When it comes to investing in a franchise, doing your research is paramount. Choosing the right franchise is complicated, and it’s a decision that can be far greater than a logical business move. It can affect your family, career and work-life balance.
Finding a franchisor that aligns with your values and vision as much as your pocket book is essential to running a successful franchise.
Here’s five things you should seek out in any franchise system before joining.
1. Track Record of Success
First and foremost, opening a franchise is a business decision, and starting a new business comes with built-in risk. With franchising, however, that risk is lessened.
Franchising offers entrepreneurs a chance to run their own business within a proven business model with training and support from their fellow franchisees and corporate.
One of the keys to choosing the right franchisor is finding a company with a history of success. While young, fresh-on-the-scene franchisors can be exciting to some entrepreneurs, turning to a business with a track record of great service and profitable franchisees is the best way to ensure a smart investment.
2. Strong Culture
Business acumen aside, one of the most important traits to develop during your search for the right franchisor is gaining a feel for a company’s culture. Finding a franchise with a strong culture will make your business ownership more rewarding past crunching the numbers.
A company can show its culture in different ways, from a flexible work schedule and laid-back attitude to a family-first mentality. Regardless of how a strong business culture is developed, the common idea at the core of all of the businesses is care for the people who work for them.
3. Franchisee Validation
As a franchisee applicant, feeling that a business truly cares about you and your time and money speaks volumes. It shows that the company values you as an independent business owner, not just another unit they can cross off their annual growth documents.
It’s important to remember that franchisors don’t hold all the leverage. If you are a qualified and hard-working franchisee, a franchisor wants to close a deal with you just as much as you want to close a deal with them.
4. Ample Support
One of the benefits to franchising is the corporate support you receive throughout your time as a franchisee. That’s something not all business owners have.
In addition to beginning your franchise within a proven-successful business model, you also have access to your franchisor’s marketing reach, tools and experience.
Choosing a company that is willing and eager to train you and offer on-going support throughout your career with them is crucial to heighten your chance of success and continue to lower risk on your investment.
5. Happy Franchisees
More than anything else on this list, listening to existing and previous franchisees’ experience with a company offers the best insight possible. No one knows whether or not a franchisor is a good business partner better than its franchisees.
A company with happy franchisees tells you that it’s doing something right.
Do you want to learn more about our franchising opportunity at Dryer Vent Wizard? Contact us today!
