Training And Support Outranks Work Flexibility Among Most Desirable Franchise Characteristics
By: Michael Alston for Franchise Insights
December 18, 2024 – In almost five years of surveying for characteristics that make franchises attractive, “low cost of entry” and “higher earnings potential” have consistently been ranked most important by individuals seeking business ownership.
From the emergence of the pandemic in 2020, control over working conditions – including “flexibility of work schedule” and “ability to work from home” were often the two next most important characteristics. But last month, “extensive training and support” ranked higher than working from home.
“Systems and technology platform” edged out ”well-known brand” to round out the top six characteristics.
In the November 2024 FranchiseInsights.com Small Business Startup Sentiment Index™, respondents were asked to rank eight franchise characteristics in order of importance to their ultimate selection, along with a “not important to me” option for each. The data presented are weighted averages of the responses ranked by individual respondents.
‘Extensive training and support’ edged out “ability to work from home’ in the November survey.
On the other hand, “pandemic resilience” had the lowest ranking, and over 22% said it was unimportant (and therefore not ranked), as the economic and social disruptions of Covid viruses fade into memory. In the chart below, which includes all the “not important to me” (unranked) responses,12.7% indicated that a “well-known brand” was not important, suggesting openness to newer concepts or lesser-known brands, or potentially reflecting the lack of capital for an established concept.
The percentages do not sum to 100% since most respondents gave at least some ranking to each of the characteristics.
Since “low cost of entry” and “high earnings potential” were ranked highly by almost all respondents, and deemed “not important” by 5.5% and 3.8% respectively, it goes without saying that they are top considerations. But while that is useful for honing marketing messages, it means that they are less useful in determining information about what drives the individual decision process of prospects, and insights into their personas, as we at Franchise Insights first explored in March 2022.
FranchiseInsights.com compiles the monthly Small Business Startup Sentiment Index™ (SSI) of individuals who have recently inquired about businesses for sale.The most recent Startup Sentiment Index™ survey was conducted November 22-30, 2024. See excerpts from prior SSI™ surveys and subscribe to receive the Small Business Startup Sentiment Index™ monthly report when it is released.
Franchise Ventures is the leading franchise lead-generation platform for potential franchisees to thousands of growing franchise systems in the United States and Canada. Its franchise lead generation brands include Franchise.com, Franchise Solutions, Franchise Gator, Franchise Opportunities, Franchise For Sale, SmallBusinessStartup.com and BusinessBroker.net, and together they provide the largest aggregation of prospective franchise buyers in the U.S.
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Published on Tuesday, December 17th, 2024.