How to get started in franchising?
Ken Dolan: Hi, everybody, welcome. We’re glad you joined us. We have a bunch of popular shows, the antiques and collectibles as popular beating the IRS and you’re dealing with the IRS is popular.
Daria Dolan: I totally told those. Let’s talk about this popular show.
Ken Dolan: Which one is it?
Daria Dolan: Franchising.
Ken Dolan: 55% of Americas want Americans would have said in a survey that like to own their own business but they don’t know where to start.
Daria Dolan: They don’t know where to start. They don’t know what they wanted to do. Well, we got the solution for you.
Ken Dolan: Maybe.
Daria Dolan: It’s called franchising. You know McDonalds is a franchiser who at least get started that way.
Ken Dolan: There’s ten of thousands of them. You know it still is except that in million dollars.
Daria Dolan: It’s that one tools, franchise, you know dog rumors franchise, office quick building cleaning franchises.
Ken Dolan: Exactly right, now the point is we’re going to do a little test to see if you can answer yes to these questions.
Are you a self starter? Are you self motivated? Can you take directions? Why do I say directions? Because if you’re going to a franchise and you shouldn’t buy one otherwise that has a good proven track record, a good training program. They know what to do, they know how it works. Don’t try to re-invent it. Take directions.
Daria Dolan: Exactly, because they’ll throw you right out of the whole situation and then your investment will be lost because they got it work to a science if you pick a good one. They know what works. They do it at the same way. It’s probably why we all love McDonalds.
Ken Dolan: Exactly.
Daria Dolan: You know you can go anywhere. You get the same fries, the same burger.
Ken Dolan: I never go to McDonalds. Anyway, are you also committed to long hours? If you are not sure if an entrepreneur there’s no doubt, there is an entrepreneur who will bend to this, but you better be committed to the business long term because you’re going to sign a contract and you better be committed to long hours.
Daria Dolan: And you better have some money to invest because obviously if you’re talking a fast food franchise. It’s going to cost you multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Ken Dolan: Don’t depress everybody.
Daria Dolan: But you can get in for as little as—there are some for $9000.00 or $10,000.00 if they’re home based or even mobile.
Ken Dolan: The mobile loops and stuff.
Daria Dolan: Exactly. Generally $20,000.00 to $50,000.00 is the core commitment for auto maintenance and lodging and fend business services and things like of that nature.
Ken Dolan: And why consider a franchise? I think there are a lot of good reasons. Number one, you’re going into business for yourself but you’re not going into the business by yourself because it’s a proven track record with people assumedly we hope they know what they are doing.
Daria Dolan: And you are going into business with an established brand. A brand that figured out what people want and have filled those wants or needs of the people and along with that, even though you are following someone else’s plan, you are an independent business man at the end of the day.
Ken Dolan: Exactly if you got your pencil and of course and you can play this video again I suppose. But want to give you some websites to learn more about franchising. Number one is IFA.org, the International Franchise Association. We interviewed the President with that on radio not long ago. SPA.gov, SBA.gov, Score.org is very good. Another one too is Franchised.About.com. Give me a couple of things, how do I start?
Daria Dolan: Well, first stuff in, you need to know your abilities, what your likes and dislikes are and what you’re capable of doing. You need to know what is going to cost you and whether you could afford it and you need to know what kind of competition there maybe in a particular area of a franchise that you have your eyes on and the kind of demand in your community for a particular franchise.
Ken Dolan: You know what you can Daria and learn from that. You can learn a bunch of ways. Daria will tell you the thing you want to read.
Daria Dolan: Well, one thing that I did want to add before you say that because from the franchisor, the person that you buy the franchise from gives you a brand, will train you, will give you support and all their experience so it’s a great way to start.
Ken Dolan: You want to talk with franchisees in your area. You want to take a talk with him say, “Thank you for coming in.” Most people will be very helpful to you. You may want to ask, I’ll live for nothing. I want to work on your franchise. I want to see if I like it but I got four letters and Daria will tell you what they mean.
UFOC, we have got a half minute here. UFOC, you got to read it because it talks about fees. What you get, what you don’t get training and everything.
Daria Dolan: It’s the Uniform Franchise Offering Document circular.
Ken Dolan: Circular, UFOC.
Daria Dolan: Even least franchisees who left which you need to go talk to. Why did you leave? It has an audited financial statement for three years for the company itself.
Ken Dolan: Pending law suits, what the franchise fees are.
Daria Dolan: Or any suits that they had in the past etcetera. All of this is very important. There are some people out there they claim they’re selling you franchises which are very heavily regulated and they don’t offer you UFOC and they’re not legitimate.
Ken Dolan: Forget it.
Daria Dolan: So that’s a good piece of information to keep.
Ken Dolan: Thanks for legitimate Daria. Be sure to work with an attorney who understands franchise, franchising, franchise fee and franchise law. Final word is go to IFA.org.
Daria Dolan: And in there you’ll find a list of their member franchises.
Ken Dolan: Exactly.
Daria Dolan: So if you like the concept of it, don’t know which way you want to go? Bingo! You’ll have a list of things to look into.
Ken Dolan: A very good piece of IFA.org is an introduction to franchising. It’s like 20 pages or 40 pages long. It’s really good. You can download for free, An Introduction to Franchising, worth considering, take a look at, try it part time. See if it makes sense to you, franchising.
Daria Dolan: Good luck.
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