Franchise Choices/3 Things to Beware of

Investing in a franchise of your own could be a great decision, one you wished you would have had the courage to do at an earlier time in your life…

Or, it could be a huge mistake, one in which you wished you had more knowledge before you made your decision. Here are 3 things to watch out for, before you invest:

1. Watch out for a system that is growing too rapidly. When Curves first came on board in 1995, it had a unique concept…a Women’s only 30 minute workout. The investment at the time was certainly reasonable.{About $50,000 Total}. In three years time Curves was up to 650 franchises open. By 2002, Curves had over 3,000! That is a lot of franchise owners to support.{Even if each franchisee had 2 operations going!}

Fast growing is great for the franchise company. It is good for branding. But it may not be good for the franchisees, who want support. Nowadays Curves franchises are always on the market..up for sale. I wonder if Curves could not keep up with the huge amount of new franchise owners. Do they provide enough support?

Dane Carlson’s popular blog has Case Western Universities own Scott Shane making some points on this subject, here.

Tomorrow, the second issue to beware of. 
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