If you have ever stepped into a McDonald’s restaurant, you will have a great idea of the concept of franchises and how they can be brought to the market. McDonald’s started out as a single restaurant and has since grown into a worldwide, multi-billion dollar franchise model. To properly define franchise, we will use this very example. Let’s say that you want to open a McDonald’s in your hometown. In order to be able to use the name, the colors and logo, and to be able to serve the fast-food chain’s signature food, you will need to purchase franchise rights. Once you have jumped through all the legal channels, you will be able to own your own store, but you will still be connected with all the other McDonald’s franchises worldwide.
Starting A Franchise
Business owners typically begin to think about franchises when their ventures become too big to handle on their own. If you opened a massage parlor and you found that your growth was so large that you wanted to open a parlor on the other side of town, you might not want to run both places by yourself. Instead, you can create a franchise of your business where an investor will open a parlor using your name and marketing resources where it will then offer your menu of signature massage techniques.
Other franchises that you might be aware of include Papa Johns and Domino’s Pizza, Subway, Shell Gas Station and many, many more. Basically, when your ambition begins to overpower your physical and mental capabilities, you might want to seek a little help by seeking franchise hopefuls who may want to buy-in.
How To Get Into Franchises
Open any issue of Entrepreneur magazine and you will be inundated with ads looking for potential franchise investors. Subway costs nearly $700,000 or more to open a store in their name, and McDonald’s wants $1 million or more, but there are ads in that magazine and in magazines like it where you can buy-into a franchise for much less.
There are also online marketplaces that will list the latest franchise opportunities. Or you can pick up business trade papers to see if you can find any franchises in your general area. You can also contact your favorite companies to ask if they are interested in opening up franchises. Some business owners never consider branching out and it might just take a little nudge to make a new successful franchise opportunity available.
Why Get Into Franchises?
Earlier we sought to define franchise opportunities by using the McDonald’s worldwide business model. The fast-food giant can also be used to show the reasons why a restaurateur would choose to open a McDonald’s instead of opening a brand new restaurant offering a unique angle that no one has ever seen or heard before. For one, the restaurant owner who opts for franchises will be able to take advantage of the success the original business has already earned. It’s like hitting the ground at a full sprint instead of learning how to crawl first, as first-time restaurant owners oftentimes have to do.
You will also be able to take advantage of the company’s marketing materials and already-established marketing audience. Some businesses take years to gain a loyal following, but a franchise comes with its audience already intact in most cases. You are essentially taking someone else’s hard work and building on top of that venture with your own ambitious effort. So when you put it this way, we should be able to define franchise opportunities as ways to carry on the success of others.
Yet another advantage of franchises is the ability to call on the corporate office for help whenever you need it. If your restaurant is failing, the primary company that sold you the franchise opportunity has a vested interest in making sure you succeed. For that reason, you will often hear of franchise owners attending special meetings, training seminars and other events to make sure everyone is up-to-date on the latest developments and prepared to succeed in even the harshest of economic climates.
With so many franchises to choose from all over the world – both online and off – it might be worth it to start looking at all the opportunities available to see if any spark your interest. If you have the money, a healthy dose of entrepreneurial spirit and the desire to succeed in a new market with an already established business, you may be ready to become the next big franchise owner.
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