Benefits of Owning a Franchise

Owning a business is a dream for around 65% of Americans. Some of these people know precisely what kind of business they want to own, such as a restaurant. Others know they want a business, but they struggle with exactly what type of business.

For people in this second group, owning a franchise often makes the most sense. It helps you avoid some of the natural pitfalls of starting a business from scratch. Plus, you enjoy the many benefits of owning a franchise.

Keep reading for an overview of these benefits.

It's Already Established

Building a recognizable brand that attracts customers on name recognition alone takes years. During those years, business owners often struggle with maintaining their financial health.

A franchise comes with built-in recognition. There is a good chance you'll see at least some customer flow based on the brand name.

Marketing Support

A new business designs and builds marketing campaigns from scrate to generate brand recognition. It requires identifying the proper market segment, writing content, developing calls-to-action, and finding imagery that appeals to that market segment.

This process routinely happens entirely in-house and involves a fair amount of trial-and-error.

As a franchise owner you enjoy the benefits of any national or regional marketing campaigns the franchisor runs. Second, many franchisors provide marketing advice or materials for local campaigns as well.

Supplies

Business owners often rely heavily on their suppliers. For example, no restaurant can survive without a steady source of fresh vegetables. No grocery store can survive without reliable delivery of packaged goods.

Yet, individual owners possess very little leverage with most suppliers. Your orders typically fall on the small side, which makes your account less profitable. This can translate into higher costs for you and less generous invoicing payment terms.

Franchise owners receive the benefits of established supplier relationships through the franchisor. You often receive lower prices because of the collective bulk buying. You may even get better invoice payment terms.

Proven Model

For many, one of the more attractive features of a franchise is having access to a proven business model. That means the franchisor has developed systems and methods that worked over and over again in multiple locations. As a franchise owner, you benefit by utilizing those systems and methods, which gives you a better than average chance of making your business a success.

Think of it a bit like learning how to do arithmetic. 

Someone can explain in general terms how addition or subtraction works, but it won't necessarily get you an answer. Math teachers provide specific steps that reliably get you the correct answers. The franchise systems and methods are those specific steps.

Training

In a very real way, there is no training available for launching your own business from scratch. There are general business or industry best practices, but that's not the same as knowing what will work specifically for your business. You must determine those details over time by testing what works and what doesn't work.

Since franchisors typically use an established system and set of best practices, they can train you. In fact, franchise owners are often required to undergo training before they can even open their doors.

Training you on their system and methods vastly increases your chances of success. If nothing else, you avoid the mistakes that other owners made early on that can sink a new business.

Community

You enter the local business community when you launch an entirely new business. Franchise owners join a regional, national, or international community of other franchise owners. Unlike another local businessperson who might view you as a copmetitor, a franchise owner community has a vested interest in your success, not your failure. That means you can generally rely on them to offer you their best advice.

You can benefit from community-generated ideas about everything from processes and methods to marketing. It also means you can access more experienced franchise owners when you run into problems not covered in the training.

It's a Good Post-Retirement Option

So often, people retire only to discover they don't enjoy retirement. They miss the routine or personal satisfaction of working every day. Franchise ownership offers a post-retirement option that doesn't mean starting at the bottom. 

Many people enter retirement with vast managerial or leadership experience. People in retirement are generally long past the insecurities that often plague managers early in their careers. While the specifics of an individual franchise requires some learning, retirees can often avoid the steep leadership learning curve.

Your previous career experiences help to better position you to find and keep reliable employees, one of the hardest parts of business ownership.

Owning a Franchise Simplifies Things

Becoming a franchisee simplifies business ownership for you in many ways. 

- You avoid the challenges of figuring out what market segment you serve and what kind of marketing works.

- You often get ready access to a reliable supplier with an established relationship to the franchisor.

- You also get the benefits of the franchise's established systems and methods. The franchisor has already done the hard work of proving that the business model works and building up brand recognition. 

- You get training that positions you for success with the franchisor's business model. 

Thinking about taking on franchise ownership? OpenWorks offers commercial cleaning franchise opportunities. Contact OpenWorks today for more information.