If you are going to start a business, why would you choose a Franchise?

Let’s start with the Pro’s: An established brand with national name recognition is going to give you instant credibility. Providing you are situated in a location with the right “target demographic” who are interested in your products and assuming there is no like competitor in your immediate vicinity, you will have a captive market. The latter are perhaps the strongest pluses of running a franchise. You are taking some of the key market risks out of the business start-up equation. Of course you will need to gage the degree of market demand and if it is going to be sufficient to get you to “profitability”!

A franchise will have very specific training and support in place that will help you establish every aspect of your business. You will have a tried and tested proven blueprint to copy. This eliminates a lot of guesswork on your part as you have proven benchmarks to rely on.

The Con’s: You do not have a lot of latitude when it comes to managing a franchise. There is one way to do everything so providing you are ok with following the rule book this will not be an issue.

No one can guarantee what the market demand is going to be over a 5 year period. You can make your best estimate using comparable models but ultimately this is a risk you must determine.

Any adverse publicity against your franchise will obviously have an impact on sales. Not all franchises have strong national brand recognition. If that is the case you will have to establish the name and service in your market and this is a significant additional cost and risk. Will the franchise parent bear some of these costs? What added value are you purchasing from the franchise?

The cost of a franchise can be substantial. You may need a retail location, staff, insurance etc. It is important to understand all the costs involved. How long will it take you to reach profitability?
What level of reserves should you ideally have in case it takes longer to get to profitability?
What can you expect to sell the franchise for? Do you have to get the buyer approved by the parent company? Can You only sell the franchise via the parent company? What kind of return on your capital investment can you expect? What is the risk of loss of capital?

You need to know why you are getting into the business and what you want to get out of it!

If the business satisfies your criteria after a complete assessment then a franchise model may be the right the fit for you.

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  The 356 members of the Pharmacy Franchise Owners Association have appointed a new executive director to lead the memberowned trade association in its mission to preserve, protect and promote the interests of pharmacy franchise owners. Industry veteran David Mayper will assume the role on September 13, bringing more than 25 years of pharmaceutical distribution and association experience.

• Dunkin Donuts Franchise Opportunities Brewing In Washington, D.C.

  Company Hosts Franchise Development Seminar on September 14 to Fuel Leading Coffee and Bakery Chains Growth

• Meralco Signs Up Franchise Player Cardona To A 2year Deal

  The new season of the Philippine Basketball Association PBA has yet to dawn upon rookie franchise Meralco, but the Bolts already made it clear that they are definitely building its cornerstone behind bigtime gunner MacMac Cardona.

• Jollibee Gives Up Delifrance Franchise Here

  Jollibee Foods Corporation is selling off its Delifrance Business Unit and terminate the franchise which it has not been able to grow as much as its other brands. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said its whollyowned subsidiary Fresh N Famous Foods Inc. FNF has entered into an agreement to sell assets of the unit to CafeFrance Corporation for P100 million.

• Franchise Expansion

  Anita Brook on why she believes franchising is a great option for growing your business

• City Takes Up Cable TV Franchise Thursday

  Marshall city commissioners will consider a resolution to assign its cable TV franchise from Charter Communications to CoBridge Broadband, LLC during their meeting Thursday.

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  Dominic Raiola has seen them come and go. For the last decade, the veteran center has lived daily the frustration of his teams fruitless search for a franchise quarterback.

• Clive May Add Franchise Fee To Fix Roads

  Clive residents and businesses will see their MidAmerican Energy bills increase next year if the City Council approves a proposal to enact a franchise fee to raise 1 million for road repairs.

• Dead Rising 2s Keiji Inafune And His Desire To Replace The Resident Evil Franchise

  “The goal for Dead Rising 2 is to replace the Resident Evil franchise and become the number one IP within Capcom,” Keiji Inafune told Eurogamer . Its a lofty claim according to Capcoms own data , Street Fighter is the companys top franchise. Still, taking down the Resident Evil franchise first is no easy task. Unlike Capcoms other properties, the companys original survivalhorror game …