By Mary Sauer

If you dream of being your own boss and running your own business, a franchise might be the perfect option for you. Opening a franchise is a unique approach for entrepreneurs who are ready to step into business ownership, but do not have the time or resources to build their own business from the ground up. Here are the top reasons why you should consider this strategic business move.

A Franchise Provides the Security of a History of Profitability

While opening a franchise does not guarantee your success, there is more stability when you work with a business that has already shown to be profitable in other areas of your city or state. Before opening your new franchise, you can take a look at the history of the company, how it has performed in certain regions, and what strategies have led to the most success.

Rely on an Operational Model that has Been Tested Through Trial and Error

Sometimes the most challenging aspects of running a business are the small, everyday details like hiring and training employees or managing your finances. When you open a franchise, you are typically provided with an operational model for running the business. The policies and procedures provided to you are typically a required aspect of complying with the franchise guidelines. They are also detailed and exact, including physical resources like training manuals, daily checklists, and more to make your day-to-day life simple.

Benefit From Working Under an Established Brand

Marketing a business is time consuming and expensive. This is especially true if you are trying to create a brand and a name for your business from scratch. When you work with a franchise, the brand is already established. The company you are working with has spent a lot of time and money building a reputation for their brand. In many cases, the reputation alone will be enough to bring your first customers to your door.

Access to Equipment and Products at a Negotiated Rate

When you first begin a new business, you will spend a lot of time locating the equipment and products you need, as well as negotiating prices and looking for reputable vendors you can build a long term relationship with. If your business is a franchise, the owners of the brand have already done the legwork for you. Typically, they are also able to secure lower rates because the businesses in their brand order large quantities of the same product.

Receive Guidance and Support With Construction and Design

At Modernize, we understand how important the aesthetic of your business is to creating an environment your customers will love, and enticing them to visit again. When you work with an established brand, they have already tested the look and feel of the both the exterior and interior of their businesses to determine what achieves the best response from customers. They lend support and guidance to new franchises, connecting them with the right designers and suppliers to mimic the brand’s established look.

Opening a franchise is an exciting and life changing decision. If you are considering taking the leap, resources like The Franchise Mall www.thefranchisemall.com can help you explore the wide variety of franchise options out there, so you can weigh the pros and cons of each business venture.

In this article Maggie Overfelt starts out stating there are many household names that most of us recognize in franchising. We all know about them. Many of us don’t realize most franchises are names we have not heard of, or didn’t realize they are, in fact, franchises. Maggie goes on to give examples of some of the franchises and those who have succeeded with them: 3 restaurants, which make up a great majority of franchises, and 5 other segments, the number of which just keeps getting larger, as entrepreneurs try to capitalize on the concept that has worked for them.

The concept has worked for them because they worked hard to make the concept profitable. This does not usually come easily.

If you like a concept and you think it feels right for you, don’t think that buying into the concept is the be-all and end-all: that you can just put your money down and it will work for you. You still have to work at the concept to make it work for you. Do your homework before buying into a franchise. Talk to other franchisees. Get a feel for their hardships. They’ve been there and can relate to you how the franchise worked for them. Then you can judge whether you can make the franchise work for you.

The bonus of buying into a franchise is, it worked for someone else, and it can work for you, IF YOU WORK AT IT.

The franchiser is there to help you with decisions they have likely made in the past.

You are your own boss, but you are not alone.

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BY Maggie Overfelt | FROM CNBC

McDonald’s, Popeyes, Domino’sPizza, and Dunkin’ Brandsare all part of a growing contingent on Main Street that is poised for growth this year. The franchising industry has become an integral part of the American economy, contributing 3.5 percent of U.S. GDP, or $472 billion. It’s expected to create more jobs and grow faster than the rest of the private sector in 2014, according to research conducted by IHS Global Insight for the International Franchise Association Educational Foundation.

Overall, the number of franchise categories is expanding into nearly every nook and cranny in the marketplace. Here we profile entrepreneurs who have reaped millions by carving a toehold in novel market niches where they could leverage their skills and past experiences and capitalize on some big trends in the U.S. economy–from doggie day care and mosquito exterminators to shipping depots. Read on to learn lessons from eight franchise owners who have moved beyond–some well beyond–the million-dollar annual sales mark.

Image credit: Capriotti’s

Kelly Gwinn, Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop

Working for Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop is all Kelly Gwinn, 45, has ever known. “I started at the first location when I was old enough to see over the counter,” said Gwinn, whose aunt and uncle launched the company as a one-shop turkey sandwich place in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1976.

Gwinn worked as part of the franchise company’s corporate staff, but after a few years in, “I missed being in the stores; I missed the customers; I missed that environment–that’s where the action and the fun is,” Gwinn said.

