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This RSS feed is published by Michael Darling.May 23rd, 2012
World Wide Web Franchise
Some companies, which are thought to franchises, are in fact not franchises. All stores are owned and operated by the company itself (ex. Starbucks, Gap, Victoria's Secret).
There are three basic types of franchises:
- Distributorships, which grant the right to sell their parent company's product(s) such as auto dealerships (Toyota, Ford, GM, Mercedes, etc).
- Trademark or brand name licensing, which gives the licensees the right to use the parent company's trademark or brand in conjunction with the operation of their own business ie. beverages (CocaCola) and sport franchises (Miami Dolphins, New York Yankees, etc).
- Business format franchises, the type most people are familiar with (Subway, Meineke Muffler, Circle K) are the focus of this article.
In return for these payments, franchisees gain priveleges, including the right to sell a proven and recognized product or service, to use the franchisor's business practices, and to receive initial training and ongoing support. Additonal responsibilities can and usually do include:
- Requirements to meet a variety of quality controls for products and services sold.
- Restrictions on what they can sell or how they can operate using the company's name.
- Specifications for their business location and site appearance.
- Prohibitions on the operation of any similar businesses during or after the term of the franchise agreement.
- Brand names, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and patents.
- Uniform logos, storefronts, and interiors.
Is owning a franchise a lucrative business model to pursue, or is it like many others, which may look too good to be true?
The term, all by itself, brings visions of expensive business models, stocked to the hilt with all types of goods for resale, to eager customers just standing in line with their pocket books open, and ready to purchase them all. A franchise could also mean hungry people, waiting to scarf down that Subway or McDonalds meal, and walk away with that sated feeling of well being.
The term franchising could also conjure up a feeling of building an already branded business, by just paying big bucks for the business, and making money right out of the gate for those that already have plenty of money to play with. You know the age old saying, the rich get richer, right?
All types of feelings and emotions seem to bubble up when thinking about all the aspects of building a business using a franchising business model. The fact of the matter is, most notions about the process are simply not valid. The franchise will require huge amounts of time, money, effort, determination, education and a never quit attitude to take the business to a level of profit for long term. It is a well known fact that even when a high ticket franchise is purchased, the too often not making money until three to five years could certainly be the case.
People entering into any type of business, say even an Internet Marketing Agency, should be well prepared and well educated to even hope to achieve any level of success with the business. It all deals with their ability to learn marketing in its rarest form. Marketing is the key ingredient that most people will miss in terms of growing a business. This somewhat hazy mystery needs to have clarification before any money is laid down upon the proverbial table of the franchise corporate.bank. Many people simply refuse to be educated in any manner. In this world of business, and especially in Internet marketing, there seems to be a feeling that is ego driven in that they already know all the answers. This indeed has led to the many closing doors being seen on what should be profitable business ventures in the franchising world.
We offer a solution to franchising, and the obvious problems that come about by pursuing that type of business model. Our plan does require initial startup fees, but in reality, they are far less expensive to operate, and provide a better pay out in a shorter amount of time. There is only one way to find out what this business is all about. Simply click any of the links in this article, and fill out the contact form. We will be in touch as soon as possible.
The Franchise
Franchise businesses make up more than 10 percent of all U.S. businesses that have employees, according to a new survey. The survey, the 2007 Economic Census Franchise Report, is the result of cooperation between the U.S. Census Bureau and the International Franchise Association (IFA) and is the first detailed and comprehensive report on this segment of the U.S. economy.
The Census Bureau report was based on data collected from 4.3 million total businesses with paid employees. Of that number, 453,326 were either franchisee- or franchisor-owned businesses. The franchise businesses accounted for nearly $1.3 trillion of the $7.7 trillion in total sales for these industries, $153.7 billion of the $1.6 trillion in total payroll and 7.9 million workers out of a total work force of 59 million.
The concept of collecting this data was the result of a partnership between the Census Bureau and the IFA that focused on better measuring the role of franchising in the economy. Earlier economic censuses included a question on franchising for only two industries, limited service and full-service restaurants.
While franchise businesses like Subway and Mcdonal's may hold some appeal, it is a well known fact that actual franchising is expensive, and time resstrictive for the entrepreneur to build. Entering into a franchise with closed eyes may certainly lead to over work and over stress for the long term. There are franchise alternatives that are being seen as substantial income producers, while being far less expensive than the big money ones now available. Click the link in this article for more information.
