Starting up a new business is a huge undertaking for seasoned players, let alone novices. Yet nowadays, there are record numbers of new businesses that are being started up. There is a popular consensus as in, why wait for someone to hire and fire you when you can work hard for you and succeed on your own merits.
Suppose you are thinking of starting up a new business such as a car wash but you are torn between whether to run your very own car wash or to buy into an automotive franchise.
One thing you are assured of is that both allow you much more executive independence than a regular job. You get to call most or all of the shots, depending on which you choose. If you do it right and smart, with dogged discipline, resilience and hard work, you reap more rewards than you ever will on a regular nine to five.
To figure out which of the two concepts suits you better, first you need to start with an evaluation of their pros and cons. Then, you want to tie in which fits in better with your strengths and weaknesses, work style, skills and experience in strategy, management, operations, marketing and selling.
Pros and Cons Of Starting Up A New Business With Your Own Car Wash
With your own car wash, you have free rein to use your own focus and vision to create and plan your own unique business model and to operate it according to your standards.
You are answerable only to yourself, and to any partners and/or investors you may have. You get to decide all of its strategies, plus its management and operational rules and regulations. You choose to contract with the vendors of your choice for your equipment and supplies.
Best of all, you and your co-owners share the profits. You do not need to pay a third party.
On the other side of the coin, you will need to spend a lot of time, money and effort to conduct market research, establish and build brand awareness with lots of marketing promotions.
If you are new to the industry and is either starting up a new business or even buying an existing one, your learning curve will be steep as you learn on the fly. There is no large network from which you can rely on to learn best practices, tips and things to avoid.
The chances of overextending yourself on capital, marketing and operational costs is often higher as you do not yet have benchmarks in place. Additionally, as a new brand, your access to loans and funding sources is limited and will cost more.
Pros and Cons Of Starting Up A New Business As An Automotive Franchise
The obvious advantage to starting up a new business in a franchise is that it is usually a proven concept that has been put through the ringer by other successful franchisees.
There are financial benchmarks for your capital and running costs. These are like signposts to keep you from driving blind in your business journey to success.
The bulk of the groundwork such as, marketing is already in place. Your prospective customers will feel more confident in trying out your services because it already has established followings in the main social media networks.
With a network of stores, the franchise will enjoy good discounts for car wash equipment, tools and supplies, marketing materials, funding and insurance rates, which will ripple through to you.
While the going is good, there are also downsides to running a franchise business.
You will be locked into a business model and system that you have to abide by for the length of contract term. You will have to
incur the following fees – an initial one-off franchise fee, a monthly percentage of sales or fixed amount as royalties plus a contribution to the marketing budget. This fee covers the upkeep, running and continued development of the franchise system. Should you wish to terminate the franchise contract, the process might be lengthy and with strings attached.
Of course, while the pros and cons for starting up a new business either way are important to know; you still have to examine them along with your personal and professional preferences and go with the one that feels right for you.
If the franchise model is pulling at your heart, we encourage you to get in touch with us via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or either of our DetailXPerts Car Detailing and DetailXPerts Franchise Blogs. We will be delighted to share with you, our unique, affordable and visionary automotive detailing concept. We believe that every person who wants to should have a real and sturdy opportunity to work at succeeding for themselves. We put our money where our mouth is.
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