It is important to stay on top of trends when you are a franchise investor. Some hot investments might not be related to your niche but it is still good to see where the markets are headed for almost any retail or business franchise investor.
Check out some hot franchises that will be trending heavily this year in 2014:
More and more franchise opportunities are starting to appear that are highly specialized. These opportunities feature products and services that are hyper-focused on specific niches. Some examples include:The Interface Financial Group (IFG): IFG franchisees are in the business of helping companies improve their cash-flow by using a form of short-term borrowing called invoice discounting. Invoice discounting allows a business to draw down a percentage of their outstanding sales invoices, so they can have immediate cash flow. Revenue for franchisees comes from the fees they charge businesses that wish to implement this highly specialized solution to improving cash flow.
Mosquito Squad: Pest extermination as a business has been around a long time. Our view on bugs hasn’t changed during this time; they must be eliminated. Mosquito Squad is different because they only focus on outdoor pests like mosquitos and ticks.
Brain Balance Achievement Centers: Brain Balance Achievement Centers offer programs that focus on the underlying issues resulting in most of the behavioral, developmental, and learning disorders that plague so many children today.
Other niche franchise opportunities that may be worth a look in 2014 include:
- Rapid Recovery, a refrigerant recovery franchise business.
- WG Storage and Delivery, a franchise that provides high-end moving and storage solutions.
- UFC Gym, a fitness franchise offering boxing, kick-boxing and basic mixed martial arts training and workouts.
- OsteoStrong a franchise offering a natural wellness based system designed to improve the symptoms of Osteoporosis, Osteopenia, and Fibromyalgia.
- Kona Ice a franchise that sends tropical-themed frozen dessert trucks to children’s events, corporate events and fundraisers.
Franchise Trends In Food:
The Fuzzy Peach is a young franchisor out of the Wilmington, North Carolina area, offers a rotating array of toppings that customers add to their favorite frozen yogurt selections. The end product is then weighed and charged accordingly.
Menchie’s is another self-serve frozen yogurt franchise that lets customers create their own frozen desserts using fresh toppings and fresh yogurt that comes from “Happy California cows that live in nice weather year-round.”
Several other franchises in the frozen yogurt sector offer self-serve including, FroyoWorld, CherryBerry Self Service Yogurt Bar, YoGo Factory, Yogurtland, and Zinga!
Human Healthy Vending claims to be “a socially responsible franchisor of healthy vending machine and micromarket franchise businesses.” Their offerings include vending machines specializing in coffee, and a large selection of machines offering fresh fruit and even locally sourced products. There’s also an option to add a 23-inch LCD video monitor to the vending machines to stream ads for additional revenue opportunities.
There are also a few business opportunities – which differ from franchise opportunities – being offered in the vending machine space including Grow Vending, Healthier4You Vending, and Naturals2Go.
Tech Trends In Franchising: Franchisors need to make sure that their corporate websites are optimized for mobile viewing, so their future clients, customers and prospective franchisees will stay engaged long enough to get information and take action.
Today’s busy consumers are using their mobile devices for everything from online shopping to surfing locally for places to eat. They’re also using the Click to Call feature that more and more mobile business websites are featuring. Franchisors need to make sure that their franchisees can capitalize on every opportunity that’s increasingly coming from people using mobile devices.
If you’re going to use a website like Ripoff Report as part of your research on a franchise, you have to be .
Fact: Most people who are looking at franchise ownership are doing so for the first time, so there are bound to be mistakes made. But, sometimes the mistakes seem to be made by the franchisor. The Unhappy Franchisee website has several examples. And, as an added bonus, the comment area of the site features ex-franchisees of some of the franchise concepts that have been reported on sharing their true-life stories.
Don't forget to check the franchise out prior to making an investment by using websites and resources like the Ripoff Report and The Unhappy Franchise. Put in the time to do all the research you can before making any final decisions and you will save yourself time and money on your next investment.
Do you have any tips to share for first time franchise investors to help them avoid making any huge mistakes?
Article Source: Small Business Trends
Image Source: epSos .de on Flickr
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