LIVING WELL Magazine

ARE YOU AN ENTREPRENEUR – WHY FRANCHISE WITH SENIOR MAGAZINE

Wikipedia defines an entrepreneur as “a person who has possession of a new enterprise, venture or idea, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome.  He or she is an ambitious leader who combines land, labor and capital to often create and market new goods or services.  Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to the type of personality who is willing to take upon herself or himself a new venture or enterprise and accepts full responsibility for the outcome.”

 Are you ready to be an entrepreneur?  Do you have what it takes to accept full responsibility for the outcome?  In my opinion, after over 25 years as a small business owner, less than 5% of the population is truly capable of being an entrepreneur.  It takes guts, grit, determination and vision.

 If you think you have what it takes, what’s the next step?  How do you decide what business you are going to open?  Many people approach the issue of starting a new business based on what they “like.”  However, just because you “like” ice cream does not mean you’re ready to find a brick and mortar location, analyze the traffic and demographics, hire multiple minimum wage employees and train them, only to face high percentage turnover, get up at 5am to open the shop and start making the product, etc, etc, etc. 

 There are many aspects to owning your own business and being an entrepreneur that must be taken into account for you personally.  Do you want a brick and mortar business requiring employees, inventory and high overhead?  What kind of time and what hours are you willing to work?  Do you want to manage employees?  Do you want to maintain a purchase order system and inventory?  Do you want a home based business?

 Once you’ve answered these basic questions, what’s next?  Where do you start to find that “new enterprise, venture or idea?”  As many first-time business owners find out, there is a high failure rate for independent, non-franchise businesses.  Many studies have concluded that the failure rate of new start-up businesses is over 90% within 5 years, compared to a failure rate of only 10% of franchise businesses that are still operating after 5 years.  Why the difference?  When a person buys a franchise, he or she is purchasing someone else’s “system,” trade name and learning curve.  The franchising business model generally offers a proven product or service that has been tested, validated, and successfully sold in the market place.  Some of the advantages of buying a franchise over starting an independent company include instant brand awareness and credibility, administrative and/or technical support, franchisor-provided training, quicker return on investment, strong management, and a network of other franchisees and associations dedicated to supporting franchisees.

 If your answer to the above questions lead you to look towards a home based business with no employees, where you set your own hours and have the freedom and flexibility that comes with owning your own business, then a SENIOR Magazine franchise may be the right choice for you.  We welcome you to explore our franchise opportunity at www.yourseniormagazine.com.  Complete our “get started” form and you will receive an email from SENIOR Magazine with a link to our virtual brochure.  This on-line experience is designed to allow you to make an informed decision about our franchise opportunity.

 After over 25 years as a small business owner, I have seen one characteristic that is consistent with successful entrepreneurs – passion.  They have a passion for what they do, and that passion is contagious.  Whatever you decide to do, have a passion for your product, business or idea and your odds of success will be greatly improved.  Without that passion, you’re basically just trying to create a job for yourself.

Observers see entrepreneurs as those willing to accept a high level of personal, professional and/or financial risk to pursue opportunity.  Are you an entrepreneur?  Take a look at SENIOR Magazine.