It wasn’t until eight years after Gwinn bought her first Las Vegas shop in 2002 that she found the one with the growth potential she wanted: an existing shop across town located near the University of Nevada. After selling her first shop to finance the purchase, Gwinn moved to be closer to tourists, across the street from the Hard Rock Hotel. Today her customer traffic is twofold: a steady stream of regulars–many of them college students–and tourists. Since 2012, Gwinn’s shop stays open 24 hours to cater to the city’s nightlife and recording nearly $1.2 million in annual sales.

How she pulled together start-up capital: (Capriotti’s charges a one-time $40,000 franchise fee; the company estimates it costs anywhere from $197,000 to $607,500 to open one of its stores.) “I took advantage of the generous mortgage and housing market at the time, and luckily the brand was strong enough to have made it through the recession.”

The hardest part of being founder/CEO: “Location. Right now there are so many chains and so many franchise brands out there that it’s tough to find a spot that you can maximize.”

Source: Capriotti’s

Image credit: Zaxby’s

Sterling Coleman, Zaxby’s

Coleman owns seven locations of Zaxby’s, the Southern chicken fingers and wings chain.

His first shop, just outside Atlanta, which hit $1.5 million in sales its first year and $2.8 million last year, doubles as a manager training center for Zaxby’s corporate. Coleman’s most recent location opened last July and is on track to pull in $4 million this year. While Coleman has toyed with buying into other food franchises, he’s sticking with Zaxby’s for now, hoping to expand into Oklahoma City and Dallas soon.

“Even in tough economic times, Zaxby’s showed flat to 1 percent growth. That says a tremendous amount of how stable the brand is,” Coleman said.

How he pulled together start-up capital: (Zaxby’s charges an initial franchise fee of $35,000 and an ongoing royalty charge of 6 percent of weekly sales.) “I saved my bonus checks and put up my home for collateral–a tremendous amount of saving hard-earned cash to get a loan.” (Coleman worked as a sales rep for Sara Lee, Frito-Lay and Prestone before buying his first franchise.)

The hardest part of being founder/CEO: “When you go from one store where you’re the manager to opening up multiple stores, it’s having the right people that you can bring in and trust–people who see your vision and [can fit into] the same culture that you already have within your organization.”

Image credit: BrightStar Care

Jeff Tews and Susan Rather, BrightStar Care

With their market exploding, thanks in part to aging baby boomers, Tews and his wife–based in Madison, Wisconsin–have grown their venture into a 32-employee operation with five locations, 500 caregivers and $9 million in annual sales. And, according to Tews, 62, gross profits are growing at about 38 percent to 40 percent a year–enough so that he and Rather, 53, are able to take weeks off at a time to bike around the U.S., where the two stay connected to work via email at rest stops.

How they pulled together start-up capital: (BrightStar charges an initial franchise fee of $48,000.) “[I used] $100,000 worth of personal investment and my severance, which carried us into the next year, when we broke even–we didn’t pay ourselves a salary at first.” Tew had 30 years’ managerial experience in telecom and banking before being laid off by U.S. Bank in 2006.

The hardest part of being founder/CEO: “When we disappoint the customer. We have 500 field employees, and we rely on our nine customer-care managers to manage those folks, which means we’re not touching [customers] directly. The key is finding people who make sure their standards are upheld and make sure the employees have the compassion that’s so needed in this business.”

Source: BrightStar Care

Image credit: Scott Douglas

Scott Douglas, Mellow Mushroom

It took Mellow Mushroom a month to call Douglas in for a franchisee interview, and once his finances were approved, it took another year or so to scout, lease and open his pizzeria, which sits in the retail-heavy Carytown district near downtown Richmond. But it’s a business that pulled in $3 million in sales his first year.

“It’s a grittier location with an older demographic–we fit in well here,” said Douglas. “The space was an old record store that had a great history of selling music. We play up the vinyl.”

From its opening in May 2013 throughout the summer, the pizza joint was waiting-list only. Douglas, who burned out on a life in the Fortune 500 world before taking a chance on the franchise, works almost every day wherever he’s needed–fixing the air-conditioning, sharpening pizza cutters and mopping.

How he pulled together start-up capital: (Mellow Mushroom charges an initial $50,000 franchise fee.) “I put money away for 20 years. Around 2008, when I started researching Mellow Mushroom, capital was tight, banks weren’t lending, but I found one particular bank that was more receptive. It had helped finance 10 other Mellow Mushroom deals, so it knew how profitable [the opportunity] could be.”

