Work from home with a Franchise Business
Joel Caws - Technical Director, Select Your Franchise
There are many reasons why we might want to work from home. The most common is likely to be young families that have to juggle family duties, such as school runs, with the need to earn a living. For others it might simply be the Utopian idea of not being answerable to anyone but themselves and being able to work at the times that suit them.
The downside of this is of course the danger that home life could take over your work time. It calls for a very disciplined approach in order to separate your work time from your home life. But for those that can successfully manage this work-life vs. home-life tension, it can provide a great compromise. Some of the qualities you will need to run a business from home are:
- Flexibility -The ability to juggle home life and business and deal with interruptions
- Focus & Discipline – It is vitally important that you can be disciplined enough to protect your work time from distractions and maintain focus on your work.
- Determination – A high sense of commitment and drive to succeed will ride you through the more difficult times which every developing business goes through.
The second challenge is of course having a business idea or model that can work successfully as a home based business.
If you have your own ideas then you will have a good starting point for developing your own business. You will, though, be faced with the challenges of trying and testing your business idea, making inevitable mistakes, and fine-tuning your business model to make sure the mistakes don’t happen again. Providing you can withstand the associated cost of any mistakes, you could end up with a sound business.
For those who find that prospect a little daunting, there is another way of starting up a home based business which can remove some of the pain. A franchise business is one that was started up like any other business, has had its share of mistakes and has been fine-tuned to the point where it’s become a proven and profitable business. Some business owners decide to ‘franchise’ their business at this point. This is similar to licensing the business in that other aspiring business owners can take on the proven business model and brand and run the new business.
If you are interested in finding out more about how a franchise could help you start up your own work from home business, you can check out our home based franchises section as a starting point.
Tags: franchise, home based franchise, joel caws, work from home, work from home franchises, working from home
Internet Franchises can make great Work from Home businesses
Joel Caws - Technical Director, Select Your Franchise
It seems not a day goes by that I don’t have at least one email drop into my inbox promising a new way to make money from home. Not surprisingly the attraction is obvious:-
- Appeals to those with home commitments such as young familes or family members that need constant care.
- Work from the comfort of your own from home.
- Administer your own time. You can work daytime, evening, night, whatever suits your lifestyle.
- Every penny you earn is yours to keep (Once costs and tax are taken out of course!
).
No surprise then that home based business opportunities are rife on the internet, simply because they draw us to a more desirable life-style. Of course, not all of the ‘opportunities’ will be kosher. So the challenge is, how can you know what will make a good work from home opportunity?
Well, if you understand that working hard is a major factor to making a business work, then there are some decent internet based opportunities to be found within franchising. Most of these franchises fall into 2 categories and are targeted for the most part at commercial buyers:-
Web Marketing Franchise opportunities
These are ultimately providing web site marketing services to businesses for example web site design or search engine optimisation.
Business Directory Franchises
With more and more people online, the web is becoming an ever more important element to local businesses in order to be seen in their community. Web based business directories provide advertising to local businesses via a high profile website within their local area. Purchasers consequently are mainly the local business owners.
The good thing about looking for a franchise opportunity when compared side by side with other business start-ups are that they should be based upon a proven business concept. The franchise owner has proven the business idea can work and can be profitable. All that remains is for you to commit yourself to that franchise system in the same way the franchise owner did with their original businesses. On top of that, a franchise ordinarily carries support and training so that you are fully clued up with how the franchise business is intended to operate.
The work from home factor of an Internet franchise opportunity can provide a great deal of overall flexibility. Should you have a young family it could allow you to deal with your time and business at the time it most closely fits your schedule. Running costs can be kept low as there is no necessity to rent dedicated trade space. Naturally you have to consider the operating times of your potential clients when considering the best times to carry out your work.
After you have thought through what time of work will suit you best to enable you to work from home, remember that it takes a good deal of hard work to succeed in running any business. With the most suitable home based franchise together with your hard work and dedication, you could well be running a successful internet franchise opportunity from your own home.
Working from Home Opportunities: Sorting the Wheat from the Chaff
Joel Caws - Technical Director, Select Your Franchise
We have all seen the Ads which go something like… make thousands without even leaving your own front door. If I had a pound for every email I’ve had which goes something along those lines I’d probably be a very rich man indeed! Unfortunately, the vast majority of these ‘opportunities’ turn out to networking or pyramid schemes which benefit those at the top at the expense of those who sign up further down the line. They promise much, sound plausible, but very often fail to deliver.
So how can you sort the wheat from the chaff? What will stop you buying a bad egg? Here’s a couple of things to look out for that may give you cause for alarm when looking at different business opportunities:-
- Does the opportunity claim to require minimal work in return for huge amounts of cash? (With no real information on how you will make money).
- Does the opportunity have clear direct contact details? (i.e. phone number and real address, not a PO Box)
- Will they happily give you contact details of real people who are already being successful running the business that you can speak to as references?
- Do they seem interested in your suitability for running their business? Or are they more interested in whether you have the money to invest?
And here’s a number of things that may indicate an opportunity that’s worth checking out further:-
- A proven and documented business model (such as a franchise business)
- A willingness to be transparent about how they operate and be able to show clearly how you will make money
- A willingness to provide references, i.e. other business people who are already running the business or franchise, so that you can verify their claims
- A willingness to invite you to see their company offices/setup to verify they are a bonafide outfit with support and training systems in place
Of course, ultimately you will have to trust your gut instinct and make sure you do as much background checking as possible. Don’t be bought by big promises especially when there appears to be sketchy evidence to back it up. Investing in any business is not without risk, and if in doubt its best to seek professional advice.
This is where a good franchise system can really help. A franchise should be built around a proven business model, provide a good level of backup and support and should have no problem providing references of successful franchises who are already trading and running their own businesses.
Whatever you choose, whether it be franchised or non-franchised, be prepared to work hard to make it succeed. I have yet to come across a business which truly provides money for doing virtually nothing.
A good rule of thumb to bear in mind is: If it seems too good to be true… then it probably is!
Tags: franchise, franchise business, home based business, joel caws, work from home, working from home
