You know you’re about to make your next career move and you know you want to be your own boss. Perhaps it’s time for more freedom, or perhaps you’d like more flexibility and balance in your life. If this sounds like you, you might be trying to work out whether you’d rather set up on your own, or you’d rather buy a franchise of an established business.
Let’s take a closer look.
Should I run my own business?
Running your own business is exciting, challenging and rewarding. Successful entrepreneurs have a great business idea and the drive to make it succeed.
When you run your own business, there are many benefits:
- You are answerable to no one (except your clients!).
- It’s as much freedom as you can have and still be at work.
- You can choose how to spend any profits.
- You can shape your business as you see fit, and take it in whichever direction you feel it will succeed.
- You can create your own business ethos – if you want to see something done differently, you have the freedom to implement it.
But there are downsides as well:
- Starting a business from scratch is hard work with a lot of demands on your time.
- You need at least basic knowledge of finance, admin, client care, data management, marketing and more.
- You might not see any profits for a few years.
- The buck stops with you and there is a lot of responsibility.
- It can get lonely – you might miss having a colleague who can provide some objectivity.
Should I buy a franchise?
If you’re not sure whether or not starting your own business is the right step for you, you might consider buying a franchise instead. A franchise can provide a lot of the freedom of running your own business, but without the pressure of working alone to deliver your own ideas.
There are many benefits to buying a franchise:
- Enjoy the freedom to work for yourself
- Take advantage of existing brand and reputation
- Join a family of supportive franchisees
- Continue on your career path, managing your team and making many of your own business decisions.
- Benefit from centralised resources like marketing material, training courses and software.
However, buying a franchise isn’t for everyone.
- The business model and ethos are driven by the franchise owner. Fortunately, ours is tried and tested!
- The role of a franchisee is to lead, not to do – if you like rolling your sleeves up, you might prefer your own business where you can deliver your core work yourself.
- You’ll make regular payments to the franchise owner, in addition to the upfront purchase – this covers the cost of centralised resources.
- Some franchises (not Get Ahead!) set compulsory targets for franchisees.
- Some other franchises (again, not Get Ahead!) impose limits on how and where you work, preventing you from scaling your franchise.
When we decided to franchise Get Ahead, we identified some of the problems of franchising and set out to address them. That’s why our franchisees aren’t under pressure from performance targets, do receive regular training and, above all, benefit from our scalable business model so they can push themselves and their franchise as far as they like.
Buy a Get Ahead franchise
Whatever you decide your next step should be, it’s got to be right for you. And if do decide to buy a franchise, we hope you’ll choose Get Ahead! Our site is full of resources to help you make your decision. You could also follow our social channels and find out more about our ethos. You can even book in a call with franchisor Rebecca Newenham – why not have a chat and get your questions answered before you take the plunge?
