It’s definitely a tricky time when you want to start up in a new business venture. Most of us don’t do it and rely on an employer to pay our salaries and see us through to pensionable age . Currently , though, there is definitely a new breed of entrepreneur , and this spirit is becoming much more common throughout the workforce. It’s much more widely accepted that the job for life days have gone and in the current environment it’s increasingly necessary to cater for your own future.
Generous final salary pension pots aren’t what they used to be and employers aren’t maintaining these sort of benefits as they perhaps did in the past. The plain message is that the job for life way of thinking that was prevalent in the country during the 60’s and 70’s is not as available as it was so we are all looking at other ways of paying the bills.
After a career for perhaps a single corporation for most of your career, it’s something of a challenge to make the break into self employment and it may be that it’s a good idea turning to the Franchise For Sale market to get that nearly instant business, a turnkey venture if you please .
Franchises in general seem to come in two models . Firstly there is the owner operator model by which a business person would have the day to day responsibility of many aspects of the Franchises operations. These Franchise For Sale packages are popular and are, in many people’s mind, the ideal way to set up a small business after a career in permanent employment. Quite often these sort of deals follow a proven format and could come in the form of a Home Based Franchise, or traditional man plus van type Franchises where the owner/operator runs a Home Based Franchise , using his or her home as a base for making mobile deliveries, travelling to patrons premises to perform the Franchises service etc. In this type of franchise model the owner would have a direct involvement with the customer and would be seen by the client to do the work, usually . An example would be a mobile tyre repair franchise where the owner would travel to, say, out of town industrial estates to fit tyres at a client’s workplace.
Less well known are the management type of Franchises where the business owner is expected to do such work as find new targeted leads, liaise with existing clients and oversee a small team of employees who will physically do the work that comprises the franchise concept. A simple example here is an office cleaning franchise. The owners task would be managing the team , finding new customers and dealing with PAYE, vehicles etc. The owner would not be involved in the cleaning work at anything other than a supervisory level and the job would be more akin, and possibly more suited to, a traditional manager’s role.
As a whole answering a Franchise For Sale advert will result in a rapid contact from the franchisor as they are generally eager to get you on board if you fit their franchisee profile, and you would expect to clear up with the franchisor at this stage whether they expect you to perform the functions of the franchise as an owner/operator, or whether they expect you to run a team of employees to do the work whilst you control the business, a typical management franchise profile.
Making your mind up about the format of the franchise that you will take out is not at all straightforward but its important the make your mind up early on about whether you want to be the person who performs the service that the franchise relates to or whether you would prefer to be in a management position controlling the business but not actually performing the service.