Family life is very hard to maintain at satisfactory levels in the modern world. As responsible spouses and parents, you try to ensure a good life with high quality education and all the advantages of modern technology and health care. This means either working in demanding jobs which keep you away from home all day long, or trying to open your own business. But as a new and beginner entrepreneur you will find out that you still have to spend most of your time and resources on figuring out how to run and grow your business. And if you fail, you put a massive strain on your entire family’s budget for a long time.
This introduction is not meant to discourage you and convince you that you have to be satisfied to the diminished family life you have right now. It is only meant to show that the traditional ways in which you thought you can blend family and business have a lot of weak points. Instead, you should learn more and try to embrace a specific and successful way of conducting your career: as a franchise owner.
Franchising is probably the most family-friendly way of running a business, working for yourself but not by yourself, and not risking your family’s financial future. Here are a few reasons why:
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A Franchised Business Keeps You at Home
Career opportunities can take you away from your home city, or even from your country. Business opportunities you have not really explored carefully will lead you to hopeless scouting of new locations to become successful, or at least where you can find a business partner.
Franchises are stable businesses, which are opened and run by you in your local community. When you apply for a franchise, the franchisor gives you an estimate of the earning potential of your territory or recommends you an area nearby. Since franchise agreements are signed for at least 5 or 10 years, this is a very stable business for people with families.
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You Receive a Ready-Made Business Model
The preparation to open a business is one of the most stressful periods in the life of any entrepreneur. They have to spend time thinking and planning, drafting business plans, and developing products and business processes. As a franchise owner, you receive all these ready planned, tested and proven to work successfully. Without the initial stress and with proper training, you can look forward with enthusiasm at running a business. And you can share this enthusiasm with your family, as well.
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You Can Get Your whole family Involved in Your Business
Franchised businesses have clearly defined roles for every job position. You will receive from the franchisor the exact number of employees you need, the skills and experience they must possess, and every other aspect related to managing personnel and daily operations.
Having these clear instructions, you can transfer part of your newly acquired knowledge to your spouse (and children when it’s time for them to get a job) and get them involved in helping you run the business with confidence and ease. This is a great way to maintain close family ties with the most important people in your life and create a good future for your family working together.
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You Do Not Risk Your Family’s Finances
Franchisors run large national or even international networks, and their main purpose is to expand their business and grow their brand name through successful and satisfied independent owners. Well-established franchises do not mean to take an arm and a leg from you if you do not manage to achieve this success and uphold the brand name to the expected standards. This is why franchised businesses have clear exit procedures, in which you can even get back a part of the investment you made when you bought the franchise.
As a parting thought, remember that buying a franchise and receiving assistance from the network do not replace your own dedication, hard work and diligence. It is a full time commitment and it does not buy you a long, carefree vacation from the regular working hours of any other career pursuit. However, it is less risky than betting all your money on an untested idea, or working in a job which is no longer satisfactory and fulfilling.