The ultimate form of entrepreneurship
A few questions to start: What are the keys to franchising? How do you (or I) know if franchising is right for me? And the frequently asked, “What are the hot franchises right now?” Most of these questions will be covered in the articles and resources section in the upcoming Franchise Center and while I may not know what the hot concepts are, I can try to provide you with the information and guidance to make a more educated decision yourself. What I can tell you is that franchising is one of the purest forms of entrepreneurship. On one hand, you have the franchisor, the brand originator, the one who took the first risk starting a small business. Then the franchisor decides that the best way to grow the small business is through franchising, allowing other aspiring business owners to join he and the brand in a licensed relationship. Now you’re adding additional entrepreneurs to the equation, franchisees – hopeful small business owners and their employees who are now representing a brand in a specific territory. The third element, the glue that makes this work, is probably the largest group of entrepreneurs and independent business owners of all … research companies, marketing firms, attorneys, real estate specialists, banks, consultants and everyone else. Now that I think about it, franchising could be described as the gateway to entrepreneurship for all aspects of business.
Jack Burris is a Partner and Vice President of Marketing and Development with Franchise Business Review.
April 25th, 2007 at 11:24 am
I think franchising is just like working for someone, cause you have someone to report to, someone comes and arranges your business for you, and don’t forget you have to pay them money every month which makes the corp rich…I had a couple of franchises, and I swore to myself never again
surogo.com
April 27th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Hi Jazzy,
Thanks for the response to the post! Would you mind telling us which concepts you owned at one time? Some people think that the franchisor is just looking to get rich, but most of the time, those ongoing fees, or royalties, go towards marketing, operations support, R & D, etc, ultimately helping your brand stay ahead of the competition. And there are also franchises that do not collect royalties at all. We recently did an interview with Tom Casey at The Human Bean, a concept with about 30 units that does not collect royalties.
April 29th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
Working for a franchisor as the primary liason between the franchisee and the franchisor, I can absolutely promise you I am quite cognizant the franchisee does not work for me. It is a very interesting relationship however in that my role is to support their growth and sometimes that means I hold them accountable to do the activity necessary.
Ultimately my and their success comes because we have clearly defined what THEIR goals are and they allow me some permission to hold them accountable to achieve them. Should they not have clear goals, or they do not allow me that permission than they have a greater tendency to achieve lower goals.
Statistically franchises reverse the overwhelming failure rate of small business simply because they do have systems in place to support the franchisee. In that, I must disagree with the premise that franchising is the ultimate entrepreneurship. Christopher Columbus is a better example of an ultimate entrepreneur. Using someone elses money, he set off on a revenue development mission that ultimately succeeded in discovering a product that no one anticipated and it became a huge success in the greater scheme of things. That would be America.
Regards,
Michael Goodman
National Franchisee
Development Manger
DataPreserve