Starting a business can be both an exciting and a daunting experience! The excitement comes from the thought of being independent, of having the power to call the shots. However, it also brings to it the anxiety and the fear of failing. These factors paralyze many new entrepreneurs from taking action and cause them to abandon their project even before they start.
Several options are open to you when it comes to the selection of business to engage in. This may be the first big dilemma you have to resolve. Depending on your budget, passion, expertise, and experience, you may opt to do it alone or to franchise with an already existing business. This decision requires your careful study and deliberation. The ultimate success of your business depends on your decision.
To start, you have to conduct a careful study. Do research work. Consult with those already in a similar business. There are government or private business groups that offer valuable information regarding your project. Weigh the pros and cons between being a solo entrepreneur and joining another outfit as a franchisor. Just to give you an in-sight about this business set-up, consider the following:
When you prefer to do the business on your own, you have more control over it. You can decide on how to market your products or services, how much you are willing to invest in your promotion activities, and you can set your own goal and the time you hope to achieve it at your own pace. In short, you call all the shots in running your business. However, make sure that you have the experience, the passion and motivation, and the financial requirement of the business you will engage in. Otherwise, the possibility of failing may be greater.
However, if you are apprehensive that your business sense and actual experience are not that dependable, you may choose to franchise instead. As a franchisor or client of the franchisee, latter has the obligation to train you and your staff in the operations of the business and provide all the equipment and supplies needed to run it. However, you, the franchisor cannot decide the system to use in running the business—from the marketing strategy to the smallest supplies to use. Even in the hiring of staff must pass the standard set by the franchisee, although you are the one paying them. You cannot delineate from the standard, the image, and the tradition of the mother company (for that is what it is) that made it succeed and famous for.
Your only contribution to the whole set-up is the location of the business (which must still have the approval of the franchisee). In short, this business arrangement is not for you if you dream of running your own business because you will practically be working for the franchisee. This is an ideal arrangement if you are anxious to open a business immediately with less preparation time on your part. Your biggest advantage with this set-up is that it may offer less risk (but not completely). It also frees you from racking your brain on how to start running the business from day one.
The decision, therefore, whether to franchise or not lies on your core reason for starting a business. Weigh what is more important to you: to experience the excitement, the independence, and the sense of self fulfilment of being your own boss despite the greater risk that goes with them, or to forego all these in exchange for an easier, less stressful, and less risky of operating a new business?