How to Go Into Business for Yourself, But Not By Yourself

LARCHMONT, N.Y. -- If you’ve always dreamed of owning your own business and being your own boss, but are unsure of a concept that will be successful and want to reduce the number of risks -- your best bet is to become a franchise owner. In fact, about 70-80 percent of independent businesses don’t survive the first few years, while 80 percent of franchises succeed in those same first years.

A franchise often makes the American Dream more achievable for the individual who prefers to take less of a risk when taking the plunge into entrepreneurship. You are essentially buying into a business that is a sure thing -- with national brand name recognition and a built-in customer base that would ordinarily take years to establish.

And there are many additional benefits to owning a franchise. Perhaps, the most important one is that you get a great deal of support from the parent company to help you get started and on a fast track to making a profit. Most franchises are turnkey operations with everything you need already included: equipment, supplies, employee training and operations assistance, as well as marketing and promotional support.

Most people picture a large retail chain when they think of franchises. They don’t realize that it actually all begins with just one person who has an idea, a dream and the desire to take a risk. Today’s mom-and-pop stores often become tomorrow’s chains.

The now 11,330 Dunkin’ Donuts franchises worldwide all began with one local entrepreneur named Bill Rosenberg in 1948, when he decided to open an independent coffee and donut shop in Quincy, Mass – a shop that became the first Dunkin’ Donuts in 1950. After five years of hard work, that little shop became so successful that others began to seek its winning formula -- and a franchise was eventually born. In 1955, the first franchise agreement was signed in Worcester, Massachusetts. By 1963, the 100th Dunkin’ Donuts franchise opened and in 1979, Dunkin Donuts franchises reached the 1,000-mark nationally.

It’s important to emphasize that although franchise owners have support from their parent company, that alone cannot guarantee them success. Franchise owners have the same challenges, struggles, long hours and community obligations and interests as any of the independent neighboring stores and local competitors. They are mostly hard-working mom-and-pop entrepreneurs, eager to earn the friendship and loyalty of their fellow community members. A franchise is really just a small, local business -- and franchise owners are therefore hard-working, honest individuals trying to build a successful business that serves the community with goodwill and a strong commitment to their customers.