"Good franchises won’t get involved with you unless they think you will succeed as it reflects on them in the end. These are the people that you want to deal with..."
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The Middle Road to Independence

My eldest son is 28 years old.  In High School, well, let’s say we were not too worried about affording the tuition to Stanford or MIT.  His grades were, to say the least, underwhelming and I am being generous in that description.  We had him tested, tutored, and tried numerous carrots and sticks and none of it worked. 
So upon his graduation, I told him literally, “Congratulations, you’re a man.  From this day forward your rent to live at home is $600 per month and you have to live by house rules.  You also have to buy groceries.  If any of this strikes you as unfair, move out”, which naturally, he promptly did.
He held a job at the airport for a couple of years fueling planes.  Soon enough his needs exceeded his income and he moved on.  He started his own business, a fishing charter company in Mexico, and in some ways like his Dad he found out making an avocation into a business is usually a bad idea.  However he discovered that he has a great talent in customer service and made a lot of contacts along the way.  He parlayed that into a job selling heavy equipment for a national company.
That worked out well, but he discovered that corporate hierarchy is a pain in the butt unless you are wired for it.  Then he fell in love with a wonderful girl and wanted to leave Tucson to join her in Phoenix.  He began looking around and at my suggestion did some research on franchises.  I suggested given his love of being out and about, customer service, all things mechanical, and the need to make a good living that he check out the tool sales companies like Snap On and Matco.  He is doing that right now and I am pretty certain that this will be his path.
I share all of this with you as I think that a well chosen franchise suited to your interests and abilities is often the best road to independence and wealth.  The trick is to find the right one and do your homework.  There are a lot of franchise opportunities out there and some cost a lot (McDonald’s as an example), others a lot less like my son’s choices.  And there are others that just plain suck.
The key to success is to read the material, talk to actual franchisees and not just the ones that are provided by the franchisor, and having a set of realistic expectations and needs clearly in mind.  Then you can match you money with your needs and see if there is a fit.  Good franchises won’t get involved with you unless they think you will succeed as it reflects on them in the end.  These are the people that you want to deal with.  As a general rule, like so much else in life, if it sounds too good to be true, it is.

Posted by Herb Kay on Thursday, May 29, 2008

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