Evaluating & Buying a Franchise

Determine if Owning a Franchise is Right for You

Do You Have What it Takes?

How to Decide if it will Be a Positive or Negative Experience along Your Career Path?

Even though the purchase of a franchise offers a number of benefits to its new owner, franchises aren't necessarily the best business option for everyone. And yes... we realize that sounds contradictory from the statement in our article entitled "Why Buy a Franchise Business" whereby we expressed our belief that "a suitable franchise business truly does exist for everyone." While there's a business idea to meet everyone's interests, what some individuals consider positive attributes associated with a franchise, others consider factors for rejecting the idea of owning such a business.

And just what might those factors be, you ask? The following statements are an attempt to identify such traits in both a positive and negative perspective. Only after you have a good understanding of what's involved in owning a franchise should you read such generalizations and decide which ones ring truest with your personal interpretation of the process and possibilities associated with this business structure.

• Positive - Franchisors take care of many of the business decisions, which would leave me with more time and energy to deal with the operations of my company.
  Negative - Franchisors don't allow me to be involved in many critical business decisions, which would prevent me from having valuable input in how potentially to improve the company.


• Positive - Franchisors provide me with a "big bang for my buck."
  Negative - Franchises are extremely expensive to purchase and many require regularly scheduled payments of royalties that would ultimately affect my net profit.


• Positive - Franchisors will potentially provide me with valuable long-term training.
  Negative - I don't have the skills necessary to run a franchise and I don't want to go through a training process to "get up to speed" nor do I want to be required to participate occasionally in such training throughout the life of the business.


• Positive - Franchisors have connections to valuable resources, such as financial backers and product suppliers, that I might not have access to as an individual business owner.
  Negative - Franchisors limit me by restricting the business contacts, vendors, etc that I can utilize.


• Positive - As the successful reputation of my franchisor continues to grow, the chances of my own success will potentially increase.
  Negative - If the franchisor fails, I go down with the ship.

While we're not trying to suggest that there's a right or wrong way to view ownership of a franchise, we would recommend that you be honest in your evaluation of how your perspective best matches the aforementioned interpretations. To assist you further in making this critical career and life-altering decision, we also recommend that you read the Small Business Administration's (SBA) workbook entitled "Is Franchising for Me". The more thorough your consideration, the better your final decision will be for all involved.