Starting anything new, a new job, moving to a new city or starting a new business, can create fear. Today, more than ever, people are wanting to work for themselves by being a business owner but are afraid to start. Entrepreneur magazine wrote an article, “10 Fears You Must Overcome When Starting a New Business.” They are:
- Not knowing where to start
- No being an expert
- Being considered crazy
- Not finding funding
- Not being believed in
- Not attracting customers
- Being incapable of handling success
- Failing the family
- Not earning enough to recover an investment
- Discovering everything goes wrong
One need only to look at franchising as a way to overcome these fears.
- Work with a franchise expert to help get you started. They will work with you to understand your unique skills and goals. They will have tools that can help match you with the right franchise.
- With a franchise, there is no need to be an expert to get started. When you buy a franchise, you will be getting a proven system for success and will be provided all the training needed to get started.
- With a franchise, you will not be the only crazy one. You will be join a group of business owners who have concurred their fears, taken risks and lived to tell about it.
- A franchise is more attractive to the SBA. According to SCORE, a nonprofit resource partner of the SBA, franchise loan applications are looked upon more favorably by the SBA than a loan application for an independent startup.
- Working with a franchise gives you credibility from day one. You are joining a system with proven success.
- A franchise has already performed the heavy lifting of where to find customers. You will reap the benefits of learning from their mistakes. They know where to find the customers.
- As your grow to startup to a mature successful franchise, you will have the support and training from the franchisor and fellow franchises. They will work with you to manage the success of being a business owner.
- As with any business, family support is important. They will find comfort that the risk you are taking is minimized by buy a franchise compared to venturing out on you own.
- Wouldn’t it be great to talk to others about their experience before make a life decision? With a franchise, you will do just that. You will perform your due diligence by calling other franchise owners who will share with you their experiences and how much they are making. Many franchises will have an Item 19 in their Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) that will show you your earning potential.
- This is the real world. Starting a business can be a risk. You can open your doors and two weeks later a 100 year flood wipes everything away. Or you can open and experience the best two weeks for any franchise in the system. No matter what happens, you will have the support of the franchise to help you.