To what extent do you agree with the view that franchising is the salvation of people starting and operating a small business

Essay from the year 2005 in the subject Business economics - Company formation, Business Plans, grade: A, University of Otago (Department of Management), course: Small Businesses, 31 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Franchising as a way of starting or operating a small business that is more likely to be successful than engaging in an independent small business. This was the predominant opinion during the last decades (Hoy, 1994). The common view towards franchising merits a closer look into situations franchising and non-franchising small businesses could face to finally answer the title-question of this essay 'To what extend do you (do I) agree with the view that Franchising is the salvation of people starting and operating a small business?'. To provide a sound answer the initial question requires some clarification. The basic notions of 'franchising' and 'small business' are defined and described in the first chapter. The second chapter, however, focuses on the person who starts or runs the small business, the entrepreneur or small business owner. The understanding of the entrepreneur's personality shall be enhanced by asking several questions. What kinds of decisions do self-employed people have to make, what are the threats they are confronted with and what determinates their failure and success? What might be the reasons for entrepreneurial behaviour and how might small business people feel running or starting the business? Moreover, what could the term 'salvation' mean to these people, and how could 'salvation' be interpreted? The third part of this essay combines the insights of the previous chapters by displaying the framing conditions that could induce the future small business person to start a franchise as first-time self-employment or the existing entrepreneur to give up an existing independent business in order to run a franchise. Whether franchising finally meets 'salvation', what kind of advantages and disadvantages franchising might offer and what kind of personal attributes franchisees and franchisors need to embody shall be presented in this last chapter. My subjective evaluations will be clearly visible in the text, for instance by defining 'salvation' or assessing the personal feelings of the prospective or current self-employed person. Additionally the text concludes with my individual judgement about the 'extent' to which franchising is the salvation of people starting or operating in a small business.