If you’re like many of our franchise candidates, you see franchising as a path to your long-term financial goals. It might be your ticket to an early retirement, world travel, or building wealth for the next generation. You probably understand that these kinds of goals require lead time and planning. And to plan accurately, you need to have realistic expectations about how soon you’ll reap the rewards of franchise ownership. That’s why it’s important to understand your franchise launch timeline.
First Things First: Choosing your Franchise
Most people who come to The Empowered Franchisee are not looking for someone to convince them that franchising is a good idea. They’ve already decided that they’re very interested in franchise ownership. Rather, they want help with the complicated and sometimes overwhelming process of choosing the right franchise.
When you work with us, you should expect this part of the franchise launch timeline to take 6-8 weeks. The process starts with our initial consultation and ends when you sign your franchise contract and pay your up-front fees to the franchisor. If you come to us with a very narrow definition of what you want and have all your ducks in a row, your timeline may be on the shorter end of that range. Expect a longer process if you’re interested in area development or some other kind of multi-unit franchise contract.
How will you spend that 6-8 weeks? Aside from your meetings with us, you’ll also go through the franchisor’s awarding process. The Empowered Franchisee partners with a highly respected network called FranChoice, so franchisors know that our candidates are solid. But they still have to do their due diligence on you–and you should do yours on them.
The Franchise Launch Timeline for a Home-Based Business
If you decide to purchase a home-based franchise, you’ll usually spend less time getting up and running than you would for a brick-and-mortar business. I usually suggest that clients plan for 90-120 days of runway before they can start serving customers and collecting revenue through a home-based franchise.
You’ll spend those 3-4 months:
- Completing required training with the franchisor
- Familiarizing yourself with the franchise business system
- Identifying vendors and purchasing equipment and supplies
- Completing any necessary business paperwork with your city, county, and/or state
- Obtaining a storage facility for your equipment and supplies, if necessary
One note: this timeline may be longer if your franchise is in a heavily regulated industry, such as home health care. In addition to the franchisor’s training and ordinary business licensing, you may also have to go through federally- or state-mandated training and certification before you can open your business.
The Franchise Launch Timeline for a Brick-and-Mortar Business
The franchise launch timeline is almost always longer for brick-and-mortar franchises than for home-based businesses. In my experience, you’ll need to plan on a launch date 6-9 months after you sign your franchise agreement and pay your fees. Why the longer wait? In addition to everything you have to do to launch a home-based franchise, you also have to deal with real estate.
Most brick-and-mortar franchises come with very specific requirements regarding the size and setup of the physical space. In order from least to most time-consuming, you’ll have to:
- Find an existing space that meets the criteria,
- Find an existing space that doesn’t meet the criteria and build out or remodel it to suit, or
- Build something from scratch.
Multi-Unit Ownership and the Franchise Launch Timeline
If you’ve signed up to be a multi-unit owner or area developer, your launch timeline for the post-signing stage may be longer than 9 months, depending on how many units you have to open to start with. Usually, franchisors require multi-unit owners to open at least 2-3 locations during the initial launch.
You’ll also have a longer timeline to full operation (the point at which all your units are open and running smoothly). Most area developer contracts, for example, require the franchisee to open a new location every 8-18 months until the full number of franchises are operational.
Overall, you should expect a timeline of anywhere from 5 to 18 months between your first meeting with an Empowered Franchisee consultant and the launch of your first franchise location, depending on the factors I outlined above.
My friends know that I often say, “Time is my enemy.” I say this because time is the one thing we can never get back. So if you know you’re interested in franchise ownership, don’t put it off. Book a call with our team today, and we can start the clock with a 20-minute conversation. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll be on your way to the professional and financial freedom you crave!
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