What to Look For In Top Franchises
The reason people choose franchises over traditional businesses is pretty simple too. Franchises are the most successful business model in history (look at the McDonald’s franchise), they have proven systems that typically create successful businesses and the brand names are usually powerful to create advantages.
So the next logical step is to find out what are the top franchise opportunities. Well it’s not as simple as having a top 10 list or anything like that. There’s quite a few factors involved that prospective franchise owners really need to consider before making a decision. Let’s go ahead and talk about that.
First and foremost, no matter how good a franchise might be on paper or how good it’s historical data is, the top franchise opportunities might not be relevant to you if you’re not passionate about the business or if the franchise doesn’t align with your values. If you want to have nights and weekends off to spend with your family, don’t get a food franchise where nights and weekends are the ‘cash cow’. Make sure you think this out very carefully.
Next it’s wise to consider all costs. What are the costs to entry with top franchise opportunities? What are the fixed and variable costs? Is there mortgage or rent required for buildings and is there large equipment that needs to be leased? All of these factors ultimately affect your bottom line, and yes… every penny counts. Look at the franchise fee and look at what is it going to really take to get up and running. For some franchises, it might take upwards of $2 million to open your business. Typical franchises can be anywhere from mid 5 figures up to a couple of million.
Now that you’ve factored in costs, consider the ramifications of territory restrictions with top franchise opportunities. Does the franchise you’re considering have territory restrictions and if so, what are they? For how long? What about growth and competition? Most franchises usually have territory restrictions but some online franchise opportunities don’t as you can’t put a zip code on the Internet.
The final thing to consider is the quality of the leadership. You probably don’t hear this too often, but knowing the person at the wheel is important to analyzing the potential of the franchise. Look for true leadership qualities and find out if the leadership truly cares about the success of its franchisee’s or are they more interested in fattening up their own wallets. Integrity is the most important thing because that will always lead to win-win situations for all parties involved.
Analyzing the top franchise opportunities can be somewhat a time consuming and emotional journey, but as so many top leaders have said time and time again, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.


