From MBA To Franchise Owner: The Path to Business Ownership

Completing an MBA or a business degree can open the door to a wide range of career opportunities. While many graduates pursue corporate positions, consultancy or finance, an increasing number are considering a different route: becoming a business owner. Buying a franchise can provide an attractive way for professionals who recently graduated from their business degree program, and apply their extensive knowledge learned at a top business school while also piggybacking from an established business model, brand and support network to ensure there are as little potential pitfalls as possible associated with becoming a first-time entrepreneur.

For many existing business graduates who have invested years perfecting their craft academically into management skills, marketing strategies, business budgeting and brand strategy, franchising can offer an opportunity to finally put those skills to work and see your business dreams come into fruition.

How You Can Apply Your Existing Knowledge When Running a Franchise

There are many advantages to recent graduates becoming franchisees and there are a lot of perks they can bring to becoming franchise owners. One of many is a strong foundation in business principles and ethics. An MBA can provide an understanding of areas such as financial management, leadership, operations, market analysis and strategic planning.

These skills can be incredibly valuable when evaluating franchise opportunities for a potential investment that suits budget and work requirements. Rather than simply selecting a franchise brand based on personal interest, graduates can assess more sophisticated details such as initial investment, operating costs, revenue & growth potential, market demand in the local area, as well as the overall strength of the franchise model as well as its brand recognition from face value.

However, owning a franchise is still very different from studying business in the classroom, which is a very important element for recent graduates to consider before signing their franchise agreements. Success requires practical decision-making, resilience and the ability to manage people and customers. These are some of the many reasons why now most franchise brands do find a correlation with certain people, making franchisees more successful franchisees. They typically seem to share similar kinds of characteristics. This is for the ones that are the most successful.

The transition from the classroom to running a real-world business can therefore be both challenging but also rewarding and extremely profitable in the long-term, which you may even find could lead to opportunities such as becoming a multi-unit franchisee. If you prove to the franchisor that you cannot just achieve vast success but also, especially as a first-time business owner and recent graduate, this would be very impressive, and the franchisor may decide you are the perfect fit for further territories in the future.

The Importance of Finding Your Ideal Franchise Opportunity

Choosing the right franchise is one of the most important decisions a new franchisee will make, which significantly determines a potential franchise business success or failure in the long-term. There are opportunities across various different industries, from food and retail to professional services, education, health and fitness.

Directories such as FranchiseSeek can help recent business graduates find their ideal franchise by bringing different opportunities together in one place. This can make the initial research process far more straightforward and allow prospective franchisees to compare industries, investment levels and business models before deciding which opportunities are worth investigating further. Information about the franchise industry, opportunities and cost allow you to learn more about running a franchise before taking the leap into franchise ownership.

Franchise Ownership as a Career Choice

Franchise ownership can provide graduates with the opportunity to take control of their career and start their own business. Instead of working solely within someone else’s organization, franchisees have the responsibility of growing their own operation while following an established framework.

For a first-time business owner and especially an ambitious graduate, this combination of autonomy with support can be the perfect blend. The franchisor typically provides all the branding, systems and guidance, while the franchisee brings capital, strong leadership and knowledge of their local area to build a loyal customer base and drive further business.

Another huge perk of franchising as opposed to a normal high-paying job is that, in a job, you work for an uninspiring salary, whereas with a franchise, you will build a successful business. Meaning, of course, depending on the terms of your particular franchise agreement, there may even be an opportunity to get a high sum of your franchise’s potential market and resale value you agree with the franchisor so at least franchising also provides more of an end goal you can focus toward if you do eventually consider a change of career path later down the line. This is one of the various reasons why franchising has seen huge growth in recent years, an estimated rise from “$907.3 billion to $921.4 billion-an increase of 1.6%”.

Ready to Take the Leap?

Moving from an MBA or general business degree into franchise ownership can be an exciting alternative to a standard graduate career. With a strong understanding of business fundamentals and a willingness to learn through experience, graduates can use franchising as a practical and financially rewarding stepping stone into entrepreneurship.

 

Guest Author By Joel Bissitt

Joel has been an entrepreneur since the age of 19, now 33 years on he has experience of many different industries including retail, catering, health & fitness, technology and sport. Joel is our MD, the founder of Infinity Franchise Group & has been a Franchisor twice himself.

 

Photo by Tahoe Groeger on Unsplash