From Entrepreneur.com: How the internet has led to a franchise boom, and how your franchise can benefit from it.

For the last several years, record numbers of new franchisors have entered the marketplace—more than half the franchisors in the marketplace today are less than 10 years old.

Why this explosion?

In part, businesspeople are becoming more aware of the power and the benefits of franchising. But beyond these factors, another not-so-obvious factor has instigated this explosion: the internet.

Perhaps more than any single factor, the internet has helped level the playing field for the new franchisor. Never before has someone been able to get the message of a new franchise to a broad market this fast.

Two decades ago, if you wanted to compete with “the big boys,” you would need to advertise to get franchise sales leads. Back in the Dark Ages of franchising, about the only way to get any real exposure would be to run full-page ads in Entrepreneur magazine and two-column-by-three-inch ads in the Wall Street Journal. That kind of advertising commitment was simply not economically feasible for most startup franchisors…..Full Article.

One question I get almost every day – “what’s hot in franchising.” Whether people are interested in starting their own business by purchasing a franchise or not, they are always curious about the latest trends.

In 2005 there were over 500 companies that filed documents with the FTC in order to begin offering franchises for sale. In 2006, that number is likely to be very similar. What’s the latest in what’s hot? In terms of lasting trends that have taken hold over the most recent 5 years, there are several types of franchise opportunities that have become very popular. Rather than speaking of specific franchise opportunities, I prefer to think of them as business types. Based on recent history, these franchise types are very hot and here to stay:

Home-based franchises: You can put this franchise type as one that is hot and getting hotter all the time for lots of reasons. The first is the lower start-up costs associated with a home-based business. For many entrepreneurs, the home-based business is the perfect fit for their personality profile and investment capabilities. Among some of the more popular home-based franchise opportunities are business coaching, personal services, home improvement, among many others. It’s important to note that many home-based franchise opportunities have as much upside earning potential as those with a fixed office or retail location.

Franchises targeted to women: It’s no longer a secret that more and more women are becoming entrepreneurs. Many of them look to franchising as a great way to open a turn-key business. There has been a tremendous growth in businesses that offer franchise opportunities geared to the interests of women entrepreneurs. These interests include interior design, fitness and window fashions .

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Wireless Toyz is the #1 chain of superstores dedicated to the lucrative cellular market, bringing cell phone equipment and service plans from all major national and regional carriers under one roof for one-stop shopping. With over 125 locations open in 19 states at the open of 2006, the company is by far the largest and most successful franchise of its kind.

Each Wireless Toyz store offers cellular phones, accessories, and service plans for Cingular, Sprint/Nextel, T-Mobile, and Verizon as well as regional carriers – depending on the geographic area –plus satellite TV offerings from DirecTV and Dish Network. Service plan pricing is identical to that offered in carriers’ corporate stores, and equipment prices are the same or lower.

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From Entrepreneur.com:

Burger and pizza franchises aren’t your thing. You are somebody who can’t be pigeonholed. You are a rebel. You are different, unique. You would rather dig for hidden treasure than go for the obvious option. You want something with a little edge.

That is generally what you’ll find in the miscellaneous categories of the annual listing. These are franchise business opportunities that may be successful multimillion-dollar conglomerates, or on their way there, but what they do is not easily explained. Rather than following in the well-worn footsteps of their franchising forefathers, they are breaking ground with new entrepreneurial concepts. The franchises under Miscellaneous are so unique, they defy categorization. In other words, they are a lot like you.

Need more reasons to check out these always-interesting sections of our franchise listing? Meet the following franchisors and franchisees, who took their chances on Miscellaneous franchises:

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From StartupNation.com:

You’ve decided to launch a franchise home business instead of starting up something from scratch. Congratulations on making this important choice!

Next comes a decision that could prove just as important to your success with a business opportunity: whether to buy a franchise that retails a product, like McDonalds, or provides a service, such as ServiceMaster cleaning franchises.

The two franchise business opportunity paths – product or service – differ dramatically:
Every franchise system has some common denominators, such as a concept owner, a fee structure, a royalty system, and a marketing and administrative program. But the nature and operations of a franchise business differ radically in pushing a product or a service.

“Retail franchises traditionally are opportunities that are driven by having a building, opening the door and waiting for people to walk in, whereas with a service business you’re typically heading out to do the business,” says Lori Kiser-Block, vice president of FranChoice, a Minneapolis-based company that helps entrepreneurs choose a franchise business.

