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Has anyone here either bought a franchise or researched doing it and if so, what have you learned? Thanks!
The first thing you must do is decide if you want to buy yourself a job. If you want to be an owner that hires employees to do everything except count the money. Then you must ask any organization offering franchise opportunities if they are wanting owner/operators or owner/investors.
Many want people who will be owner/operators. That means people who are willing to work the biz full-time 70-80 hours a week for leftover profits of say $35-$55K per year. If you are willing to do that. Some will let you buy into another store later.
I capitalized on the customer perception and drew many away from the franchises in marketing my business as "Family owned and operated - not a franchise". People often commented on being able to deal directly with the owner.
i think now is probably the worst time ever to get into a franchise. think about what the hottest trend is, food trucks, hole in the wall bars, hole in the wall restaurants. think about shows like diners drive ins and dives its all about not eating some chain crap but eating made from scratch unique food. they also have a bunch of food truck shows. even in grocery stores though much of it is produced by larger companies every food and beer company is trying to come across as a microbrew or artisan cheese or bread. people now seem to be looking for mom and pop and unique and not another chain.
I've heard Panera Bread won't even bother with you unless you plan to open at least 2 franchises, and they get to choose the areas.
pretty much any decent franchise wants you to lock down a region you cant just buy one store you have to commit to buying like 4-6. i think dunkin donuts is a 6 store min. my buddy was looking into firehouse subs back when it was up and comming as well as jersey mikes. they wanted him to lock down at least 3 stores in the first 18 months or something like that i think because nothing else promising was in the works they were willing to let him open one but were really pushing hard to commit to a couple stores in the area
I am curious if anyone has done a senior care services franchise and how that has worked (or maybe opening their own senior care services company).
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i dont even know what this is but i think these services are the worst types of franchises to open. mcdonalds for example, you can run a crappy mcdonalds and just the name will get people even if its people not from the area. obviously for sucess you gotta run a good operation but some franchises just the name will bring some traffic in. wiht some of these service based businesses its like why are you hiring a franchise. ive never heard of senior rides.
i know there's some lawncare franchises available. years ago my buddy and i as 21 year old kids started a pretty successful landscaping company. we both had some landscaping experience prior but did some research on equipment and bought our own equipment from the best and cheapest dealers, with a franchise we would have HAD to buy from their suppliers probably at a markup.
we got leaflets printed and handed them out ourselves. with a company again upcharge on printing fees and paper plus they probably decide what deals we offer.
my point is a franchise your basically giving up control of YOUR business and paying someone to give up that control any serious business person will want to be in charge of their own destiny. with these service based businesses though you will be charging higher prices than the competition killing your bizness form the start plus your forced to offer their specials, use their suppliers, etc and you dont get any of the name recognition
Another thing to watch out for is your territory. A friend of mine in Maryland opened up a dry cleaners and was doing very well until that same company put in another dry cleaner right down the road. Decreased his profits by 25% when that happened. Make sure your contract has a protected territory stating specifically how many miles your range covers.
Another thing to watch out for is your territory. A friend of mine in Maryland opened up a dry cleaners and was doing very well until that same company put in another dry cleaner right down the road. Decreased his profits by 25% when that happened. Make sure your contract has a protected territory stating specifically how many miles your range covers.
Great advice,thanks!
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Protect your territory from corporate