The hardest part of being founder/CEO: “Besides deciding which of the 40 beers we have on tap to take home at night? Getting my employees to do things the way I want them. Much of my staff gets paid $7.25 an hour, and it’s hard to get them to care–it’s just myself and a general manager babysitting and making sure the 60 or so kids we have working there are doing things right.”

Ted Arnoldus, Unishippers

Ted Arnoldus, who left the Fortune 500 world for a position at Unishippers–which creates custom shipping and logistics solutions for businesses–helped double the business’ sales over five years. In 2009 Arnoldus found an opportunity to be his own boss: He approached a Unishippers owner in Salt Lake City, bought a majority stake of the business and moved his family to Utah. To increase sales at his new post, Arnoldus focused on increasing his firm’s small-package revenue stream, a less volatile market than pallet shipping and freight. He also leveraged his “wish list” sales strategy, where he would meet one one one with his clients and close each meeting by asking them if they knew anyone on his “wish list” of corporations that he could reach out to in order to persuade them to move their business to Unishippers.

Landing Larry H. Miller Automotive Operations–whose parent company owns the Utah Jazz–helped get Arnoldus’ sales to where they are today: $5 million, up from $700,000, when he bought 80 percent of the business five years ago.

How he pulled together start-up capital: (Unishippers charges a one-time franchise fee of $30,000 for a new location, or $7,200 times the size of the territory for an existing franchise.) “I had some of my own money, and I also had two IRAs and a 401(k). Now I don’t hold any security accounts–they’re 100 percent invested in Unishippers.”

The hardest part of being founder/CEO: “Staying focused on what the business actually needs from me and learning to delegate noncritical functions. I could sit down and reorganize a filing cabinet, but [more importantly] I have to be the guardian of the culture and run the sales side–that’s the one piece I can’t outsource.”

Source: Ted Arnoldus

Dan, Mike and Rick Gilbert, Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores

Sears may be on the wrong side of the retail industry as a publicly traded company, but it’s been good to the Gilbert brothers as a franchise model. (Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores, which separated from Sears Holdings in 2012, has four store formats: Three are franchises, and one is dealer-owned.)

Dan Gilbert turned a casual conversation with a sales association into a $32 million-a-year business for him and his brothers. Sales are up 43 percent since they bought their first store after that conversation in their hometown of Downers Grove, Illinois, last May. The brothers say their strategy of hiring employees who knew how to fix most hardware problems—unlike the staff at competitors’ stores—is key.

“A guy would bring in his lawn mower that wouldn’t start. Rather than sending it out for repair, we’d take it in the back and fix it, knowing that at some point he’d be back to buy the $3,000 fridge,” said Gilbert.

Sears approached the brothers about buying other stores, and within a year they bought 13, negotiating with Sears to lower the down payments. All are located within a three-hour drive from their flagship so the brothers can regularly visit all the stores “and be home before dinnertime,” said Gilbert.

How they pulled together start-up capital: (Sears charges a franchise fee that ranges from $3,375 to $94,500.) For the first store, the brothers had enough in savings between them to buy it. They use profits from existing stores for down payments on new locations, then Sears helps finance the rest of the cost.

The hardest part of being founder/CEO: “I think for Rick and I, it was the realization that you can love tools and love hardware and want to be in the store doing stuff, but as a businessman, there’s so much more to do. We didn’t have a good grasp on that part of it. Insurance, workman’s compensation, hiring and firing people—that kind of stuff was a real challenge for me.”

Source: Gilbert Brothers Hardware

Damien Sanchez, Mosquito Squad

For Damien Sanchez, accepting a job as a career firefighter in suburban Washington, D.C., in 2006 was about escaping California, where he had worked for 10 years as a wildland firefighter for the federal government. It also gave him a chance to make a smart “moonlighting” investment.

“I had just sold my house at the top of the market in California; I had some money,” said Sanchez, 36, who figured that the timing of shifts afforded by his new day job—he often has a few days off in a row—could work well with running a side business.

A friend was looking to buy a Mosquito Squad franchise. After researching the opportunity, he decided that the swampy terrain of northern Virginia, where “there is no part of the day where there’s not a mosquito biting,” made sense. So in 2008 Sanchez ordered a second cell phone, a new pickup truck and a five-by-five storage unit for his launch.

The first year, when it was just himself spraying lawns, he made less than $100,000. After struggling a bit with expansion decisions—debating spending capital on office/sales staff versus another fieldworker—Sanchez’s business more than doubled the second year. By the fourth year, after having hired enough fieldworkers to focus more on managing the company, he hit $1 million in sales for the first time.

Today, Sanchez’s Mosquito Squad has 15 trucks, 25 employees and is on track to hit $2.5 million in revenue by the end of the year.

