Work At Home Experts

The franchise opportunity sounds kind of enticing. After reading an article about how many people are jumping off the 9-to-5 clock to pursue the ol’ entrepreneurial dream, it kind of gives me goose bumps to think I could instantly get my "business in a box" with customers, orders and profits… OH MY!! After all, I’d gain the marketing  genius of a franchiser as well as the right to hang the company’s instantly recognizable logo on the storefront. I’d probably have customers lining up, just waiting to rush in at the moment we unlocked the door. Then, I would just hire a few good workers and I’d be well on my way down the yellow brick road of true Financial Freedom.

WRONG!

The franchise opportunity is full of lurking demons just waiting to gobble you up, but what boggles my mind is that  people will pay in excess of $100,000 (and that is cheap for some of the big names) for something that will only pay them a meager salary. In addition, there are no guarantees of success. It is estimated that 1/3 of all franchises make money, 1/3 break even, and 1/3 lose money. Can you afford to lose in excess of $100,000?

Now, I don’t want to pour cold water on anybody’s dream. However, I do want to point out that there are significant risks for wannabe entrepreneurs. If owning a McDonald’s restaurant would make you happy, then go for it. Someone’s got to do it, right?
However, one gentleman I met who ended up owning a large number of Subway franchises described his experience as "owning a job babysitting hundreds upon hundreds of pimple faced teenagers (or maybe it was millions)?" When you "own a job", it is very difficult  to leave it, in fact, most of the time, you can’t stop thinking about it.

So, if that tickles your funny bone, then a franchise is certainly the right move for you. However, what I have come to realize is that there are many home based business opportunities with much lower risks and much greater reward potentials. One of the biggest mistakes new entrepreneurs make is overextending themselves to begin with. In addition, they don’t learn some of the basic marketing skills that will help propel them to success. Why invest hundreds of thousands, when you can do so much more with  so much less in terms of investment?

One of the programs that illustrates this the best is called Cracking the Millionaire Code. I was impressed with the successes of the participants.