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By franchising your business, do you think that you’ll;
- Sell hundreds of franchises?
- Create your own empire?
- Become wealthier than you ever imagined?
Those things can happen. But the stars will have to line up perfectly. It’s possible, though.
Of course after your business is set up as a legal franchise, you have to sell your concept to interested parties. This is where most folks fall flat on their faces. I’ve seen really smart people go the cheap route. The cheap route usually involves spending about $20,000 with an attorney to do the necessary legal things to enable them to sell franchises.
So, armed with their paperwork, they start advertising their franchise concept. Then something happens;
No one calls them to find out more. Then these folks start questioning themselves as to why nobody is beating down the doors to inquire about their amazing franchise concept.
There is a really simple reason for this. The reason that no one is calling to “find out more,” is that the legal portion of setting up the franchise was the focus, instead of the “other” things that are necessary to franchise a business concept from A-Z. If they would have used a legitimate franchise development firm from the beginning, they would have had a much better chance of selling franchises.
Franchise development firms offer an entire package, or a customized solution. However, all franchise development firms are not created equal, just like all attorney’s or all CPA’s, are not created equal, either. There are several franchise development firms still around that are what I call pond scum firms. They’ll tell anyone who has a little money, and that are alive, that their business concept is fantastic, and should be franchised. (I’ve heard that nasty diseases can sometimes be found in the silt at the bottom of a pond)
You’ve been warned.
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Carol Tice wrote an article about the intricacies of developing a franchise concept, that’s almost becoming viral. I’ve seen it pop up not only on Entrepreneur.com (Where it was first published) but on Fox Small Business, the AT&T website, smsmallbiz.com, MSNBC.com, and several others. I guess that a lot of folks are thinking about growing their businesses in this fashion.
From the article;
“If you’re considering franchising your business, know that the process
of becoming a franchisor is usually long and involves considerable cost.
Just because you qualify to sell franchises doesn’t mean you will find
buyers. Data from the International Franchise Association shows that of
the 105 companies that started selling franchises in 2008, more than 40
had not reported the sale of their first unit by the end of 2009.”
See what I mean? Turning a business idea into a franchise business legally is challenging, and it’s an important part of the franchise development process- but it’s not the most important thing.
See what else is important when developing a business idea into a franchise, over at TheStreet.com
And, then pop by Small Business Trends to see the latest trends in franchise development.