How he pulled together start-up capital: (Mosquito Squad charges an initial franchise fee of $25,000.) Living off his full-time firefighter salary, Sanchez used money from the sale of his California home to finance his launch.

The hardest part of being founder/CEO: “Knowing what’s needed at each stage of the business. When you’re under $100,000 in sales, it’s all about hard work, but the second stage, it’s all about marketing. Knowing how to manage that and when and where to make those transitions, which can be very bumpy, is tough.”

Michelle Bryson and Heidi Duffy, Camp Bow Wow

Americans spent $55.7 billion on their pets in 2013, according to the American Pet Products Association. Buying a business that caters to dog owners seemed like a good idea to Michelle Bryson, an entrepreneur, and Heidi Duffy, who previously worked in the veterinary science pharmaceutical research industry.

“Even during the economic downturn, the pet industry wasn’t suffering,” said Duffy, who pooled her savings with longtime friend Bryson in 2009 to license the Camp Bow Wow name and infrastructure. (Camp Bow Wow helps new franchisees design and build their doggie day-care centers using its patented corral systems.) “And housing dogs in play areas that are social instead of kenneling them was something that, as dog owners, attracted us,” Duffy said.

The company, which hosts 50 dogs on slow days and 150 a day during peak summer months, has pulled in about $1 million in sales each year it has been in business. Catering to dog owners who work long hours and Jersey Shore vacationers, Bryson, 49, and Duffy, 53, grow their firm via constant grassroots marketing. A staffer attends five to seven petcentric networking events a week, they hold dog-awareness seminars in schools, and they target places like real estate offices and cleaning-service headquarters, where they’re likely to connect with people who need to place their dogs for the day.

How they pulled together start-up capital: (Camp Bow Wow charges a one-time licensing fee of $50,000, plus an ongoing royalty and marketing fee.) They pooled their savings and applied for an SBA loan. “It wasn’t a hard process—we knew exactly what we needed to do,” said Bryson.

The hardest part of being founder/CEO: “Handling so many employees,” said Duffy. “It’s very physical; you’re not just playing with dogs all day long, you’re feeding and cleaning—the most grueling part of the job. Monitoring the large volume of dogs we have here every day isn’t easy, either.”

Source: Michelle Bryson

There’s no substitute for homework.

That’s where the real learning happens for students, and the same is true when investigating a franchise. The most important homework step is calling people, specifically the franchisees of the system you’re interested in. You’ll receive a list of all the existing franchisees in the Franchise Disclosure Document you get from the company, so take the time to call at least five to 10 of them. It also a good idea to do a search online to find some former franchisees.

Here are the best questions to ask them:

1. How well did your first unit opening go?
This broad question focuses on how effectively the franchisor’s systems and training work. An honest answer will reveal how easy the franchisor can help make the process of opening and operating that first unit. There will always be snarls when opening any new business but this question will tell you if they were small annoyances or ulcer-inducing.

2. How well do the marketing programs work?
Most franchises have required marketing initiatives designed to help build the business by seeking to attract a lot of customers. Few subjects arouse more emotion or controversy among franchisees than whether their required marketing programs work.

3. How well does everybody get along?
Many franchisors describe theirs as being just like family. That may be true but find out whether it’s like Beaver Cleaver’s or Archie Bunker’s. If you don’t want to live a life of conflict with someone calling you “meathead” every day, then the answer to this question is important. Make sure you have a good feeling about the support and teamwork of the organization and that it matches your values.

4. How much money can I make?
This question is the most important one for many prospective franchisees. You’ll want to determine the average startup investment, the average unit sales, the main expense categories, gross and net margins for the business, and how long it takes a new unit to break even and start making money for the owner.

It is usually best to save the money questions for last. Most people are reluctant to discuss their personal finances with someone they don’t know. You’ll find that franchisees are more willing to cover this subject once you’ve established some rapport with them.

5. If you had it to do all over again, would you still buy this franchise?
No matter what the answer is, explore it. Your response should always be “Why?” The most common answer is a pause followed by a yes. This usually means that there are valid arguments for answering yes or no, but pride of ownership usually tips the balance toward the positive answer. Ask for the strongest argument they can think of for answering yes or no. The contrast can be very informative, especially if you can read between the lines.

Another benefit of these calls is that you will likely find your interest in the franchise quickly increasing or waning after a handful. Waning interest is a red flag telling you that this probably isn’t the right business for you. If you find your interest rapidly increasing, it is a very positive sign.

Even if you can’t really put your finger on why either of these reactions is happening, trust your gut. Your instincts have a way of making you feel right or wrong about a decision like this and they are usually correct.

