By William Huffhine; President, Quantum Franchise Group
www.quantumfranchisegroup.com
Unless you’re born into a family business, there are generally three pathways for making the dream of business ownership a reality.
- You can take your amazing idea and build a business on your own from the ground up.
- You can purchase an existing business.
- You can open a franchise.
All three approaches require significant due diligence to determine the viability of the business idea, the ideal fit for you as the business owner, and the best path toward opening day as the new owner. And all three methods can, and do, result in success for many.
In this article we’re going to share 5 reasons why opening a new franchise location is likely to present you with many advantages over the other two approaches.
You’ll immediately be a recognized brand.
Throw a dart at a map of the United States and there’s a very good chance that the point where the dart strikes is within easy driving distance of a Subway restaurant. As of 2022 there were 20,576 locations in the U.S. Just say the word Subway in the context of a sandwich and everyone will know exactly what you mean and will recall the aroma of the baking bread, the appearance of the sandwich station, and the taste of their favorite Subway sandwich.
And then there’s Sammy’s Sub Station at the corner of Stanton & Somerset that just opened in September. Drop the name of this restaurant on the Times Square billboard on New Year’s Eve with a million revelers standing around and it’s likely that not a single person will know what you’re talking about (no offense Sammy).
When you open a franchise location, you will immediately enjoy the advantage of operating under a brand name that is known and recognized, either regionally, nationally, or even globally. This means immediate store traffic, sales, and a faster ramp-up to profitability while minimizing the chance of failure.
You’ll implement proven systems on day one.
One of the burdens of opening a business alone, from the ground up, is trial and error and the inevitable costly mistakes along the way. To a great extent, you’re figuring everything out as you go. Opening a business on your own is like jumping out of a plane and figuring out how to work the parachute on the way down, while opening a franchise is like becoming a parachute expert before you ever get on the plane.
The reason franchise systems expand across the country is because the founder and her team have already endured the trial and error, learned what works and what doesn’t through the test of time, and have successfully begun replicating those systems across the country.
Starting your business with tested and proven systems will accelerate your ramp up to profitability and, again, minimize your risk of failure.
You’ll enjoy ongoing support.
As a franchise owner you will be in business for yourself, but not by yourself. Provided you’ve chosen a good, healthy franchisor to align with, you will always have a team of professionals at the headquarters supporting you every step of the way. And this support isn’t just to provide assistance when things go wrong. Most franchisors will support you with ongoing education, location assistance, marketing, lead generation, sometimes an in-house call center, national supplier contracts to lower costs, and more.
In addition to support from headquarters, you’ll also belong to a peer group all speaking the same language, facing similar challenges, and celebrating similar wins. Your peer group is accessible to you on the daily, but also through regular masterminds, coaching sessions, networking events, and usually an annual conference.
You’ll create your own culture and reputation.
One of the potential challenges of purchasing an existing business, either a standalone or an existing franchise, lies in the intangibles that you’ll inherit. You’re likely going to be stepping in as the new owner to manage a team of people who have been there for a period of time, possibly many years or even decades. As is the case with every organization, an internal culture will have developed without you. It may be a negative, toxic culture that you’re now going to have to deal with, or a culture that cannot get behind your leadership.
And then there’s the reputation the existing business will have garnered in the community over the years. Hopefully, it will be a stellar reputation that has developed a strong following of raving fans. But it very well could be the opposite, a negative reputation, with many bad online reviews, that you’ll now have to overcome and turn around.
When opening a new franchise location, you’ll enjoy the opportunity to hire the people whom you see as the best fit for your team, create your own local internal culture from day one, and enter the community with a clean slate.
You can more easily scale and expand quickly.
So, you’re the empire-builder type! You have your sights set high. To you, one successful location is great, but expanding to multiple locations, maybe in multiple cities, is even better. Whether you’ve purchased an existing business or opened an independent business on your own, expansion can be more difficult because all the challenges we’ve discussed above will be replicated and need to be overcome in each new location.
As a franchisee, with a recognized brand, proven systems, daily support, and territory protections, you’ll find expansion to be easier to implement at a faster pace. And with many franchise systems, provided you are in good standing and are successful with your initial location, you’ll be offered opportunities to become a master franchisee or area developer.
Take your next steps with a franchise consultant.
As was mentioned at the top of the article, every pathway toward business ownership requires careful due diligence. There are many steps involved with franchise ownership and working with a franchise consultant/broker from the beginning will make this process much less daunting and increase your chances of being awarded a franchise that you’ll love as much on day 10,000 as you do on day one.
There are over 4,000 franchise systems in the United States. Many great ones, some that aren’t so great, and a few that should be avoided. A franchise consultant will help you curate for consideration the best systems and the ones that are the ideal fit for you as a person and a professional.
Your consultant will help you evaluate the opportunities, be qualified as a candidate, connect you with funding and legal experts, and coach you through the due-diligence process all the way to award day.
Finally, when you choose a franchise brokerage/consultancy like Quantum Franchise Group, you’ll enjoy all of this assistance at no cost to you! When you’re ready to begin the franchise discovery process, Quantum Franchise Group is ready to welcome you to our community of aspiring business owners and celebrate your success at the finish line!
Buying or Selling a business can be a stressful and often confusing process. As a business broker, I bring years of valuable, personal experience to help you through the process. For my buyers and sellers, I provide professional valuations, confidential listings, automated buyer inquiry systems, and stay in touch throughout the entire process with regular check-ins. By keeping an eye on the goal, the successful transfer of a business, we will work together to make it happen as quickly and smoothly as possible.