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Home-Based Franchises
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Article 1: Identify The Right Match
Perhaps the most common question asked by people thinking about buying a home-based franchise is: Which one should I buy?
The answer is: It depends.
Franchise buyers who are happy with their choice say they did as much self-evaluation as they did company research before making their decision.
Lisa Neyer, who lives in San Clemente, Calif., wanted a business she could run from home after retiring as a special education teacher. She chose Bark Busters, a home-based dog obedience training service.
Where did she find such a franchise? From her husband, Nelson, who runs from their home office a FranChoice service that helps individuals decide which franchise is right for them.
Ellen Radigan didn’t even want to buy a franchise until she examined what she really liked to do. In her years working for big corporations she liked hands-on involvement and sales. Her hobbies included antiques and shopping on eBay, the auction Web site. She put all that together and bought a Snappy Auctions franchise in Alexandria, Va., which handles eBay auctions for others.
“For the first time in my life I knew what was right,” she says. “It was a perfect fit with what I like to do.”
After understanding what they want, franchise buyers need to do extensive research about the businesses they can buy. Unfortunately, too many people spend more time researching which car to buy than which franchise. Fortunately, Ken Smith isn’t one of them.
Smith determined to learn everything he could about all the handyman services in the market before investing tens of thousands of dollars for the initial franchise fee and startup costs.
He narrowed his choices to three, based on the content of their Web sites, all of which could be run from his home.
He contacted each company for all the documentation they would give him. He read each Uniform Franchise Offering Circular, which details the company and its operations. He called each company to ask additional questions.
He finally bought Handyman Network franchise in Milford, Conn., because the franchisor “was looking for people like me. If you run a business with sound business principles, you can learn the basics of the operations and do well,” he says.
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