Pros and cons of selling a product as your franchise business:
Most product-oriented franchise businesses sell some sort of food, so operating them is like running a small factory. Your up-front investment in the franchise business, and especially in local real estate for the store, will almost always run into the low six figures. The many day-to-day issues include maintaining proper inventories, ensuring quality, keeping up the grounds, and hiring and managing lower-skilled employees.

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Article excerpt from Entrepreneur.com:

“You’ve thought about it long enough, and you’ve finally decided you really do want to make the franchise business opportunity leap. You’ve found the right business opportunity, and you’re convinced it’s a system you’ll succeed in. But you’ll need financial help to make it happen, and one big question still looms in your head: How hard will it be to sell a lender on the idea? Despite higher interest rates than in recent years, it’s a franchise buyer’s market out there, says Rick Anderson, general manager at Franchise Finance, a Little Rock, Arkansas, firm that originates loans and leases for the franchise industry. There are fewer buyers, so more lenders are sitting on cash. “You’ve got better terms and conditions and more finance companies [that are] anxious to talk to you,” he says. “It’s not that hard to get a loan right now.”

That said, prospective franchisees face many of the same hurdles that challenge all startups when it comes to raising the capital to open their doors. A local banker won’t necessarily see a venture as less risky simply because it’s a franchise. Loy and Melissa Ehlers, both attorneys and former Marine Corps majors, discovered that when they first set their sights on opening a Cold Stone Creamery. They went scouting for ways to raise the $300,000 they’d need, but despite the ice cream retailer’s established brand name, local lenders in their hometown of Morehead City, North Carolina, weren’t feeling warm and fuzzy. “They looked at Cold Stone as a restaurant, the riskiest venture out there,” says Loy, who at the time was working as general counsel and vice president of retail licensing for a furniture chain. With all his experience get-ting other fledgling businesses financed, he figured he’d have a leg up. Says Loy, “The local guys said, ‘We love you, but we can’t do it. It doesn’t matter if you have a 200-page business plan with all the charts and bells and whistles—you’ve never operated a restaurant.’”

Fortunately for Loy and Melissa, 39 and 41, respectively, Cold Stone had a preferred lender program with Comerica that made the borrowing process a lot easier for newcomers. Comerica was familiar with the Cold Stone system and felt comfortable that its relatively small number of store closings meant the franchisor did a thorough job screening its franchisees. The Ehlerses took out an SBA-backed loan for the first store, then bought four more stores, one of which they’ve already flipped. Without a track record to point to, the Ehlerses would likely have had to stop at one store, but with the Cold Stone connection, they were able to open four locations in nine months. “I don’t care to do that again,” Loy jokes……Read More Here.

Business opportunities are around every corner; it just takes the entrepreneur with the right eye to see them. Ray Kroc, for example, saw a small restaurant that a pair of brothers ran like an assembly line. He saw the potential of the business, bought it, and even kept the brothers’ name: McDonald’s. Now McDonald’s are around every corner.

There are plenty of other business opportunities that are ripe for the picking; they just need to find the right partner. A business and a business owner have to get along just like a husband and wife because they are a team. If the match isn’t right, there could be a rocky relationship ahead–maybe even a divorce.

Business Opportunities Become Realities with the Right Partners

Take a look at Tupperware, or Mary Kay Cosmetics. Those are examples of business opportunities that succeeded and became business models. Why? Simple: there was a great fit between the business and the operators. These businesses made it because the women who ran the Tupperware parties “fit” with the lifestyle of their products.

Can you picture a withdrawn teenager or an absent-minded professor showing a group of ladies the advantages of the latest Tupperware products? Of course not–they don’t match the product line. And even if they did, who’d feel comfortable buying something from them? The match between product and seller is crucial.

Excerpt from Entrepreneur.com:

“More than anything else, what most prospective franchisees want to be sure of is that the franchise you are considering is a good all-around business opportunity. We can use other words like “great” or “solid” or “reputable” to illustrate what you’re looking for in a franchise, but the bottom line is you want to know that everything needed for success exists and that there are no major flaws with the franchise.

The following checklist for determining whether a franchise is solid is subjective, but it’s based on many years of experience. If you want to know that you’re looking at a solid franchise opportunity, make sure to check the following factors carefully:

1. Responsiveness during the investigation process….
2. Direct operational training….
3. Other training….
4. Marketing programs….
5. Real estate and construction assistance….
6. Financing assistance….
7. Litigation history….
8. Financial strength of the franchise company….
9. Financial strength of the unit operations….
10. The attitude of the existing franchisees….

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