What questions should I ask myself before buying a Franchise?

One of the best parts of choosing a franchise when considering whether to be self-employed or not is the fact that you have an established business to look at and a group of existing franchisees to speak with when considering if this is the right business for you.

So if you are considering a franchise business such as Marla Custom Blinds, what questions should you be asking them and what questions should you be asking yourself.

Let’s start by considering the questions you should be asking yourself, they might highlight some questions to ask the franchisor and their franchisees.

What are your goals and ambitions when considering running your own business?

Do you want to be the next Bill Gates or do you simply want to get out of the office? You may simply be looking to make a good living reaping the rewards of your own efforts.

Your business goals and ambitions may be about building an empire or the business may be a means to an end. It may be that you have specific aims such as school fees or spectacular holidays or paying off the mortgage or retiring in 10-20 years time?

Whatever your goals and ambitions are, you should be clear about them before making a commitment to run your own business. Share them with others and keep them safe, that way when you wonder why you are doing all this, you can refer back to them to motivate yourself to keep going.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

What things do you enjoy doing and what things will you simply not consider doing?

Take a good look at yourself and ask others you trust for their honest opinion as well. Are you a great administrator? Are you great with people? Can you motivate others? Do you enjoy being outside or at least out and about or do you prefer the office environment? How do you respond to criticism? Can you follow a system? More importantly WILL you follow a system or will you want to go your own way?

With a Marla Custom Blinds Franchise for example you can expect to be dealing with customers, both private and business, face to face in both a sales capacity and whilst carrying out the installations of the blinds and shutters etc. You will be on the road, at least initially, until the business grows and you begin to build your team.

When starting a Marla franchise no previous experience or formal qualifications in this industry are needed to be successful. We’ll give you all the information, skills and training needed to operate your own business with the support of Marla Custom Blinds Head Office.

Most people have experience of dealing with customers in some way, whether direct with the public, business clients or colleagues in other departments. Our team will help you to build the skills needed for dealing with our client range covering the residential, direct commercial and contract commercial markets.

Have you and your spouse or partner and family members discussed the idea of buying a franchise? Are you in complete agreement?

This is really important, without the support of those around you starting a business will be even harder. You will need their understanding and encouragement to get through the hard times, and there will be a few hard times along way. Equally, all the strains and time demands involved in starting a business won’t just affect you, they will affect all those around you, so it’s important that they are involved in the decision to commit to starting a business along with you.
At Marla we believe it is important to involve your spouse or partner from the beginning, which is why they will be invited along when you come down to meet us. It is important that they, as well as you, have the chance to ask any questions they may have and have their concerns considered and addressed. At the same time, they can see that you are being careful and are considering the opportunity clearly, thinking things through before making any commitment.

There is no substitute to having a supportive team around and behind you!

Do you realise that most new businesses, including franchises, generally do not break even for at least one year after opening?

It is vitally important that you understand and plan for the financial impact of starting a business.

In addition, will your savings provide you with a cushion for at least one year after you have paid for the franchise, allowing a one-year period of time to break even?

The answer to this question for most people is probably not. That is why we work with finance specialists to help you to put together a sound business plan and ensure that you have the necessary funding in place not just to get your business up and running but to get you through that vital first year.

It is possible to borrow up to 50% of your total initial investment (including working capital and first year living costs) from the banks (subject to status) as they recognise the good business opportunity that Marla Custom Blinds offers.
We have engaged Franchise Finance, (specialists in finance for franchise businesses) who have a 95% success rate supporting franchisees who need to raise funding from the banks.

Are you prepared to give up some independence of action in exchange for the advantages the franchise offers you?

When you agree to the terms of the franchise agreement you are agreeing to follow the proven business model the franchisor has developed. The success of your business to a large extent depends on you following and implementing that business model, not going off and doing your own thing!

Most successful franchisors, and certainly we at Marla Custom Blinds, are happy to consider and discuss ideas you may have about the business. We are continually looking at ways to evolve the business model to maintain our competitive advantage in terms of both products and services.

However, the very key to franchising success is the consistency of product and service that customers find from one franchisee to another. When you display the sign and logo of a franchise, you are indicating to customers that you follow a particular system. People who are extremely entrepreneurial, in the sense that they do not like to conform to a predetermined formula, should be very careful about buying a franchise.

Whilst in no way exhaustive, we hope these points have helped you in deciding if franchising is the right way forward for you.

In future emails we will look at the questions you should consider asking us as the franchisor and our franchisees if you decided to proceed further with your adventure to starting and running your own business.

To get more information about who we are and how we can finally help you start your own business, please visit our website: Franchise Opportunities