do you believe in franchising?

I did try to run a business a few year back. I run a computer shop, with the popularity of computer shop 5 years ago. It was fun at first, but you need capital and lots of work to make it successful. Unfortunately I have to closed shop because we, my family left the country for a two year expat assignment in the USA and the caretaker we hire to take care of the business don't know how to handle it, there are lot of fees demanded by the local authorities and lots of regulation. So when we come back I thougth of franchising also. I read about franchising and tried to learn the ins and outs of it and I realized it's not for me. What I am afraid about it is on handling people, I don't have that skills. You need to hire people and deal with people. So I did not pursue it. What I'm up to now is invest in mutual funds and other funds offered by bank. I am also looking into buying or putting up an apartment for rent once I have enough capital.

My family franchised a business last year and it's still going strong. It was quite accidental how we acquired the business. For some time, my dad was thinking of franchising but we didn't actually act on that until my officemate told me of this new grocery store that will open and they accepts tenants to rent in their grocery. So we rented the place and finally applied for the franchise that we've had our eye on for some time. It's a SME that sells clean, street foods (fishballs, squid balls, kikiam, etc) and it's quite popular here in the Philippines now. The processing for the business application is not so hard and it's not really expensive, too. ^_^

franchising is too expensive. it's just for rich people. but if ever given the chance, i wanna go for franchising, too. however, since i can't afford paying for the name itself and other materials, i might start up from scratch and build my own name on my way up. it's gonna be filled with loads of hardwork but i guess i'll be proud that i did it my own way.

this time, i would like to get a franchise rather than start something new all on my own. franchising will be good since the product is already established in the market and there is a good demand for it. marketing will no longer be a headache. presently, my thoughts are on health products. aside from earning, i will be helping people t get healthy. the earnings may not be as good as, when i am having a business all my own, but the risks are much lower compared to an all new business to put up.

Frnchising is an option a) if you have the capital and b) if you have the personality and commitment to match the company's profile. The trouble is that people see the succes stories with franchising and not the failures. I personally know several preople who leapt into franchising without really investigating what was required and as a result they lost substantially. Here are some general tips. Investigate the franchise terms and conditions fully Investigate the market in your proposed area of competition - is it allready highly competitive, does its demographics match your product etc Carefully analyse how much it will cost to run the business and budget on a worst case scenario for the next 12 months - can you afford it? Personally I would prefer to bi;d a business from scratch and when it's hugely succesful then offer franchises to people who would be investigated thoroughly before I would allow them to operate.

I've recently been thinking of franchising but with so many things available I don't really know what to get. Its good to know that you already have a name that people can relate to. You have an instant audience for your product. I like the idea that the bulk of the hard work have been eliminated. It is expensive but the return looks good.