"NON-Food Franchising: The Better Path to Business Ownership"

Are you thinking of becoming a franchisee, but don’t want the complications of a restaurant with its high employee turnover, complicated menus, supply chain issues, and long hours? Or perhaps you love restaurants, but are looking to diversify your portfolio with service brands?

“NON-Food Franchising: The Better Path to Business Ownership,” a book by Jon Ostenson, CEO of Franbridge Consulting, may provide just what you need. The book offers a high-level, long-term perspective, as well as a deep dive into the nitty-gritty needed to make a service brand franchise succeed. Here’s a chapter-by-chapter overview with a short excerpt or description.

Chapter 1: Business Ownership: The American Dream

“More and more investors are waking up to the idea that franchising can truly be the better path to business ownership. Not interested in owning a place that focuses on flipping burgers or deep frying chicken? Don’t worry. There are countless opportunities outside of food when it comes to franchising.”

Chapter 2: Franchising vs. Startups

“Franchising isn’t right for everybody. But for the vast majority of would-be business owners and investors, I firmly believe it is simply a better path. In this chapter, we will explore the pros and cons of franchising.”

Chapter 3: Franchising vs. Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition

“In this chapter, we will examine the pros and cons of franchising vs. purchasing an existing business. When you purchase the rights to a franchise, rather than being a buyer of a business, from day one you are setting yourself up to one day be a seller of the business. This is the seat you want to be in! Nobody owns a business forever.”

Chapter 4: The Franchise Landscape and Ownership Roles

“There are several different ways to approach the role of ownership within a franchise business. Roughly half of my clients are looking to get into business as the owner/operator, meaning that they will be engaged in the business on a day-to-day level. The other half come to us looking for an opportunity where they can leverage valuable skills, relationships, and capital outside of managing a business’ operations day-to-day.”

Chapter 5: Industry Opportunities

This chapter, which examines the various sectors within non-food franchising, delves into the more popular service brand industries: Property Services, Health & Wellness, Automotive, Pets, Kids, Older Population, and Other. “We find that close to 90% of our clients actually end up selecting an opportunity that they never knew existed in an industry they had never considered!”

Chapter 6: Financials: Funding and Returns

“I have found it to be eye-opening for clients when they understand the returns that can be generated by many franchise systems in the market. Return potential very often surpasses what they could expect from other asset classes such as equities and most real estate investments.”

Chapter 7: Franchise Disclosure Document and Legal

This chapter digs deeper into the most important set of data points – those contained within the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD), defining and discussing all 23 Items.

Chapter 8: Selecting a Franchise

This chapter looks at not only the choice of franchise brand, it also discusses various pathways a franchise opportunity seeker can take to pursue their dream during the exploratory process.

Chapter 9: Long-Term Strategies

This chapter discusses the many paths to franchise ownership, including a single-brand focus, developing a complementary portfolio of brands/businesses, building a diversified portfolio, or operating just one unit.

Chapter 10: Understanding the Franchisor’s Perspective

The franchisee-franchisor relationship is, in the long term, perhaps the most critical factor in the success of each franchised unit, as well as that of the brand. Knowing what the franchisor expects, thinks, and will do over the life of the franchise agreement will not only help candidates in making their decision, it also will help them succeed in realizing their dreams.

Conclusion

“After leaving Corporate America, I had the opportunity to lead a great franchise system on the franchisor side and then step into ownership as a multi-brand franchisee. These experiences and the thousands of clients I have been so fortunate to work with have dramatically shaped my views on business ownership and investments.

“There is nothing that I love more now than opening the eyes of others to see the wide array of opportunities and approaches that exist. Every day, more and more entrepreneurs and investors are discovering that non-food franchising is truly a better path to business ownership.”

The 87-page book is available as a free download.

Jon Ostenson is a multi-brand franchisee and grateful to have strong operators leading his ventures. As a result, he is able to commit more than 90% of his time to serving as CEO of FranBridge Consulting where he helps others achieve their own dreams of freedom and wealth generation through business ownership. Previously, he was president of Shelf Genie, following a 15-year stint in Corporate America. He began his career as a consultant with Accenture.