Searching for the Most Eligible Franchise Partner

You have eventually made that decision to get involved in a new business or franchise opportunity. You have also appropriately assessed your professional and personal abilities and are thoroughly convinced about your plan to set up your own business venture. Let’s move onto the tough terrains now! The most demanding part about getting started with a franchise business is selecting one. We are outlining a few important points below to make this task easier for you:

1. Determine Your Choice

The starting step in your search for the best franchise opportunity must be a thorough analysis of the franchise industry from the lowest to the highest levels. If there are a total of 1500 franchise opportunities up for grabs, picking out one can be a daunting task. However, if you adopt an intelligent approach like short-listing only your skill-specific domains, then you stand a better chance of finding an apt franchise partner in no time.

You’d be surprised to know that a maximum number of people who opt for franchise business only pay heed to the monetary gains, instead of looking out for something that interests them This invariably leads to the failure of the franchise business over a period of time of its operation.

2. Scouting for Reliable Franchise Sources

Once you’ve narrowed down your franchise search to an area of your liking, it is now important to perform a good research in a systematic fashion. You must know that specific industry in-and-out and be aware of every aspect like training costs, business overheads, location, human resources, public relations, marketing etc. related to that industry. To make such task easier for you, please refer the list of directories, exhibitions, websites and magazines as follows:

Websites on Franchise

Once online, you’ll find that there are innumerable websites that are dedicated to the Franchise industry. It is quite unlikely that you’ll not find one related to your area of expertise. For example, simply typing the keyword “pizza franchisees” into the Yahoo or Google search engine will throw up top 10 results for the pizza industry. To cut the work short, you can head to the following websites:

International Franchise Association (IFA) / http://www.franchise.org/

Franchise Direct / http://www.franchisedirect.com

Newspapers and Magazines dedicated to the Franchise Industry

To cut down on the tedious work, subscribe to the franchise and business magazines available online or on the bookshelves in the retail outlets. Also, make it a point to regularly read the Financial Times’ business supplements and the important sections of the other relevant newspapers. A lot of magazines can be accessed online free of cost. Some of them are as follows:

Entrepreneur Magazine – http://www.entrepreneur.com

Franchise Times Magazine – http://www.franchisetimes.com

Business Magazine – http://www.businessfranchise.com

Exhibitions, Conferences and Seminars on Franchise Business

Attending the exhibitions on franchise businesses can throw up many potential franchisee options for you. They are also an excellent platform to source key information related to franchise opportunities in your field of interest. To update yourself about the upcoming exhibitions in your town and their dates, time, venue etc., you can contact either the Franchise Direct Information Center or International Franchise Association.

3. Relevance of Your Prior Work Experience

Your experience in a particular field can be an excellent guideline to pick out the correct franchise partner/opportunity. For example, if you hold ample experience as a retail manager in a departmental store, all your knowledge about retail business management will come good in effectively running your own venture. You may also consider taking up a retail franchise outlet. In the same manner, if you are a work-from-home individual, then you can consider taking up part-time franchise options to continue operating from home. It will be profitable if you bank on your past experience in a field to enhance your career in franchise business.

4. Make a fair Assessment of Your Budgetary and Financial Constraints

This is probably the most tiresome and boring task in deciding on a franchise opportunity. In case this task seems to be Herculean one to you, you’ll be better off employing the services of an efficient financial advisor from your local bank who may assist you with chalking out an effective budgetary blueprint for your franchise business venture.

In the End, Are You Really Up For It?

Attitude

Attitude here suggests the necessary traits like pro-activeness and perseverance that are lifelines of any franchise business. You must determine if you possess the necessary positive outlook and skills to make a mark in the franchise business industry. Have you been able to cultivate the correct “attitude”?

Finances

Prior to setting up an appointment with any prospective franchise partner, you must determine whether you have the required funding for the venture? A franchisor would normally expect an upfront fee post the contract signing process, and this usually works out to 10% of the startup expenses. Ensure that you have able legal or financial help at hand to analyze all pertinent fees and accounts prior to signing the franchise contract.

All Round Abilities

What all do you bring to the table? Bank on your professional and personal skills like communication, innovation, organization, public relations, leadership, management etc. to make a success of the franchise venture.

To summarize, if followed to the letter, the above-mentioned points must lead you to the best franchise opportunities suitable for you. Though, the list is not very exhaustive by nature, we’ll outline it in the bullet point format to conclude:
– Study as much as you can about the franchise industry and source enough information before signing the franchise contract.
– Attend various franchise exhibitions and seminars to take expert opinions from the consultants who can give you valuable inputs about the franchise industry of your liking.
– Make a fair assessment about the liquidity of your assets and your net worth.
– In the end, you will have a clear idea about what type of franchise business you’d like to start and which all target companies you must approach for it.
So, What’s holding you back?!