For whatever type of industry that exists, there’s literally a franchise out there for that industry. Don’t believe me? If you do a search on Google about ‘strange franchises’, you’ll find some franchises named Texas Lice Squad, 1-800-Puke-Off, Doody Calls, Bully Busters, The Eraser Store, Offline Dating Franchises, Mr. Snowman and so on. Yes, these are REAL franchises.

Now that you know you can find a franchise in every industry imaginable, it’s important to then take a look at a 50,000 ft level and see what industries are right for you and poised for growth. This article will identify 4 factors to consider when buying a franchise.

1. Understand what you want – It’s absolutely essential that you know what your goals are. If your main objective is to spend more time with your family during nights and weekends, buying a franchise in the restaurant industry makes no sense whatsoever. Those are the peak times. If you want to be able to run your business from anywhere in the world (like Bora Bora for instance), don’t buy a franchise the requires you to be physically present in order for the business to run.

2. Be smart about your decision – It’s wise to find a franchise in an industry that you’re absolutely passionate about, which is what I would recommend. If you’re anything like me, you’re probably more productive when you’re happier with what you’re doing. Don’t you agree that there’s something magical with being happy in your work? The bottom line is it’s important to start off finding a few franchises that align with your goals and values in an industry that you enjoy.

3. Analyze the industry you’re considering – Now if the industry you’re considering is stagnant or mature, walk away and move onto another industry. You’re looking for an industry that’s in a position of growth and stability. Take a look at the fastest growing companies today like Facebook, Apple and Google. At the time of this writing, Facebook has just been valued at 65 Billion (with a B) and the company just turned seven years old. Google has been around a little over a decade yet we would all be lost if we didn’t have Google in our lives.

4. Analyze the top franchises in an industry – Identify the top 10 franchises in the industry you’re considering and find out if they are expanding or if they are stagnant. Go ahead and research their earnings to see if they’re profitable if they happen to be public companies. Make sure you can tell if their growth is sub-par or exponential. Don’t be scared if there’s a lot of competition. In fact, you should welcome competition because healthy competition leads to innovation.

Preschools are becoming popular in India, thanks to the high awareness and high income of families these days. These schools are mushrooming in metro cities and small towns alike and are providing various advantages to both the children and the parents. However, the preschool market is still huge and requires to be tapped and for better penetration, a lot many good quality preschools are looking for franchising options.

So, if you are someone who would like to work with kids and create a profitable business venture out of it, then you can contact a preschool that offers franchising options. While contacting the preschool, it is better to get in touch with brands that have made a name for themselves in providing good quality education. You can also approach some international preschool brands that are leveraging their business in India.

Moreover, franchising a preschool is an easy business option as capital investment and other requirements are much lesser. You would require a property of 2500 to 4000 sq. ft. and an investment of about 10 to 20 lakhs for renovating the property, buying furniture and other equipment required for children along with salary for teachers.

While some preschool brands provide staff recruitment and training, some do not. Also, some of them take care of the advertisements and provide you with school bags, books and the like. However, if you are recruiting the staff, then do not compromise on the quality of teachers, as their performance is essential for your business to meet with success. Also, depending on your budget, you can provide additional recreational facilities to children in your school.

So, if you are planning to start this business, then you can browse the internet and find out about the best preschools in India who are providing franchising options. You can get in touch with them and discuss the matter and to find out about their terms and conditions. In this manner, you can choose the preschool brand that you think suits your requirements the best.

Being the franchisee, you will get to know about international best practices, various teaching techniques and the like. You can also get the satisfaction of working with kids and help them learn.

Even if you do not have adequate finances to start a franchisee, you need not worry as you can avail a bank loan for your enterprise. With the rising popularity of preschools, this is considered a good business option for entrepreneurs and you can invest in this to make a profitable venture.

Are you interested to franchise a preschool? Share your views with us.

Gaurav Sharma is the author of this article who loves to write blogs and columns on his favorite topics like preschool education, preschools in India and day care school. In this article he has shared information about preschool franchise.

