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      We have all been there. The career we trained for in school and the job we thought was the one we would have until we retired are under challenge because of the economy and/or technology. Maybe your company is moving out of state, or you’re simply bored and it’s just time to change direction. Beginning to work for yourself and achieve what some call, the Great American Dream of independent business ownership might be something to consider.

      Going it alone and opening your own business from scratch are very good options. Many people do, and it can be highly successful. If you are a true entrepreneur, it may be your best choice. But if going it “alone” includes being part of a branded system, franchising is a path to consider.

      A good place to begin exploring franchising is on the Internet, and the good news is that at 2 a.m., it’s open. At this stage of your investigation all you want to do is begin to narrow your search to industries and companies that are attractive to you.

      Every franchise opportunity has a website touting why it’s the perfect investment opportunity. Each will have multiple competitors including many you have never have heard of. You are also going to find industries using franchising today that you didn’t know even existed. To begin to understand the breadth of the opportunities, you need a guide. Thankfully, there are numerous compendiums of franchise opportunities, and the best ones are online.

      We admit that we are partial to the online Franchise Opportunities Guide published by the International Franchise Association (IFA) at www.franchise.org/franchise-opportunities. It may seem disloyal if we were not, since both of your authors have held leadership positions in the IFA for quite some time. But there are also other outstanding web portals you should consider, including the following three:

      Both Franchise Update Media and Franchise Times are franchising giants that are read and relied upon by the professionals in franchising. As with the IFA, each publication also contains resources including articles written by professionals, educational tools, conference information, and contact information for professionals in franchising. Entrepreneur includes a ranking of the franchise opportunities they list.

      

We may take some heat for saying this, but based on our experience we recommend that you never choose a franchise system to invest in because of any third-party ranking. Chapter 4 explains why.

       Sifting through the options

      As we mentioned, over 120 industries use franchising, but to make your review a bit easier, here are the broad lines of business categories:

      As you begin your exploration you will find within each line of business a long list of franchise opportunities in a variety of industries. Unfortunately, there is no universally adopted classification system in franchising, and each source guide will use different industry and business classifications. That can make things confusing, because you may think that companies within a given category are similar, but that’s not always true.

      For example, take something as simple as pizza. Some pizza franchisors provide a system in which pizza is delivered to customers’ houses, whereas others don’t provide home delivery. Some may only have eat-in facilities, others offer both eat-in and home delivery, and for others, the customer must pick up the pie. Some have pies priced for feeding a little league team, and others are gourmet offerings. There are companies like Papa Murphy’s where you can customize your pie at the store and then take it home and bake it yourself at 425 degrees. (Your family might even think you know how to cook if you hide the box from them). All these businesses are pizza franchises and may show up in some source guides under the same category. But their varying features make them significantly different types of franchise and investment opportunities.

      The investment required will also vary widely, as will the types and number of employees you will need, types of real estate you can use, equipment requirements, amount of money you can earn, the markets they have available for you to invest in, and maybe even the number of locations the franchisor will allow you to open. In some systems you may only be able to open in mature markets, and in others you may have the opportunity to build the brand in new markets, which opens up for you some interesting possibilities.

      Let’s move on to hair salons. Some franchised salon chains are geared to cutting only men’s hair while others focus on women. Some are full service and provide waxing, coloring, manicures, and perms, while others are limited service opportunities like Great Clips targeting their customers based on their low price for a haircut and how quickly you can get in and out. There are even those that specialize in haircuts for children, and concepts like Sport Clips that are based on a sports theme with TV screens tuned to sporting events. All hair salons may work on hair, but how they segment the market and approach their customers differ widely from company to company.

      “Great Clips has as its core service, haircuts, and our price for services has barely changed over 35 years,” says Steve Hockett, president of Great Clips, Inc. “Our goal has always been to provide a great experience for customers with short waits, moderate pricing, convenient locations and hours – for men, women, seniors and kids. We have never wanted to be all things to all people, which is why, for example, we have never provided coloring services. We have a simple business, with a consistent focus, and it has served Great Clips franchisees well, with over 4,100 salons open in 175 TV markets across the U.S. and Canada.”

      In a similar fashion, franchises within the fitness and gym industry range from traditional gyms to specialty fitness centers with a focus on a specific type of workout (such as Pilates, Zumba, barre, cycling, or boxing) and some are open 24 hours a day. There are concepts that offer memberships only to women and there are still others that offer ancillary services, such as nutrition consulting, massage, or tanning services.

      There is so much information about franchise opportunities available today that you can easily get overwhelmed. The vast investment differences between franchise opportunities listed under the same broad industry heading is one of the reasons why we recommend you ignore the ratings given by some of the publications. Two companies may both sell pizza, but from an investor point of view, they are in very different industries.

      

The easiest way to conduct your research is to select one great source of information that is clearly written, understandable, and available in a style you understand (sort of like this book). Put the other sources aside and do all your research using that one guide. Only after you get your list of possible industries and companies down to a reasonable few should you also explore those opportunities by name in the other listings. Working this way is much easier, and usually you will not miss much of the information that you will need at this early stage of your investigation. Using the IFA, Franchise Update, Franchise Times or Entrepreneur listings are good ways to begin.

       Paying attention to what’s hot

      So

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