5 CRUCIAL QUESTIONS

Ask yourself, what is the best franchise for me and my family at this point in our lives given our lifestyle and income expectations?

1. What would you like to do and can see yourself doing every day?

2. Will your family support your investment decision and, if needed, work in the business with you?

3. Are you prepared to commit yourself to a business for the five to 10 years necessary to be truly successful? If you’ve changed your job every two to three years since you entered the workforce, are you really likely to stick with a business between three and five times longer than your longest job?

4. If you’ve enjoyed a nice fourweek holiday every year as an employee, you’ll need to lower your expectations when you become a business owner, as the reality of annual holidays gets substantially shortened or reduced to nothing for the self-employed – certainly in the first few years of operating their business.

5. Nobody buys a business or a franchise to take a pay cut, and yet this can often be the reality for wage or salary-earners who leave the workforce to operate their own business.

The reality of self-employment is that you – the boss – gets paid last after your creditors and staff. You might find that the first year or two are very lean, and you won’t be able to match or exceed your previous income as an employee in this time. Are you really prepared for that?