Start Your Business with a Franchise Opportunity

1. Start Your Business with a FranchiseOpportunity You may have been toying with the idea of starting a business and undoubtedly must have also considered or at least heard of taking up a franchise opportunity as a business. Although the lure of starting your own business comes with total independence it is worth considering a franchise opportunity too and then choosing the best fit for you. www.frantastic.in 1

2. Let’s look at the advantages of buying a franchiseoverstarting your own small business. 1. Brand Recognition Taking up a franchise helps you gain instant recognition from customers because the brand is already known and established. You do not have to worry about spending too much money or effort on initial marketing and even ongoing marketing campaigns when you have a franchise. Familiarity gives an edge over an unknown and new brand and will help in running your business. www.frantastic.in 2

3. 2. Lead With Support A franchise offers you the freedom being the boss of your business while they offer you an operational model and full support and expertise. You can enjoy the benefits of being the boss and leading without the extra pressure felt by a new business owner who starts his own business without the support of an experienced partner. 3. Start as a Fresher In a lot of cases, you will be able to start a franchise even without any prior experience of running your own business or franchise. Franchisors will provide you with training and support to ensure that you are comfortable with their business model and they help you throughout from purchasing, to marketing to operations to staff and management issues, this is a big boost for any first-time business owner. 4. Higher Success Rate Almost any franchise would have a higher success rate than a new branded equivalent. About 30% of startups or small businesses fail in the first year itself. New businesses don’t make enough sales, have high marketing costs and don’t have enough networking contacts. Starting a new business comes with a lot of challenges and a franchise’s established business model, its brand recognition, support from the franchisor are some of the factors that help you pick up the business more efficiently right from the start. It reduces the workload on you and relies on an already successful system and more often than not a franchise replicates the success of its parent brand. 5. Finance People would be more willing to invest in the franchise of a known brand than new business and so, it’d be easier to receive funding for a franchise than your own business. www.frantastic.in 3

4. 6. Initial Costs Starting a franchise would be cheaper than starting the same business on your own. For example, if you were to take up a fast food franchise of a known brand, even after including all fees, it would be cheaper than starting your own similar business because of the existing business model and experience that the brand brings with it. 7. Equipment The franchisor can help provide you with research and experience backed equipment through their partnered vendors, at probably cheaper rates than you’d get yourself. You wouldn’t have to worry about researching the different kinds of equipment or about buying the wrong kind when the franchisor has already established it by working on it. 8. Economies of Scale A franchisor could be running franchises nation-wide and can get you discounted rates for all your supplies. If you were to try to negotiate for the same as an individual business, you wouldn’t usually get the same discounts as a nation-wide company, this deeply reduces your inventory costs. 9. Marketing Brands run ongoing national and international marketing and advertising campaigns and a franchise you get to enjoy the benefits of that. It saves you the cost of constant marketing, although you also might have to invest in some regional or local marketing for your unit. 10. Return on Investment A franchise will get you customers before a traditionally owned business. It already has an established brand to woo in customers and it will help you get a faster return on investment. www.frantastic.in 4

5. 11. Peer Support A franchise brings with plenty of peer support in the form of other franchises and the parent company. You can discuss operation issues, sales and marketing strategies, staff management details, inventory issues or any other situation you might be facing and count on experienced and honest advice. 12. Fewer Risks Starting your own business comes with a lot of risks and a lot of work. The risk of whether you can run an entire business on your own without any support and whether your products or services would be accepted by the consumers are a few risks you start with. But when you buy a franchise you do not have to worry about these risks as franchises are offered full support by the parent company. The parent company guides you in everything, right from helping you choose an outlet location based on professional real estate research, to stocking inventory, to ensuring sales. Plus we know that a franchise is for established brands, which means that they have an already established loyal consumer base and so we know that the products and services are already accepted by the consumers and that they are willing to pay for it. This makes selling easier for the franchise and reduces the risk of failing. 13. Tried and Tested An established company would have by now tried and tested their products and operation models and supply chain and marketing strategies. Hence, you do not need to worry about efficiency or any lack of quality in production or the product. 14. Exit Strategy In the event that you want to sell your business, it will be easier to find buyers for a franchise of a known brand than for a relatively unknown business. It reduces the risk in case you want to sell before your agreement expires. www.frantastic.in 5

6. These were some advantages of investing in a franchise opportunity over starting your own business. However, at the end of the day, you have to decide what you want based on your personal goals and behavior. If you lack experience and want the support of an established brand, if you want to conquer a customer segment fast, if you want to earn money faster, then franchising could be the right way to go forward. It is important to know yourself and choose what suits you the most. www.frantastic.in 6