Franchising is an interesting business model, someone out there created a business and replicated it, then they decided to share that business with others. The early days of large brands all have an interesting story and date back to the 1950’s, brands such as McDonald’s, Subway, Holiday Inn and other similar household names. They paved the way for me to start my franchise career in the 1990’s and help fuel the passion I have to create a lifetime career in the field.When future franchisees come into the sales process one of the first questions we ask them is why they are interested in SafeSplash and how they heard of us. Most of them have had a first-hand experience with one of our franchisees that was so positive, they could envision being one themselves. Some find us through online content and search tools that leads them to us. All have one thing in common, they love the idea about being in business for themselves and want to join a franchise they can be passionate about and love, while making money.Some of the most popular segments are restaurants, service, auto, health/beauty, cleaning and children’s franchises. We fall into a segment of children’s franchises that is hot and growing very rapidly, fitness. We were just named Entrepreneur’s fastest growing children’s fitness franchise and are proud of how we are growing while supporting our franchisees in their long term plans!There are so many reason to buy a franchise, but it’s more important to buy one that you can love and it will fulfill your needs. Here are a few things to consider in narrowing down a few segments in the franchise space.
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Do you see yourself working in the business full or part time?
Many Franchisor’s require a full time owner/operator to manage the business and their profitability may be less for you if you want to keep your “day job” in the initial few years. Make sure to ask questions and validate with other owner’s the amount of work they put into the business. At SafeSplash, we have a full Customer Service Center that allows for the franchisee to just manage their swim instructors and handle local marketing. This has helped franchisees become multi-unit owners much more quickly and allow them to enjoy the work they do for each location. -
What jobs are left for the employee and what will your role be?
It’s important to think about what you actually like about your current job and how you can replicate that in the new world of working for yourself. If you have never conducted outside sales, do you really think that will be something you enjoy? Do you like managing employees? Have you ever worked with consumer sales and feel comfortable being more of an extrovert? Make sure you are asking yourself the tough questions. -
Can you sell the product or service you are considering for 10 years?
Most franchise agreements are for a 10-year term, that is 120 months to be exact. Do you see viability in the brand and see yourself interacting and being a super fan of what you own? Although things can change, most Franchisor’s want their owner’s to be personally invested in their own success and be a local marketing brand champion.
At SafeSplash, we get to watch children thrive and grow and serve a very large need in children learning an amazing life skill, one that can save their life as well as bring them joy and confidence. In summary, think about the investment in more than one way, be careful to only consider businesses that will serve a purpose, solve a problem, and that you can personally get behind. The rest you can learn, but make sure the fundamentals are there for you to thrive and grow both personally and financially to have long term happiness.