Franchising Your Home Business

A Home Business Article Contributed by Jenni Mckinney

Home Business Franchise: What is It?

If you are one of the thousands of people who are interested in starting your own home business, but feel that you do not want to start from scratch, you may be interested in purchasing a franchise. A franchise means that someone else has started a home business and has paid all the up front costs involved including licensing, creating, trademarking, and marketing their goods or services, and they are willing now to offer you a piece of the action for a fraction of the cost.

Think of McDonald's and Subway restaurants -- they are franchises of the original McDonald's and Subway restaurants, except that they just are not operated from someone's home.

Home Business Franchise: Do Your Research

If you have a particular home business franchise in mind, you will benefit greatly from doing a little preliminary research prior to making any decisions. The first and foremost is to research the success of the parent company -- are its products or services well-known already? Does the company have a publicly acknowledged reputation for quality? Does the company offer any type of training for new franchisees?

Does the company have a business plan that includes ways to keep the company growing, or does the plan equate selling a franchise with success? In addition, you will want to see if you can find out how many of the franchises out there have been unsuccessful and what the reasons where. See if you can locate and contact previous franchise owners as well as current ones to determine how the company rates in their first-hand experience.

Finally, it is important to know what the company's policy is on location -- will you have exclusive home business franchise territory guaranteed, or would your neighbors also be qualified to purchase a franchise, thus cutting your range of operations?

Home Business Franchise: Helpful Hints

Be sure that you are going to enjoy your franchised home business on a daily basis. If you are not sure how well you will like it, consider working for a time at someone else's home business franchise to get your feet wet. In other words, try before you buy, because almost every single start-up business, even a franchise, requires a significant investment of time up front, from 40 to 80 hours a week at first.

Make sure your budget is in order and can handle the strain of a few months with little income. Every new business, even a franchise, requires time to attract a loyal customer base. It is best to run all the numbers with a certified public accountant before you make the final purchase, and be sure to have some back up funds, like credit cards and personal loans, in case your franchise business doesn't do as well as forecasted.

Finally, be sure to choose a home business franchise that has the greatest room for success. Some of the hottest franchises include advertising services, in-home hair salons, telecommunications, temporary staffing services, and direct mail processing.