After being in business for five years and proving to yourself that the statistics made against small businesses failing in this period did not apply, you will undoubtedly gain a certain level of confidence which you did not have before. It is true, running a business is not an easy task in its first place. What makes it even harder is maintaining a healthy relationship with your existing clients in order to ensure that they are always coming back to you. Through the course of my personal work experience with three franchises, Japan Camera, Blacks Photography, and Club Value cleaners, I was able to assess that all three had 5 important variables in common: 1) Uniform Marketing store-wide 2) A Common Accounting Method store-wide 3) Training Procedures for employees that were standardized 4) A uniform outlook in their operations 5) A uniform business process / logic store-wide The first step in assessing whether your business model is one that can be turned into a franchise is by answering the following questions: * Can you envision yourself overlooking a minimum of 10 locations at the same instance? * What makes your business unique? * Would consumers be interested in the products / services that you are providing nationwide? If the answers to these questions are yes and you feel positively about your business process after assessing the consumer behavior and demand functions nationwide, you will know that you are ready for the plunge. Its important to assess your model to see whether it fits in becoming a viable franchise opportunity. 2009-05-04T16:46:12Z true 10 7 2009-05-07T01:02:29Z