The New Year is a popular time to be making a resolution to change your career and purchasing a franchise has become a popular option for many who are not sure what it is that they want to change their career for!

Unlike an employer most franchises do not require you to have worked in their sector previously or indeed have any prior knowledge of the sector. That said it is very important that you select one that matches your talents and your personal passions to ensure that you have not exchanged on 'job' for another.

All too tempting are those that promise a great deal of money and conveniently forget to tell you quite how long it can take to achieve those kind of rewards. Be mindful of those hidden 'costs'; how much time will it take, how much more money (in addition to the franchise fee) will you need to invest to get the business up and running i.e. will you need to hire sufficient additional support at home whilst you are building your business.

If you are interested in purchasing a franchise then I would caution due diligence and encourage you to ensure that you do your research well in advance of making any kind of commitment.

Current, Transferable Skills

In the first instance list what you have really enjoyed about the jobs, careers, positions that you have held before. What are your transferable skills? Ask friends, family, colleagues what they value most about you. It is important to write the list with no editing ... see what comes up, you may be pleasantly surprised!

Lifestyle

Think about the lifestyle that you want. There are sufficient franchises available for you to find the one that is going to suit your family and commitments. Do you have a family that you would like to make more time for? Would you prefer to be traveling more? Spending more time outdoors? In short consider what franchise will enhance your life. You can be sure that you will be more likely to enjoy developing it if it meets your lifestyle criteria.

How Much Time Will It Take?

Ensure that you find out how much time it will take to run the business. Whilst you should expect the franchisor to be transparent about the time taken to start up and run the business it is recommended that you speak to a current franchisee and ask them for more information.

Training and Support

Ask the franchisor about what kind of training and start-up support you will get. Be cautious if you are given any vague responses. This is a time to ask the franchisor to be specific and to give you examples of training events that they have held for their franchisees.

What ongoing support is available to the franchisee? It is important that you meet regularly (at a minimum quarterly) with other franchisees for continuous motivation and support. At Athena, in addition to the induction training, operations manual and audio recordings, we run Regional Development days every eight weeks and provide weekly master-classes for our franchisees.

A franchisor who is serious about supporting their franchisees in the development of a lucrative business will be completely transparent and happy to share with you who they support their franchisees.

Whatever you resolve to do I wish you the very best and encourage you to get coaching and support in the development of your next profitable venture.