The BIGG Successs Show
Keep Your Job Or Buy A Franchise?
We answer a question from a member who's considering a bigg change. Read the show summary at biggsuccess.com.
Welcome to The Big Success Show. Today, we'll discuss if you should keep your job or buy a franchise. The Big Success Show, with George and Mary Lynn. More and more people are starting their own business and one of our members is considering doing just that, she wants to buy a franchise. Ellen emailed us with her big challenge. She's been the number two executive in a small business for years. But she and her husband are thinking about buying a franchise and she has a few questions. First of all, what would be the right franchise and second of all, would it be worth it? Because it does take a while to get a franchise off the ground and she's only 10 years away from retirement. Well, Ellen, you asked some good questions and to have a lot of questions at this point is pretty normal, but Mary Lynn, we better dive right into this thing. Definitely. So, George, let's start with how does she find a franchise that's right? Well, obviously, that's a very personal decision and so we can't really give you that much advice on it, but let's talk about a few guidelines. First, look internally. What's your expertise and what are your interests? And then also look externally. Where is the opportunity and so what you're trying to do is match the internal and the external. So, is there a place that she can go to get more information? Man Mary Lynn, there are an immense number of places. There's one I highly recommend and that's the International Franchise Association. It's the trade group for franchise orders and franchisees. We did an article titled "How to Buy a Franchise" that links to their page where you can search for franchises and it also links to a great resource that they published and it takes you through a step-by-step process when it comes to buying franchises. It is a fantastic document, Mary Lynn. It's just amazingly exhaustive. Definitely will help you when you get to the point of doing due diligence, but their site is not as friendly as another great resource. Every year, Entrepreneur Magazine publishes the franchise 500. And we have a link to their most current list on our blog today at BigSuccess.com. And you've probably heard of the Fortune 500. This is very similar to that. They rank franchises by their quality and they've been doing this for years. It's very user-friendly, but you can see a ranking of franchises by categories. Right. Like restaurants, business services, personal care services, recreation, on and on and on. Yeah. And another thing that I like is they also have lists of the top new franchises, the top lowest cost franchises, the top home-based franchises, the fastest growing franchises. It's just an amazing resource. Right. So there you go, Ellen. That's a great place for you to get started and do some research. And coming up, we're going to tackle her second question. Today, we're answering a question from Ellen, and she's a member of our audience, and she has a great job. She's also got an itch to do something more. And she and her husband are considering buying a franchise. We're going to get into the second part of Ellen's question here, because she's going to retire in about 10 years, and she's concerned that if she quits her job to buy a franchise, that there may not be enough time to build it up before she retires. So, you know, she doesn't want to be working 15 years from now, 20 years from now, when she's looking at retirement in 10. She doesn't want to pay off another house, is what you're saying. Pretty much, yeah. Well, I understand, Ellen, that buying a franchise just like any business, there is nothing certain. You definitely have to take a chance. Or, as we say in the finance world, our term for it is risk, but you can minimize that risk. We've talked about minimizing risk on the big success show before. Successful entrepreneurs are good at that. So use the resources we've provided, do some homework, come up with some projections and see if it's going to be worth it for you. Yeah, and from this due diligence, you're going to have those projections. And, Marylin, you know what another term for projections is. We call it swag. Isn't that what the stars get when they present at the Oscars? Well, that may be true, but swag means it's an acronym for scientific wild-ass guests. And I love that term because it really does kind of tell you clearly what it is. We're guessing, but hopefully we're scientific about it. And the point is you can't project the future. So build a lot of fudge into your guesstimates. And Ellen, we've noticed that you've painted in either or picture with your question here that you've either got to keep your job or buy a franchise, but maybe you have other options. Yeah, you mentioned your husband and we don't really know his situation from your email. Could he run this business? And then that way you can keep your job. Or if neither one of you can take this thing on full-time, consider bringing in a partner and sent him or her, maybe give him a share of the profits, all the way up to maybe even an ownership stake. Obviously, if you do that, you'll have less upside. Yeah, but a lot less downside too. And this really minimizes the risk and you're still on track for your retirement in 10 years. That's right. And thank you, Ellen, so much for sharing your big challenge with us. We hope you find our advice helpful. And if you have a big challenge you'd like us to tackle, go to our website at bigsuccess.com and email us. That's also where we have a written summary of today's show with all of those great resource links that we mentioned in the show today. And before we go, let's get our big quote for the day. Our quote today is from about 2,000 years ago. Jeez. The Roman philosopher Seneca said, "It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It's because we dare not venture that they are difficult." You have to look at the downside. But if you spend too much time focusing on that, you'll never enjoy the upside. Speaking of upside, Mary Lynn, next time we're going to share some new research that's come out. And it shows that happiness is overrated. Yeah, put that smile off your face. And until then, here's to your big success. The Big Success Show at B-I-G-G Success.com. [MUSIC] [MUSIC]