Franchise, Business Opportunity or Other

All franchises are business opportunities but not all business opportunities are franchises. Franchise are very specialized business opportunities which fall under Federal (FTC) and State disclosure and registration procedures. If the federal mandates are met for a franchise, only 14 states require separate registration in order to legally offer franchises in them. That leaves 36 which do not. Of the 14 states that require individual representation, most have similar requirements which makes the filing not overly complicated, however the filing fees add up to several thousands of dollars in addition to the legal fees of having an attorney file.

Taking into consideration the above, business opportunities that are not franchises are regulated in 26 states most of which has extremely varied filing requirements. This can make what appears to be a simpler and less expensive decision to go with a business opportunity for the offerer end up not being the case. In looking at the differences between franchises and business opportunities one can see the differences here:

http://franchises.about.com/od/businessplanning/p/Bus_Opp.htm


By and large franchises have a higher perceived value however there is by definition much more control exercised by the franchisor over the purchaser including but not limited to the use of a trademark or trade name.

One of the alternatives to business opportunities or franchises is a licensed dealership or distributor. These permit the licensee to operate under their own name market as a licensed dealer or representative. While the purchase or investment in these is usually less than a franchise however in most cases the resale of the business in the future is usually less as well. For more information on how to make a decision with regard to which one of these is better for you send in email to info@businesstradegroup.com.