There are over 3,000 different franchises available in the United States that fall under five general categories. If you’ve always wanted to start your own franchise but don’t know where to start, here are a couple of potential ideas that will help you figure out what to do.
Retail
Retail franchises are an incredibly popular type of franchise. This refers to the method of opening a store based on a particular name, branding, trademark, and product of an existing business. These kinds of businesses attract customers to them, rather than needing to go out to the customers and find them. As a retail franchise owner, you may own more than one store, also called multi-unit franchises. Common retail franchises include pharmacies or fashion franchise opportunities.
Food Service
Food service is what usually comes to mind when people hear about franchises. The biggest franchises include chains like KFC, Dairy Queen, and Subway. This is a common choice for beginning franchise owners since they have a low failure rate. It’s one of the more costly franchise types since you won’t just be paying a franchise fee. Places like McDonald’s or Taco Bell require at least $750,000 in personal funds and assets to open a restaurant. Meanwhile, your net worth should be at least $1.5 million to open a KFC store. If you already have the funds, though, it can be quite lucrative. As you’ll already be associating with a popular business — and you won’t need to cover the costs of advertising, marketing, product development, and quality control — it’s quite a safe choice.
Children’s Services
Children’s services cater to entertainment or educational services for children. These franchises are quite in-demand since parents will generally spend their money quite freely when it comes to their children. Common examples include tutoring centers like Kumon, learning centers, day cares, and play centers. Children’s birthday party locations are also a popular kind of children’s service.
Personal Services
Personal services offer services to individuals to assist them in fulfilling certain daily activities. These can come in the form of maids and handyman services like those offered by Mr. Handyman. Other examples include fitness services, health services, spa services, travel agencies, and hair and beauty care. You won’t need to sell a product or experience, but you will have to depend heavily on employees and an extensive hiring process. This sector of franchising caters mostly to busy families and individuals as well as senior citizens. Elderly citizens often need a senior home and house care as opposed to going to a nursing home.
Business-to-Business
Business-to-business (B2B) franchises sell products or services to companies or business owners. Rather than hiring more staff to handle certain tasks, it’s more cost-effective for businesses to invest in outsourcing services that B2B franchises provide. You can also invest in home-based franchises that offer anything from accounting to coaching services. Consulting is a common form of B2B. Examples of consulting services include IT consulting, sales consulting, insurance, marketing, and payroll.
Let franchising be in your future with these interesting franchise businesses. The time-tested methods provided by franchises will allow you to reap the benefits of having a business without much risk. A well-planned and well-executed franchise business is as lucrative as it is rewarding.
