Ten reasons not to buy a franchise

October 4, 2006

Hi, Thanks for visiting. You might want to click here to sign up to my RSS feed, so you don't miss anything important.

If you’re considering buying a franchise, you should know that many of the franchise advice sites on the Internet are set up to make you believe that investing in a franchise is the best thing since sliced bread.

Check out the list of ten reasons not to buy a franchise on forbes.com before making a decision. Forbes cites high start up costs, lack of legal recourse and limited independence as some of the reasons for thinking twice before starting a franchise.

If you still want to go it alone, but think you would feel more secure having a franchise, then setting up on your own, because you don’t have any business experience, consider taking a business course instead. Sure, some of them are expensive, but they’re usually a whole lot cheaper than paying a franchise licence fee.

If you think it sounds as though I have a downer on franchising - you’re right. I have been a franchise owner, and I would not invest in a franchise again - ever. Not because I didn’t make any money - I made quite a lot. But, for me, the cons - many of which are highlighted in the forbes article, outweighed the pros.

So before you go tying yourself into a restrictive franchise agreement, consider whether your chosen business is something you could set up on your own - if you had the necessary training, and consider taking a business course instead.

[?]