Trends for 2013: Home-Based Franchises
One of the areas of franchising that has experienced the strongest growth in the past five years has been the one of home-based franchises. It not only holds additional convenience at the work place, but also opportunities for rapid future development. In choosing a home-based franchise, some of the keys for success are in the detailed analysis of the potential franchisee’s goals and passions.
Finding the best choice for home-based franchise requires previous research. Evaluation criteria on the self-scoring chart should include determining personal strenghts, weaknesses, talents, interests and values. One of the advantages of home-based franchises is the chance to combine Family lifestyle and business. On the other hand, this is also a double-edged blade, since it requires additional discipline and ability for self-control and self-management in a home environment.
Some of the most important questions to answer at the time of starting your own home-based business include:
Have you discussed your business plans with your family and do they fully understand what it entails?
Do you work well without supervision?
Do you manage your time well?
Do you enjoy working by yourself for prolonged periods?
While startup costs for home-based franchises range from the absolute minimum of $ 1,600 in liquid to $295,000, most franchisors focus in the range between $3,500 and 75,000. But the initial investment for some of the most popular home-based U.S. franchises rounds the even lower $5,000 to 30,000 threshold. Yet some of the top home-franchisors have traditionally been in the home-repairs (ServPro, Snap-on-tools), commercial cleaning (CleanNet) and consulting sectors (Franchise Training Institute).
According to the most recent statistics, in 2013, senior care franchisors are the ones to have experienced the most steady growth, followed by tutoring and home-helper ones. Some of the most successful ones are The Senior’s Choice, Comfort Keepers and Home Helpers.
In-home entertainment and body-building has been another sector to experience growth in the number of franchisees in recent years. Jazzercise, ranked 3rd best home-based franchise by the Entrepreneur Magazine for 2012 provides unique body-conditioning and choreography training courses that have boosted their international franchisees to 1,474 in addition to more than 7,000 already operating in the U.S. and Canada. It is also the third fastest-growing home-based franchise.
While being a great low-cost opportunity for new business owners, with one of the highest growth rates in the sector, home-based franchisors are still not as popular in Europe. Nevertheless, for 2013, the fastest growing franchising businesses internationally include Subway and 7/11 (gas stations), which are immediately followed by two home-based franchises: Jan-Pro and Vanguard cleaning systems.
Jan-Pro Franchising Co. targets commercial and small business customers offering professional cleaning services with special concentration on research and continuously decreasing the amount of industrial chemicals contained in their cleaning products.
Finally, for those interested in the tourist sector, Cruise Planners is a home based franchise that focuses on preparing personalized trip packages for the generation of baby-boomers, dinkies (double income, no kids) and seniors.