This is something that most establish network-marketing companies wont tell you about

According to MLM Next Step LTD:

In the early 1960s, franchising was a revolutionary new technology in business and it was also met with resistance. Newspapers and magazines wrote what a scam and rip-off franchising was. Stories of people who lost their life savings to some franchise were everywhere. There was a strong move to make franchising illegal. In fact, franchising actually came within 11 votes of being outlawed by Congress.
Today, this so-called scam is responsible for over 34 percent of all retail sales in North America. Franchises sell nearly 800 billion dollars worth of goods and services today. Every industry goes through an evolution similar to this. Chiropractors were considered quacks in the 1970s, the stock market was considered shady and a form of gambling and the first newspaper in British North America, The Public Occurrence (1690), was suppressed by the governor of Massachusetts. Now, we almost can’t do without these industries.

Formulation:

Creation of company: You must first create your company, along with a catchy name, as well as marketing tools.

Product management: Manage your products, whether they are your own or an affiliate product. Delete the ones that arent selling and market the ones that are!

Getting top gun recruiters into the company: You need a team to make your company successful. Getting the best recruiters on your team will bring you much closer to success.

Drafting out a compensation plan: How will you compensate those on your team while still making a profit?

Company is shown to the world: Get the word out about your company through PR. Begin with an eye-catching press release.

Concentration:

Formulation of a robust company
50% out network marketing companies go out of business in the first year.
80% of remaining network marketing company wont even get pass the 3rd year.
Those who pass the 2 most important criteria are game for great momentum growth.

Momentum:

1. Hit the masses.
2. Steep Surge of sales figure; imagine that of a tsunami wave.
3. This is where HUGE money was made.
4. Huge numbers of distributors join the company.

Stability:

Finally the network marketing company, which passes the formula, concentration and momentum stage, will reach stability stage.
There will still be growth in the company but not of huge proportions compared to the momentum stage.

Most importantly, what is in it for you? If you were to ever join a network marketing company, make sure you ride on the tsunami wave where it is in its infancy and enjoy the process. As technology is moving at a staggering speed, a company that uses Internet as a recruitment platform will go much further and faster.

The worldwide use of social networking media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace and many others has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, affecting the business world in radical, unforeseen ways. These online media phenomena are increasingly used by brand owners, their customers and their employees alike as what is now the topmost marketing tool. This article details some of the challenging issues and implications that have gone along with the use of such sites and the particular impact of such issues on global franchising.
We at FGS hope to provide some practical guidance on how social media usage should be managed and controlled in international franchise arrangements. Because of the relative infancy of most social media and their recent adoption by franchise systems, many of these issues have only recently been identified, and the bulk are still searching for a final resolution.
Social media is dramatically changing the fundamental forces of that economy: who pays attention to what, who influences such decisions, how that is tracked and measured, the speed of response, and how it’s monetized. Just as the average prospective customer will check the online reviews for a particular business, many potential franchisees these days are highly web-savvy, and will research a particular business on the web to get a sense of its franchisable status, by its social media presence.
The opportunities in this arena are enormous for franchisors. For a good number of consumers, online communication is now more likely through social media than through email. The commercial potential of this trend has long been surmised, and legitimate companies must take advantage of these opportunities.
The incredible rise of online networking has been driven by younger age groups, but social media are no longer the domain of this demographic only. Consumers from a broad range of demographics are now regular users of social media, although preferred sites will show some variation in their audience.
Social media represent a relatively inexpensive method of (franchise) marketing. However, not all campaigns achieve desired success, and many marketers are still struggling with these relatively new formats. Companies will be better served by listening to customer contributions on such sites as Google Places pages (the #1 source for business reviews online), Yelp, and other user review/ratings sites, rather than using social media as another channel to dictate established brand values. Google now counts the social media conversation regarding your company as the highest indicator of your worth as a business.

