The franchise community continues to rise, and as such, I am constantly flooded with questions about the best franchises to buy into. But even more often, people are wanting to know what’s currently “hot” in franchising. While this may seem like a great question to ask if you’re looking at breaking into the franchise community, I am here to dispel a major myth for you: what’s hot in franchising is not the answer. Well, it could have been the answer a few years ago–back before said franchise actually became hot. When people see a successful franchising blossoming, they’re ready to jump onboard. However, these industries quickly become saturated and your market becomes limited due to either innumerous locations of the franchise popping up that you can’t cover enough territory to draw in an appropriate amount of consumers or competing franchises with similar concepts/products start to pop up, again leading to the problem of too much potential but not enough market.
Sure, I could rattle off a list of franchises that are more popular than ever, but that certainly doesn’t mean that now is an appropriate time for you to buy one of those franchises—in fact I would argue that it indicates the opposite. So now your next question is, “so if you don’t want me to buy a hot franchise, then what should I do?” Running a successful franchise is made up of a lot of different components, but the magical mix lies somewhere between being dedicated to your franchise and buying into something that has room to grow.
Before buying any franchise, you should reflect inwards and ask yourself what industries you’re really interested in and what industries you would be motivated to back. If you’re not sold on the concept of a franchise that you buy into, what makes you think you could sell that franchise’s product to any consumer? Especially if you’re going to play an integral part in the daily operations of your franchise, you want to be sure you get plugged in somewhere that gets you excited. Furthermore, some of you may be enamored with the concept of a particular franchise, but if they’ve already saturated the territory you’re looking to develop within. Don’t start your franchise journey with a disadvantage just because you really love a business concept. The good news for you is that you can still be a consumer of that business you love while also profiting off of a totally new franchise concept that has yet to take off.
Unfortunately, we all want the simple solution, the get-rich-quick answer, but very rarely do these tactics work. You will have to put in a lot of hard work to find a franchise that meshes with you and potentially a little risk in having a concept that might not take off as well as you thought it would. But there is no better recipe for success than being passionate about your brand, taking the advice your franchisor gives you, and giving yourself room to grow in an underdeveloped market. Maybe you’ll buy into a system that becomes one of the “hottest” franchises a few years down the road! That, my friends, is the real goal.
