Why Do You Want to Buy a Hot Franchise?

It never fails. Whenever I do one of my rather unique presentations on franchise ownership (like the one I just did in New York City), I get asked this question;

“Joel, what’s the hottest franchise?”

I was able to convince my publisher to send me a few of my about to be released franchise books to the NYXPO For Business, last week. While I was signing a few books, a couple of the attendees asked me what I thought the, “Hottest franchises” were.  Since it’s in the top 5 most common questions asked of me, I know how to answer it. (But usually not to the questioner’s satisfaction.) Here’s my answer;

“There’s really not one hot franchise. There are certainly hot categories in franchising, and they tend to vary from year to year. In other words, there are certain franchise trends that you may want to investigate, and maybe even capitalize on, after doing careful research.”

There’s usually a look of disappointment in the eyes of those who asked the question, but my answer is truthful.

For example, I happen to like the Spring-Green Lawn Care franchise business opportunity. For one, I helped them set-up their franchise blog, and help them with some of their content. (Full disclosure; I got paid to set-up their blog, and I get paid to provide content.) If you’ve been following me for more than a minute, you know how picky I am. I don’t just work with anyone. Also, I’ve known the folks at Spring-Green for several years.

Now that I got that out of the way, let me tell you why I like their business model-actually, their two very different models.

1. It’s truly a seasonal business. If you’d like to have a portion of the winter months off, you can.

2. There’s a real potential for significant numbers of repeat customers, year after year.

3. You can start the business slowly-they have a Flex-Start program to help people transition into the business.

4. They’re super-friendly to our Military Veterans, and want them as franchisees. (The CEO is a Veteran.)

5. Spring-Green Lawn Care offers two ways to become franchise owners. Find out what they are.

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To me, Spring-Green Lawn Care is a hot franchise. The 5 reasons above are why.

But, just because I think that it’s a hot franchise business opportunity doesn’t necessarily mean that you do. I happen to know a lot about how their lawn care business operates. I’ve been to their headquarters. I know the executives. I like them and trust them. I happen to think that way too many prospective franchise owners pass this opportunity by, because of pre-conceived notions. (One of them being that they’ll be stuck behind some type of machine…some type of lawn-food spreader.)

If more would-be franchise owners would go further than a cursory one-minute website look-through, some of them could be moving a lot closer to a business that they would actually like being in. But, most don’t. They don’t dig in enough. It’s too bad.

That’s just one example. There are other, ”hot franchises” around. But, “hot” to me, and “hot” to you, will almost always be a different.

One more thing; if a franchise business has been getting a lot of publicity, and happens to be selling a large number of franchises, that franchise business is usually perceived to be, “hot.”

If you buy a “hot franchise” like that, is it possible that you’re buying it too late?

Can you think of any, “hot franchises” that aren’t anymore? 

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