After weeks of lockdown, the shops and pubs are opening up and customers are encouraged to get back to them and spend their money. The pandemic halted much of the economy, but businesses are back, and they are making up for lost time.
BusinessesForSale.com
Franchises have seen an increase in enquiries despite the pandemic. This indicates to us that people are ready to grab the bull by the horns and join the league of entrepreneur.
Read on to discover which businesses have seemed to be most popular among other potential franchisees!
Popular categories
From May 2019 to May 2020, our site has seen a 15% increase in general franchise enquiries. This shows obvious interest from people in becoming franchisees despite COVID-19. We also saw almost 1.1 million unique site visits spread between categories. This is up 15.3% from May last year.
So, where are people looking to invest? Our top five category searches were with low cost franchising, work from home franchises, food franchises, retail franchises and internet franchises.
Some of these categories are not surprising. Low cost and work
from home opportunities are sure to remain popular as COVID-19 has hit the pockets of a lot of people. Working from home has also become part of many of our daily lives and therefore, running a franchise from home is appealing to those who are looking to continue keeping away from an office setting.
The popularity of internet franchises is also not surprising as businesses operating online were less likely to be affected by the lockdown as physical premises were forced to closed.
What seems counterintuitive is the interest in retail and food franchises. It is encouraging, though, to see that these traditionally popular sectors have not lost their appeal as entrepreneurs anticipate their continued attractiveness with customers post-lockdown.
Food franchises, in most cases, though, were able to diversify and focus on take away and delivery services through lockdown. There have also been many retail businesses that intensified online delivery or essential products and were able to keep trading competitively through lockdown.
Choosing a franchise
In this climate, it can be tempting to select a franchise that is doing well and invest in it. This, however, is a short-sighted approach to take. Many of the businesses that have been doing well over the past three months won’t necessarily be the right business for you.
Remember that any franchise that you invest in will be for the long term. In most cases, the term of agreement that you will sign will be for five years and most franchisees resign after this time, according to Bal Kaur, HSBC
Franchise Manager.
Is now a good time to buy a franchise?
No matter when you are buying a franchise, you need to do so because you are heading towards a goal. It shouldn’t be all about money but, rather, it should be about passion.
Ben Brooks,
Managing Director of Agency Express, says that there won’t ever be a perfect time to buy a franchise. He continues that there is never a business opportunity out there that is so good that you should feel pressure to jump in without doing the proper research. Instead, you need to do as much research about any opportunity available to you.
What many people have now, though, is more time to do that research as we are indoors and at home more than usual. Use that time to find the ideal franchise for you. Whatever you choose and whenever you buy a franchise, remember that it needs to be the right fit.
Investing in the right franchise, though, can be a great way to be your own boss but with
added security.
