Building a business has never been easy and often requires years of dedication and hard work. For a successful business owner, being a boss can be exciting but stressful at the same time. It’s a time filled with the freedom to make your own choices; create the life you want. However, it can also be scary to make the leap from employee to employer. But the big question is, do you want to start your dream business from scratch, or leverage the success of a franchise brand?

Now, you might be wondering; what is a Franchise Business? A franchise is a business opportunity that allows the franchisee to start a business by legally using someone else’s (the franchisor’s) expertise, ideas, and processes, in return for a combination of a flat fee, plus fees based on profits or sales.

According to research, there are over 41.5 million enterprises in Nigeria. An estimated 80% of these new businesses, however, fail within the first five years, due to common and familiar challenges. However, it is proven that only 15% of franchised businesses fail, compared to the 80% failure rate among other independent businesses. Further, several countries, both developed and emerging, have embraced the franchise concept as a method of creating job opportunities. According to the International Franchise Association (IFA) report, franchises create an economic output of $1.6 trillion and account for 5.8% of the U.S. GDP.  Elsewhere, in a comparable economy like South Africa, franchises generate over 12% of the country’s GDP. Amazing!  isn’t it?

Interestingly, unlike starting your own business from scratch, buying into a successful franchise business comes with exciting benefits which include the following:

  1. Training and Support:

Unlike independent businesses, franchise business owners enjoy the freedom of being their own bosses while leveraging the support and training provided by the franchisor. The franchisor provides you and your team with initial training programs which cover areas such as product knowledge, operating procedures, merchandising, advertising, etc., as well as ongoing supports to ensure you succeed. Little wonder Tom Scarda, founder of The Franchise Academy had said “A franchise is a business with training wheels”.

  1. Brand Recognition.

Franchising helps lend a competitive edge to your business as opposed to start-ups. Leveraging the success and recognition of a franchise business significantly reduces the stress of building your customer fan base from zero, which in turn, increases your chances of success. As a new business, one of the biggest struggles is finding customers. However, investing in a successful franchise brand solves that problem.

  1. You are starting on a well-established model

Unlike starting from scratch and experimenting with different strategies and methods, Franchising provides you with already tested and trusted operational methods and procedures. Hence, you wouldn’t have to re-invent the wheel.

  1. Access to market research

One of the franchisor’s main responsibilities is to develop marketing research and standards for promoting the franchise brand; improving the products and services and ensuring that the franchise business remains relevant, sustainable, competitive, and profitable.

  1. Business Relationship

As a franchisee, you are a business partner and an ambassador of the franchise brand. Hence, you enjoy and have access to network with other franchisees in the franchise business, amongst others.

  1. Reduced cost of marketing

By leveraging an already successful franchise business, you would not need to spend so much on marketing and advertisement as compared to an independent business owner.

  1. High Purchasing power

Having operated the business for a long time, the franchisor has a list of approved vendors who are trusted with product and service quality. Hence, the franchisees not only have access to quality products and services but also affordability.

Are you excited? Take the next step, call your franchise plug; call FBDS Nigeria today.