Franchise Opportunities - What's Your Flavor?

For many folks, the dream of owning a business begins and ends with a franchise. But buying into a franchise opportunity means buying into someone else’s dream. Now for some folks, that’s just fine and dandy. They’ll happily put on that snappy franchise uniform and wear the spiffy hat. Slice of the American Dream it might be, that cookie cutter franchise isn’t for everyone, especially not those geeks with independent streaks that run deep …

But it's the costs, not the costume, that prevent most people from buying into a franchise or other business opportunity. With most franchise opportunities, upfront costs are not trivial. You'll need six figures in the piggy bank with most to start up, and with the biggest names, you'll need a whole lot more.

The financial aspect can be a whole lot to swallow for people that just want to get out of their current rat race to do something simple ... say coffee and doughnuts.

A Tim Horton franchise start up can easily cost $400K. Broken down, that's $300K (give or take $15K) for equipment, between $2,720 and $12,950 for real property, a $35K franchise fee, and "required pre-opening expenses that range between approximately $35,000 to $62,900"

Dunkin’ Donuts' franchising costs demand deep pockets. In Pennsylvania, Dunkin' Donuts has minimum financial requirements of $750K liquid assets and $1.5M net. Looking west, Salt Lake City, Utah seems like a bargain with a minimum financial requirement of $125K in liquid assets and $350K net ... until one thinks about why Utah might be so inexpensive ... alas, you could get into Las Vegas, Reno, Sante Fe, or Albuquerque markets for the same investment.

And Krispy Kreme? They're the forbidden chocolate donut dream ... all of their domestic franchise markets are locked up by their "current Area Developers."

Conformity not your thing? I'd link to Voodoo Doughnut as an example of what individuality, entrapreneurism, and doughnuts have in common ... but someone with delicate (snicker) sensibilities might find one of their pastries to not be in good taste (Charley Tuna be d@mned) ...