Making the Right Choice When Buying a Sports Franchise
Many people who have had either a sports career or lifetime sports hobby find that once they have hit their thirties the career options available to them are rapidly expanding from being an active sports person to coaching, training and teaching. As such there are 3 main options available.
1. Find employment within the sports industry.
2. Starting a standalone sports based business.
3. Buying a sports franchise.
Of the above it is not always easy to find employment with a substantial enough wage to support you and your family, and with a standalone business it can be very hard work finding your feet and client base. The third option though is self employment in a box, all wrapped up and ready to go. Buying a sports franchise.
As with all franchises, buying a sports franchise gives you the business, training, marketing materials, working system and in most cases your fist clients, all in all making your business launch a whole lot smoother.
Generally the first step is to decide what area of sports franchises you want to buy into. There are of course plenty of options available:
Sports Coaching
Sports Equipment Sales
Sports clothing Sales
Childrens Sports Franchises
And with these several sub sections, for instance there are golf equipment franchises, childrens football school franchises, and niche sports clothing franchises such as football strips.
On doing your research and deciding what area of sports franchise you want to buy into the benefits to purchasing the franchise as opposed to going it alone become very apparent. The following will become available to you.
In the first instance Training.
Depending on the franchise you will most likely go away and do a minimum 3 days business training to show you how to run the franchise. In many cases this could be a week, 2 weeks, or ongoing for many months. With this business training you will learn all aspects of how to run the business in the way the franchisor wants you and to their practiced, tried and tested methods. The training in invaluable and you need to take good notice of everything you learn here.
Marketing Materials and Marketing Plans.
In all cases you will be provided with leaflets, business cards etc to ensure visibility in your local area. You will be given copy of adverts to place in your local papers and marketing plans which have been tried and tested to ensure they work.
Initial clients
Obviously this depends on the franchise but if you are buying into any type of coaching sports franchise then it is likely the franchisor will do the initial marketing for you, this could be contacting local schools, councils and leisure centres to bring in your first handful of clients. They will not hold your hand forever but during the initial stages they will do everything they can to help you make a success and this includes making sure your franchise starts of with a band by bringing in your first clients for you.
Buying a franchise is not risk free however most risks can be left at the door by ensuring you have done the proper research. The 2 main areas of research are.
1. The franchise Itself
2. Your Local Area
With the franchise itself you need to ensure it is a successful franchise with happy and successful franchisees. Asking for a list of current franchisees who have bought the franchise and phoning them all will give you an idea of how they are finding their sports franchise business. You also need to research the companies history, ask the franchisor how long they have been in business before they went into franchising and also what their financial turnover in the past 5 years was.
Your local area: to ensure your franchise is a success you need to ensure your local area can support it. There is no use setting up a sports coaching franchise in an area with 10 sports coaching business already and the same goes for a sports clothing franchise. Research your area and make sure there is room there for your business.
With all this in hand you can make the right choice and come out with a fantastic business doing the thing you love most. Best wishes and good luck!
About the Author
Matthew Anderson is a franchise consultant and founder of The Franchise Shop, a UK business franchise directory featuring
Sports Franchise
opportunities and
UK Franchises
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