The term “franchising” covers a range of different business ventures, the most common of which is when the owner of a business (the franchiser) grants licenses to other individuals or businesses (the franchisee) to trade under their trademark and trade name, and sell their product or services. The franchisee will pay an initial sum for the license, and also a percentage of their revenue annually to the franchiser. The franchiser provides ongoing support for all of the franchisees, and keeps control over all aspects of the trade name and trademarks, and also how the product/service is marketed. Coffee franchises are a well known example of this type of business venture, and companies like Coffee Republic provide licenses to individuals or other businesses, to set up and sell their brand and style of coffee shop all over the world.

There are many smaller franchise opportunities, which can suit people who wish to run a business from home. Cleaning franchises are a good example of this, and can range from services such as domestic and commercial cleaning, sanitation cleaning, and cleaning product disruption and sales.

Home based franchises usually give you more freedom over how you run the business, but you must be aware that some goods distribution franchises are in fact multi-level marketing in disguise, which is a business area that is vulnerable to exploitation by dishonest or illegal practices. You can tell this kind of franchise immediately, as your income will be dependent entirely on the commissions you earn on sales, and also you will be expected to recruit other distributors.

The advantage of franchising is that you will be able to set up your own business with a business structure and product/service that is already tried and tested, and you will have ongoing support from the franchisor right from the beginning. You will be able to look at the other franchises and see how well they are doing, and also get some tips on how to run this type of business successfully. The disadvantage of franchising is that there will be a number of restrictions on how you run the business, such as only being able to sell the product/service to clients approved by the franchisor. Also you will be dependant on the franchisor, and if they go out of business, unfortunately all the franchisees will too. ;)

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