for the past 20 years, there is nothing more rewarding than working for yourself. I have found a new opportunity that does not cost a 6 figure digit to get into, you are your own boss and it can be run with no employees just yourself at home. You will get out of this business what you put into it. Please have a look at it.

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Franchising a Business

"Franchise" is a word derived from French that literally means independence or privilege. Franchising is a strategy appointed by businesses to grow in the market. Franchising allows a number of independent units to share dependency and brand name of a particular company in the market. This indicated the franchises are not exactly independent companies but are representing the original company in an independent manner. This allows the company to have a major share in the market in form of these franchises as well as direct company branches and offices, thus allowing the company to dominate in the market.

Franchising allows the business to be opened quickly and more efficiently as the funding, employees, and décor are provided by the company. This allows the business to be launched quicker than an individual business with and with less hassles along the way. Also, since the franchise would be using an existing brand name, the business would already be on a strong footing with some customer base as soon as it is started. The franchiser needs to know that all the assets belong to the company and only the license belongs to the owner of the franchise.

All the employees in the franchise operation would be trained according to company standards. This allows for more efficiency in work and no chance for negligent work as happens in case of smaller, individually owned organizations. The franchise employees must have high level of skill in accordance to the standards set by the company. All the franchise units must provide consistent level of customer service to keep up with the company standards.

The business must consider certain aspects regarding the franchisee before opting for one. One important aspect is the location where the franchisee needs to open the outlet. Also, the franchisee must be able to provide all the legal documents relating to the franchise. It would be a good decision to evaluate these before deciding on anything. Each company would have strategy or procedure to infiltrate into a territory. The franchisee must be aware of these policies before committing to the company. The company's proposed plan must be for the entire tenure of the lease of a franchise. The company's market plan, strategies for infiltration in that section of the city, and the proposed number of franchises in that area are a few important issues to be taken care of in the initial stages of agreement.

The company needs to provide with the initial training to all the employees and also provide the training material to the franchisee for the future employee as well as for regular training of the existing employees. All the training related plans must be ready to be shown to the franchisee.

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Franchise Your Business: Conversion Franchises

When considering whether to franchise your business, one of the initial questions is, could a model of your business be offered to people already in your industry who are looking for a better system? This is a tough question to answer in most cases because each existing business has a unique set of circumstances, variables, personality traits and other elements that can drastically affect the way your franchise system will be owned and operated.

I have worked with a number of franchise systems that have great models for conversion franchising. The Weave Shop is an African American hair care business that has opened 16 locations over the course of the last 18 months. The concept is fresh, new and cutting edge. This is a good example of a business system that could work for an existing salon in converting their business to a franchise. Also included would be the Restoration 1 franchise model - here, the franchise model basically consists of a marketing system used to generate leads for the restoration business. In some cases, existing restoration businesses make ideal candidates as Restoration 1 franchise partners. There are many more examples of franchise models that also could fit into the conversion franchise model.

To begin, what is a conversion franchise opportunity? It is quite simply when an existing, operating business converts it's operating system and trade name to that of a franchise system. The brand, operating procedures and business model converts to what is in compliance with the accepted franchise relationship. The benefits to this franchise model are that the operator shouldn't need much training and support because they already get the business model.

There also will be less of a "ramp up" time because the business is already generating cash flow in most cases. The downside to this model is that the operator is in most cases already "set in their ways" meaning that it can be difficult to change the way they think and operate. It also can be difficult to convince a conversion franchisee to pay an upfront fee and "buy in" to a franchise system when they are already operating the business you are selling to them.

In my experience, conversion franchises are not the typical franchise transaction. Over the past two years, I have been part of over 150 different franchise transactions and only two of them would be considered conversion franchises. That doesn't mean that it isn't a valid franchise strategy, after all, Ace Hardware has used the concept of conversion franchises for years with great success.

My advice, don't plan on the conversion franchise, but also don't rule it out as a potential partner opportunity. As they say in marriage though, "don't plan on your partner to change just because you married them".

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