Franchises

There are some plus points to them. The better ones offer lots of assistance to the would-be entrepreneur in terms of proven tactics and how to set up the business. The better ones also come with some built-in name recognition and an "expected" level of almost guaranteed business. The quintessential example of this is a McDonalds restaurant. Plop one down just about anywhere in the world and people will beat a path to your door.

That's the plus side, now for the downside...all of the better franchises are expensive! Whether you choose a retail store or a restaurant or a gas station, be prepared to be in debt up to your eyeballs for quite some time to come just paying off your initial signup fee.

But let's just assume that the better franchises out there are still a good business opportunity despite their cost (I'm not saying they are, but let's just pretend for now). Suppose you are a shoe fanatic and you decide you would like to have a franchise shoe store. You might choose this simply because you like shoes...OK, you LOVE shoes.

Does that mean that you would enjoy running a shoe store? Running a shoe store is about hiring reliable people and dealing with late shipments and paying bills for electricity and rent. Very little of your time is actually spent on shoes.

My point is this, before you take your love of donuts and let it steer you into buying a Mr. Donut franchise you need to decide whether or not you would like getting up at 4:00am every day to make donuts. You also have to decide how many piercings and tattoos you would find acceptable for your teenage employees and deal with employees who are always calling in sick or just stop showing up one day because they broke up with their boyfriend who works in the music store across the mall from you.

A franchise is a business, not a hobby. A business, whether it be shoes or donuts or hamburgers or gasoline is more about retail activities and minimum-wage employees and paying bills than it is about the primary product of the franchise.

If you are looking for solutions that will change your life for the better, you need to really look at what life would be like after the change and see if it would really be an improvement.

If the idea of a franchise suddenly seems a little less shiny, we would like to introduce you to a different idea; an idea with many benefits above and beyond the improvement in income that attracted you to the notion of owning a franchise.