The Benefits of a Franchise, Again readers are asking is it more beneficial to acquire a franchise or to start a business from scratch. This is a topic that we have certainly touched on in the past and because franchising now represents such a significant sector of the business economy is perhaps worth a second review.
Operating a franchise as a business model is certainly a format that is here to stay. The franchise concept has evolved rapidly and extensively over the past few decades and there are now very few situations in our daily life where a franchise does not touch us in some form or another.
Because a franchise may be considered a “business in a box” where everything is done and presented to the franchisee it does not automatically mean that everybody is going to make a good solid franchisee. A franchise model is well defined and orchestrated and therefore individuals that like to work “outside the box” will often find it difficult to work in accordance with a franchisors requirements.
Entrepreneurs, as we have discovered in the past like to reinvent their business on a regular basis and also develop ideas and procedures “on-the-fly” and as such they find it difficult to follow the prescribed operations manual required by the franchisor.

Serious benefits

There is no doubt that a franchise does bring to the business table serious benefits in terms of getting started. A franchise is invariably a tried and tested operation and as such the development stage of the business has long since been covered by the franchisor. The franchisee now acquires that history in a ready-made format.
Together with that history comes the structure of the business which is delineated in an operations manual that shows the franchisee all aspects of the business from start to finish. With this manual will often come financial research and projections that enable the franchisee to get their business launched much faster than a conventional – start from scratch entity.
Franchises also often come with a start up financing package that enables many individuals to get into business in a shorter and more economic timeframe than the start from scratch model.
As we have indicated franchising is here to stay and represents a significant part of the business marketplace however it is not for everybody – as in all business matters planning is key to success and every potential franchisee should thoroughly research the model before they make any final business decisions.