A franchise may seem like a business in a box, but

On the surface, opening a franchise may seem like a simpler, safer way to open your own business.

“It’s kind of a paint-by-numbers approach,” says Eugenia Tzoannopoulos, a franchise owner with Massage Envy. “If you follow it, you’ll be successful.”

Actually, there’s a lot more to it. Brent Greenwood of Firehouse Subs says that whatever your business produces, the key ingredients needed to make it a success are the same.

“It’s just like any other business out there,” Greenwood says. “You put all your blood, sweat and tears into it to make it successful.”

“Whatever we put into it, we’re getting out of it, and it’s for us,” says Suzanne Demeo, a franchise owner with Uncle Louie G’s Italian Ice and Ice Cream.

Demeo opened an Uncle Louie G’s Italian Ices and Ice Cream location after getting laid off from her job on Wall Street. Her shop is closed for the winter, but that doesn’t mean she’s not working.

“It’s not that you go home and you turn it off. It’s not 9 to 5. It’s home. When you’re home, you’re thinking about, what could I do? What should I do? How can I do this?” she says. “It’s not a 9 to 5. It’s a 24/7.”

With those kind of hours, you better like what you do, which is why experts say choose your business wisely.

“First of all, does this fit your lifestyle? What are your goals for wanting to open a business?” says Sujatha Sebastian, director of the Business Outreach Center Women’s Business Center. “I would say that it’s important to be excited about what you are selling, have an interest in it.”

Especially if you plan to be involved in the day-to-day operations, which many say is essential, at least at the beginning.

“Successful franchisees are involved in their business,” Tzoannopoulos says. “It takes being present. It takes knowing who your staff is and developing culture.”

Before buying, you’ll obviously want to consult with a host of professionals like lawyers, financial advisors and the Small Business Administration, but perhaps the most influential information will come from your fellow franchisees.

“Go and talk to them about how well they’re doing, would they do it again,” says Scott Kern, founder of Franchise Law Source. “‘I think that I can generate sales of this amount, and my expenses will be like this and my profits will be like that. What do you think? Does that make sense?'”

Finally, don’t assume that a proven business model is a golden ticket to success. Buying a franchise doesn’t just require a big investment of money, but a huge investment of time as well. Understanding the principle behind the franchiser’s model will make a huge difference in your thinking.

“It’s only going to work if you are in it 100 percent, and that comes from you,” Sebastian says. “That does not come from the franchise model.”

There are  franchise models that require less money and mostly the investment of time. Investing in one of these models is a chance to learn the ropes.

The FTC has published a consumer guide on buying a franchise. For more information, visit business.ftc.gov.

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The right time to become an entrepreneur is when you have an idea
that you feel you can capitolize on.

One might argue, yes, but what if you fail? A true entrepreneur is not afraid of failure. Why? Because a true entrepreneur will learn from mistakes. A true entrepreneur to a certain extent will challenge the system to see if something can be successful. Only then can he/she know that this or that can or cannot be done successfully.

Once you’ve tried something and failed at it, then you learn it cannot be done successfully in your particular circumstances, so you learn from it and change. That is what a true entrepreneur does. Adapts to the circumstances in his/her arena.

Franchising is one arena for an entrepreneur to explore. There are a lot of
different types of franchises out there. For the most part, a franchise is a business plan that has worked for others. That’s not a guarantee it will work for you. You still have to make it work. Check www.thefranchisemall.com

Entrepreneurship is a bumpy road, not for the faint of heart. Even with the best of plans, some ventures will fail. You need a lot of support to be an entrepreneur. Either that or you need balls of steel.

The arena is constantly changing. Technology is changing rapidly. To succeed you must keep up with technology. Think of it as preparing food. You like certain spices with certain foods. Certain foods go together. For variety you might try going outside the box with your choices. New technology changes the flavor of an idea.

Be prepared to see someone steel your idea. The internet is an open market. Once you put your idea onto the internet, someone may see the benefits of it and try to better it. That’s the entrepreneurial game. Reap the benefits of bettering another person’s idea.

OK, now that you’ve got the right mixture and you’re ready to forge ahead,
what’s the next step? One important step that gets overlooked at the start is
how to get out. Many entrepreneurial ventures are short lived. It’s been said,
maybe 5 years. If your idea will be short lived, what’s the step when it starts
going downhill? If you’re prepared, it will be much easier. So, before you even start a venture, plan an exit strategy and time. If, in you time frame, the business is still accelerating, GREAT! Keep forging ahead, constantly watching for acceleration. There will be some bumps to iron out along the way, but, at some point, it will be time to initiate your exit plan.

Have an exit plan in place.