Let us get this straight – Home-based franchises are those franchises that allow you to, well, use your home as the franchise ‘base’ or ‘headquarters’. Although, in general, home-based franchises describe those that allow franchisee to stay at home and (mostly) work from home, some home-based franchises are mobile franchises – Those that don’t require a premise to run the business (the franchises utilise cars, trucks, carts or other ‘mobile storefronts’.) Mobile franchises could certainly be home-based, but most of the business operations are not being done at-home.
To avoid misunderstanding, let us clarify that mobile franchises are as lucrative as the home-based ones – It is the ambiguous categorisation (by nature) makes unaware franchisee candidates to pursue the wrong franchise opportunities.
Mobile franchise vs. Work-from-home franchise
Consider these examples to illustrate.
Aussie Pet Mobile, Inc. is a mobile pet grooming service that ranked #1 in Mobile Pet Grooming category (according to Entrepreneur Magazine.) It is definitely a mobile franchise, but the franchisor allows business operation to be situated at home, where absentee ownership is not allowed.
Fast-teks is an on-site computer repair service that ranked #9 in 2009 top new franchises and #45 in home-based category (according to Entrepreneur Magazine.) Fast-teks is a work-from-home franchise opportunity, in which working from home and absentee ownership is allowed. No computer-related experience necessary.
Both of them are home-based, but they are (very) different in franchise business operations.
3 things you should do in identifying the right home-based franchise opportunities: inquire, inquire, inquire
One tip: Inquire the franchisors: Never assume and be sure before you take any decision in buying a franchise.
You should ask the franchisors whether the home-based opportunities include mostly at-home business operations or not, suppose you are interested in staying at home – It’s better to ‘annoy’ franchisors with basic questions than buying a wrong franchise that will eventually cost you a fortune to run it or to run away from it.
Ivan Widjaya
Home-based franchise opportunities investigation
Top-left image by eyeliam.
