Starting your very own business can be a challenging and long drawn out procedure, full of dangers and traps for the novice entrepreneur and regrettably a significant amount of enterprises never reach the break-even stage.

To purchase a franchise business allows you to shorten the learning curve considerably. Not only will you instantly be trading under an established name - which has most likely taken many years, of fine-tuning and promoting to establish - but you will also have access to the business know-how and experience which has made the franchise a winner. The person who launched the business into which you are considering buying a franchise would have possessed a whole lot of determination and an unusual amount of drive to not only have created the business idea in the first place, but to take it to where is today – a (hopefully) prosperous franchise. If you do decide buy a franchise opportunity, you will be buying into, and be able to benefit from, the same culture of success.

Then what are the grounds to NOT buy a franchise? The two main reasons are cost and restrictions.

Starting a franchise will often be more expensive than starting an original business idea. The reason is you need to pay a franchise fee which compensates the franchisor for the franchise development costs, franchise sales marketing expenses and the franchise training program. There will the be additional costs of franchise royalty payments and usually you will need to contribute to the franchise advertising fund. Also the franchisor may require the purchaser having minimum amount of working capital to be available.

Whilst these expenses may seem high, they are usually realistic and help ensure that your new business is successful. Conversely opening your own business venture may be feasible on a shoe-string budget, but it will be a lot tougher to get to the break-even point.

Some of the restrictions that the franchise contract imposes on their franchisees are there for a good reason: The franchise business model has been finely tuned for years, possibly over decades, and one of the constant struggles a franchisor has to face is resisting the the temptation to implement every new bright idea that a franchisor may want to try. Uniformity is of major importance in the franchise universe. Each customer who knows the franchise chain expects to see the same products, the same branding and the same "look and feel". It is the comfort of encountering the familiar which appeals to customers.

Another restriction that may apply is one of geographical area. Although this is becoming less frequent these days, many franchises still make it a requirement to define a territory in which the franchise may operate. This may have the effect of minimizing competition in a particular territory and so give a new franchise the best chance of succeeding. Alternatively, owning a franchise territory may place heavy burdens on the franchisee who could be expected to develop the territory and reach certain milestones within a certain time frame.

So there are many factors to study when making the decision whether to buy a franchise or start a brand new business concept, but for many, the discipline and guidance available from the franchisor will make purchasing a franchise the wisest choice.