Before you decide to invest in a franchise or business opportunity, you should first ask yourself some important questions relating to your personal ambitions, goals and desires, your familial and social obligations and your financial expectations before taking the plunge and setting up your own business.
Here is a brief self assessment questionnaire you can take to determine what skills and abilities you have and financial and personal obligations you need to consider before embarking on your new franchise venture…
Q.1 What motivates you in your current career/job? What personal motivation will you bring, if any, to your new business venture?
Consider the fact that you will require bucket loads of motivation and strength to keep your business operating successfully. There will be times when you feel like giving up, but when you recognize what motivated you in the first place to run your own business, this should see you through the “bad times” and motivate you to keep going…
Q.2 What skills and/or abilities do you bring to the franchise business?
This is an important question to ask yourself. Cross off as many of the skills listed below that are relevant to your own personal situation. And most importantly be honest with yourself and the skills you have. At least in this way, you can improve on the other skills you may lack…
- Hard worker;
- Independent;
- Perseverance;
- Motivation/Motivator;
- Organiser;
- Social Skills/Interpersonal Skills;
- Leadership;
- Good management;
- Integrity;
- Good health;
- Common-sense;
- Support of family;
- Creativity
- Ability to accept the unknown and react proactively
There are of course many different variations of the skills and abilities you need to possess in order to operate a successful franchise business. But as I mentioned before, most of these skills can be self-taught. The main skills you should possess from the outset are: hard working, confident, organised and motivated. Keep these in mind when you are assessing your capabilities to operate your own business…
Q. 3 What work experience do you bring to the franchise business?
When deciding to invest in a franchise opportunity, you should match your work interests and past experiences to your current business investment. This will ensure you find an opportunity you know will sustain your interest and utilise past skills in the future…
Q.4 What education do you bring to the franchise business?
Have you attained an educational qualification in business management, accountancy, finance, retail, Internet design etc.? If so then your background knowledge of an industry will benefit you when you decide to invest in a franchise or business opportunity. Plus a franchisor will also provide you with the necessary training in the business operation in order for you to be successful.
Q.5 What support networks do you bring to the franchise?
Consider the following examples of possible support networks you may have and ask yourself if each group would support and help you during the start-up and future growth of the franchise. Can any of these support groups help you with staffing or financing of the business? It is worth considering the kind of “input” each group could give you when times get tough…
- a) useful business contacts from previous job;
- b) support of your partner, spouse and other family members;
- c) support of friends and close associates;
Q.6 What time commitments do you bring to the business?
This is an important question to ask yourself if you are an active sports man/woman, or you enjoy weekend breaks away or you like to be home by 6pm so you can spend some “quality” time with your family. You should analyse your time commitments according to the following categories:
- Social,
- Family,
- Hobbies,
- Other Interests.
Once you have determined what your time commitments are, you can decide if you want to invest in a home-based franchise, part-time or full-time franchise…
Q.7 What financial commitments do you bring to the business?
Remember before any investment in a new business venture you will have financial commitments to analyse and assess before launching a new business. Consider the following categories and write down beside each one what your current payments are:
- Household expenses;
- Loan repayments;
- Savings;
- Pension;
- Holidays;
- Hobbies;
- Other Interests.
After you have completed this section, you will have a clear idea of any payments you can “clear” or reduce in order to save up required finance for your new franchise business. Keep in mind: can any of these payments be reduced?After you have written down on a separate piece of paper what your skills, experience, financial and familial expectations are, you will have a clear idea of where and what you need to improve on in order to make your franchise investment a good one.
Remember, if you do not have all the necessary skills you think are needed to run a successful business, most of these can be self-taught and adapted by you with the support of the franchisor. The strong franchise support and training you will receive from the franchise will undoubtedly aid your success. A franchisor is only as successful as his franchisees…