Business Plans for Franchise Business Opportunities
Having a business plan is of utmost importance especially if you are deciding upon a first-time franchise opportunity or even if you are an experienced franchisee owner. It is the first step towards embarking on a new business and as you progress and grow you will see how important it was to have had one in place. It is also a requirement in order to get capital to fund your new enterprise. Therefore, a business plan is essential for acquiring money to get started and to chart your growth as well.
An advantage to acquiring a franchise is that you do not have to reinvent the wheel and feel like you are all alone. Your franchiser will be there to help you every step of the way starting with a business plan for your new opportunity. The success of your new franchise is a two way street because the franchiser also has a vested interest. As for helping you with the business plan, the franchiser is the best person to guide you because there is a lot of information that you would not know at this time. It is important to do the business plan properly if the franchiser is not able to help you in other aspects of the business.
When a business plan is in place it can help you to prioritize the important tasks and leave what is not urgent for a later date. As you go along, you will notice how the information from the franchiser for a new business is uniquely different then that of a conventional business plan. In order to make owning a franchise more appealing the franchiser may assist you in other areas of the plan.
Franchise business plans contain a number of features. The list isn’t exhaustive, but it usually includes the following:
The abstract is the introduction of your business plan, is shorter than an executive summary and provides key concepts of the business plan. The summary is a description of the company and related details about the business comes next. Overview of the franchise is at this point, where you discuss the franchise. This part of the business plan is put in place of the traditional “industry analysis” section of a conventional business plan.
The market and the competitive forces you will be up against including rival franchises or businesses are also discussed in the following section. The marketing plan — how you intend to attract customers (how you will advertise and market the business) is described here as well.
Another section of the business plan is the management and human resources section where the qualifications of staff who will run the franchise are discussed as well as the number of staff and how they work together as a team.
Just as important is to have a clear picture of your financial projection and objectives. Assumptions made to come up with the projections are also discussed here.
The last section usually consists of exhibits or documents which support the projections, statistics or whatever information you provided in the business plan. They are generally at the end of the business plan as part of the whole document or in a separate binder.
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