If you’re thinking of starting a business but finding yourself intimidated by building a completely new brand from the ground, perhaps franchising is for you. Here are some reasons why franchising could be a smart and lucrative business opportunity when a pandemic and a recession.
Historically, franchise businesses have more chances of succeeding.
While there’s been some debate about franchises’ real success rate, experts say that its failure rate is 20 percent, which gives it an 80 percent success rate. But like any other venture, investing in a franchise business won’t give you overnight success; you will need to choose a franchise opportunity that is essential for the times, and it will still require a lot of hard work for it to grow.
You will have a bigger support network than when you’re doing it alone.
One of the biggest cons of starting your own business from scratch is that you will often feel like you’re alone. You may have all the textbook knowledge, and you may also have business partners and family and friends who support you. Still, it’s a smaller network of people than a bigger umbrella of support you will gain as a franchisee. At the same time, you will receive training from an established group of businesses that have gone through failure and back so that you don’t have to.
Moreover, franchisers can help you with your business launch’s logistics—from sourcing of capital, accounting, training, software, site selection, and other operational needs; to post-launch support like expanding your business, streamlining your day-to-day operations for efficiency. These industry leaders can coach you on all kinds of issues you may run into as you run your business.
You are trained in effective business operations.
An example of this is a commercial cleaning services business. Because of the COVID-19 crisis, cleaning is no longer just about doing a regular dust-up. Nowadays, we need to disinfect, sanitize, deep clean, and any other term you can think of for cleaning beyond the surface. Investing in a franchise will save you the time and resources to research the best ways to clean in the time of a pandemic—because the franchiser will have already worked out all those details for you.
At the same time, the right cleaning franchise service will also meet the health and safety guidelines of agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease and Control Prevention (CDC).
At the same time, starting a franchise business will position you to learn from financial coaches, mentors, and industry experts who care about your financial growth and who are committed to teaching, training, and supporting you as a business owner.
The risks are lower.
Because you will be trained by industry experts who have experienced failure, you will be under the tutelage of people who can help you avoid significant risks. We may argue that you can also find mentors who can help you even when you’re starting a new brand, but not all of those people will have stakes in your brand and reputation. With more experienced mentors and leaders in your corner, the chances of your franchise business succeeding are greater.
Brand recognition provides a competitive edge.
Franchising will save you the time and resources to come up with a brand name, logo, colors, and other visually recognizable factors. Any business owner can tell you that coming up with a brand identity can be taxing. When you choose a franchise business opportunity, you can immediately skip this difficult part. Their brand and visual identity will automatically be yours for the taking.
You will also have plenty of advertising and promotional opportunities because franchisers often hire professional designers to develop new content and materials. This is a precious resource that few small business owners can afford and is a great incentive for franchisees.
Because you will be operating an already reputable brand, you don’t need to spend precious time building up your brand identity and earning people’s trust. When you choose the right franchise, their loyal customers will automatically frequent your branch no matter where you’re located because they know that this brand’s service will be the same anywhere.
Once again, just because franchising has many pros, it doesn’t mean you will find success without lifting a finger. It may be pandemic-resistant, but it’s not pandemic-proof. So choose an essential industry in the time of COVID-19, work hard, and don’t let hurdles get in the way of you finding the pot of gold.
