Keep Your Job Or Buy A Franchise?
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Bigg Challenge
Ellen e-mailed us because she and her husband are considering buying a franchise. Currently, she’s the #2 executive at a small business she’s worked at for years. She has two questions:
- What franchise should she buy?
- Will it pay off within ten years, because she plans to retire then?
Bigg Advice
Obviously, this is a very personal decision, so only you can decide what franchise to buy. We can, however, give you some guidelines.
What’s your expertise? What are your interests? Where’s the opportunity? Match these up when looking for your franchise.
How to find your franchise
Check out 66] to learn more about the International Franchise Association. This industry group also provides some fantastic resources for people like you. In the article, you’ll see our review of their exhaustive, step-by-step guide to buying a franchise. The only thing we don’t like about it is that we didn’t write it!
They also have a listing of franchises, but in our opinion, it’s not as user-friendly as the next great resource.
You’ve probably heard of the Fortune 500. Entrepreneur publishes a similar list called the Franchise 500 every year. You can look up franchises by category – restaurants, business services, and just about any other category you can imagine.
They also have lists of the top new franchises, the lowest cost franchises, top home-based franchises, fastest growing franchises, and more. We definitely recommend that you check it out.
Making it pay
Buying a franchise, as with any business, comes with uncertainty. You have to take chances to succeed. However, you can and should reduce your risk to a level you can tolerate. You’ve heard us say this before – successful entrepreneurs are very adept at that.
Use the resources we mentioned above. Do your homework. Build your projections, but remember they are just SWAG.
SWAG, in this sense, has nothing to do with the Oscar presenters! It is an acronym for scientific, wild-assed guesses! So make sure you build some “fudge” into your guesstimates.
Is there another option?
You’ve painted an either / or picture – you either keep your job or you buy a franchise. We wonder if there are other alternatives.
You mentioned your husband, but we don’t really know what his situation is. Could he run the business?
You could also hire someone to run the franchise for you. Find a way to align their interest with yours. This could range from sharing profits to an actual ownership stake.
Obviously, if you choose this last option, you’ll have to accept a lower upside. However, your downside is a lot less, too.
If either of these works, you can keep your job AND buy a franchise!
Thanks, Ellen for sharing your bigg challenge! We wish you bigg success, whatever you decide!
| What’s your bigg challenge? E-mail it to us at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com! |
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Our bigg quote today is over 2,000 years old. Seneca, the Roman philosopher, said:
“It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture.
It's because we dare not venture that they are difficult.”
You have to look at the downside, but if you spend too much time focusing on that, you’ll never enjoy the upside.
Next time, we’ll discuss a recent study that shows that happiness is overrated. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!
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