Many of the franchises we discuss here are home-based: you can work from home in these businesses instead of renting space. There are some obvious advantages to this, including lower start-up costs. Not all home-based franchises are alike, though. If your mental image when you see those words is you in your jammies, you might need to think again.
Let’s look at a few examples. Each of these home-based franchises takes a different approach.
Vending machines are a common home-based franchise because you don’t necessarily need an office location. You travel from one vending machine to another on your route, and you can do your office work at home. Grow Vending offers prefilled cartridges that contain all the supplies needed to fill vending machines. This makes the process easier and cuts down on the space needed to store inventory.
As with other inventory-based home businesses, hiring help to manage the inventory may be a necessity with Grow Vending as you build vending locations. At some point, you might need dedicated space for your inventory and for your staff.
Another common business model is to take services to customers at their own locations with inventory that is used in providing services. Instead of selling products, franchises like Mosquito Squad sell services that implement products. Inventory is still part of the franchise but conducting your business at your customers’ locations means you don’t have to pay for office space.
Mosquito Squad’s approach to mosquito management is to spray to keep them away, either by one-time applications, routine applications, or automatic misters. Although franchisees have to keep their inventory in mind, the idea is about selling a service. Other franchises that are similar include cleaning franchises that use their own supplies to clean but provide a service rather than selling the product.
The third primary category of home-based business involves doing the work at your home for clients, much like a contractor. Franchises like ClaimTek Medical Billing help you gain the skills and get your business off the ground. Even if franchisees already have experience in medical billing, ClaimTek trains them to capture business and execute contracts with effectiveness and efficiency.
Providing services from your home can remain a comfortable work-from-home business, since it doesn’t usually require inventory or staff. If you want to, though, a business like ClaimTek can be built into a larger undertaking in which you hire workers to do the direct service provision while you focus on management.
Regardless of which model you decide is the best type of home based business for you, be sure to do your due diligence when looking into franchises.
Are you taking the most efficient approach to finding the best franchises for you? If you would like to ask some questions about your career path in franchising, please feel free to call Bill Bradley at 602.677.3683. We are simply here to help you. There are no fees or any obligation what so ever. I would look forward to hearing from you.