Franchisee – Franchiser Relationship

Many franchisees begin looking for a franchise with the attitude and ambition to startup your own business. Are you really starting your own business though?

No, you really aren’t. You are beginning a relationship with a franchiser where you get to use and extend the business model that they own and control. In reality, it really comes closer to resembling the relationship between a branch manager and corporate. Meaning that many major decisions will be forced on you and may or may not involve any input from you at all. Your local market can be helped or hurt by those decisions, however corporate the franchisor is looking nationwide and has more care about the brand as a whole rather than your own local profits. The biggest difference is that you are paying to get that job.

Do you, as the person wanting to start your own business want that relationship? The answer to this could very well be… yes! Many people desire guidance, desire major decisions to be handled by someone else, want structure and more dictated to them.

A true entrepreneur though may find this system way too controlling. If you have the ambition to start your own business, but maybe you lack the idea or you think a franchise will keep you from failing… ( If you think a franchise will keep you from failing read this : http://www.franchisespeak.com/top-ten-reasons-for-franchising ) … or maybe you even think that you really are starting your own business by franchising.

Well, read that UFOC, and examine it well. You’ll see that there is probably wording that also allows the franchiser to terminate your agreement for very vague reasonings. Showing that you can be fired as well. Does that sound like your idea of owning your own business? When you truly own your own business the only people that could fire you are the customers… by not showing up.

Also beware: the franchise broker you talk to may even play into those feelings and the emotion that goes into a major purchase like that. There was excellent article on fool.com today regarding the brains behind investing. Check it out here.

The summary though is that the “anticipation” of making money, is actually more rewarding than the “act” of making money. Meaning that when you’re in the market to purchase a franchise, you’re high on emotion and the ambition to make big money. Please do yourself a big favor and examine your personality and emotions to see if you’re even the kind of person who can handle someone else controlling what you thought was “your business“.