Classical Franchising Facts and the New Online “Marketology”

Franchising traces its roots back to ancient China. It is a system for expanding a business and distributing goods and services. It is a marketing method, which has been called by many business experts, the greatest marketing strategy ever created. It is a program that creates amazing opportunities for business ownership, brand awareness and success, and personal wealth.

In the United States, only 8% of retail businesses are franchised. Amazingly enough, these same 8% of franchised businesses do over 40% of the retail sales in the United States. Franchising has the ability to capture much more of the market share. The increased market share is due to three main attributes comprising a franchise:

1.A brand name. Even a newer brand name usually has an advantage over an unaffiliated business.
2.A successful business system. The proven system allows franchisees to follow a successful plan with a high success rate. The franchisee can also enjoy cost savings as a result of the buying power of the franchise.
3.A support system. The franchise will have the expertise of its successful franchisees and franchisor to help them succeed. They are not in business alone.

The Gallup Organization conducted a poll on franchisees’ ownership experience and attitudes. Here are some results:

More than 90% said that their expectations were met, or mostly met.
More than 90% said they considered their franchise to be successful.
More than 65% said that they would have not been as successful if they had tried to open the same business on their own.

Here are some eye-opening social media networking facts, gathered by EPM Communications Inc. (May 2010):

More than 140 million Americans log on to a social media site every month and that number continues to grow.
70% of adults have Facebook profiles.
One-third of social media users are 45 and older.
The majority of travelers visit social network sites to plan and share details of their trips.
Half of those who friend restaurants on social media want to be alerted to deals or receive coupons.

Imagine the number of those folks who are savvy entrepreneurs or business owners (or prospective business owners) who may “stumble upon” your franchise marketing material or companys social media conversation. It certainly spins the wheels of possibility, doesnt it?

Let FGS experienced team of advisors and marketing professionals guide the way toward your franchising success and high-level brand recognition. Call 480-223-1500 for a free consultation today!

If you have looked at franchise opportunities and did some research, then you will have seen the term franchise fee. In this article, we will discuss how franchise fees work, what reasonable ones are and how to analyze your franchise agreement to determine if you’re making a smart decision or not. After reading this article, you will be able to understand franchising fees in their proper context, and improve your chances of entering into a great franchise opportunity.

A franchise fee is what the franchisor charges for use of brand-name. In other words, they leverage all their marketing and advertising dollars and the position they created in the customer mind to command a fee. In exchange for that, you benefit from getting customers who already have a favorable expectation of what your franchise does for them.

The franchise fee is determined by how much the franchisor believes the business system is worth. Naturally, different franchising fees vary depending on the development of brand, the proven track record of the franchise itself, and the system of processes and services that have been created within the franchise.

Sometimes a franchise fee includes training and ongoing support. Typically, if there is a low franchise fee, it generally means that once the transaction is complete, you’ll be on your own when it comes to staff training and support for your franchise. Depending upon your experience in running businesses successfully, this can be good or bad. If you’re good at running a business, then the ongoing training and support are probably something you don’t need. On the other hand, if you’re an experienced, than it might be well worth the franchise fee you’ll pay in order to get the proper support.

Finally, party or franchise fee goes into the advertising and marketing budget of the franchise system itself. If you don’t contribute to the marketing, then nobody can benefit from the branding this marketing creates.

The best way to be confident in exactly what your franchise fee includes, always be sure to pick up the UFOC and any other documents that are available. Before selling franchises, the franchisors are required to submit certain financial documents that outline what support they will be offering. It is important to thoroughly look over these documents, because they include any lawsuits and litigation that has been brought forth to the franchisor since they have been in business. You may be surprised at how little of support is delivered by some of your favorite franchisors. The UFOC is your best bet at seeing exactly how franchisors spend your franchise fee and royalties.

In order to understand if a franchise fee is appropriate, you must do the proper research. Compare it to other competing franchises. Get a franchise lawyer to go over the agreement with you. The franchise fees are relative to the context. Depending upon other parameters in the franchise agreement, franchise fees will vary. By knowing how to analyze a franchise agreement, you automatically know whether the franchise fee is reasonable or not.

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