ONE-MAN JOBS

Solo franchises combine support and simplicity

By Adam Stone - Special to the Times

Tuesday Jul 27, 2010 12:34:28 EDT

 

Even before Air Force medic Robert Anaya left the service in 2005, he had his next career all picked out. Tapping into his background in construction, the senior master sergeant decided to pursue income and independence as a home inspector.

But the financial picture was not encouraging. With business cards and brochures, administrative support and other infrastructure, starting up could be a costly affair. Then he found an alternative: For about $10,000, he bought into Pro-Sight Property Inspections, a national operation that would allow him to work independently while managing marketing and other business details for him.

“Everything was already developed, the website and marketing materials,” Anaya said. “So I thought, why reinvent the wheel?”

For many entrepreneurs setting up shop for the first time, the one-man franchise can be tempting for its combination of support and simplicity. Anaya has no employees and virtually no overhead. He works on his own and keeps what he earns, minus a small ongoing fee to Pro-Sight.

“Probably the best reason for [opening a one-person franchise] is that you just flat-out don’t want to manage other people and don’t want their headaches,” said Steve Richards, president of Lighthouse Franchise Consultants in Atlanta. “Either it’s a pain in the rear and it takes a lot of time, or else you’ve got to pay someone to do it for you, which reduces your profitability.”

There are any number of franchising models that let you fly solo, including pet care, tutoring, computer consulting and home health care.

One growing field is mobile drug-testing: entrepreneurs who travel between places of employment collecting blood samples for obligatory screening.

For many, the attraction of these businesses is the independence they offer.

“You can control your own schedule. The harder you work, the more you make,” Anaya said. “And then there is the customer service. When you hire someone, you hope you get a good employee, but you don’t really know. Nobody thinks just like you.”

Anaya has more independence than most franchisees because Pro-Sight is an “affiliation” arrangement rather than a strict franchise, which means he operates under his own business name, Cornerstone Property and Environmental Inspections.

Still, he enjoys the same basic benefit as any solo businessman: He doesn’t have to deal with the reams of paperwork that come with having employees. Not having employees also means avoiding reams of paperwork. Once you hire someone, “you’ve got payroll, you’re got taxes, now you need to figure out about health benefits. You have all these other things to worry about,” he said.

Challenges of working solo

While you may be able to dodge those hassles, solo franchises come with their own challenges. In particular, there’s no one to push you.

“There are some people who can’t work on their own, who get distracted by the refrigerator or the wash, who can go jog or play with the dog,” Richards said.

Veterans may be highly disciplined, Richards said, but they also are used to being held accountable. It takes a different kind of focus to stay on track without a commanding officer looking over your shoulder.

Expertise matters, too, whether you’re inspecting properties or executing blood tests. “It’s not like you necessarily come out of the service with that skill,” Richards said. “So for a one-person franchise, it’s especially important to see what the training is like with that franchise.”

Then there is the money. While prices may vary, a solo practice will always cost less than a quarter-million-dollar fast food opportunity. On the flip side, banks may be less willing to lend the startup costs when the operator has nothing to put up as collateral beyond his or her dog-walking skills.

And once you do start up, you’ll find that not having employees brings its own hassles.

For Anaya, the simple question of who would answer the phones became a problem. “If you try to talk to a client and your phone is ringing every five minutes, you just can’t do it. Either you don’t answer the phone and you lose that business, or else you turn your back on the client that’s right in front of you,” he said.

Like many one-person operators, Anaya hired an answering service. “That has made a huge difference,” he said.

For those who do strike out along the solo path with a little help from their franchisor friends, Richards advises keeping the big picture in mind. “When you are at the point where you don’t have any time either for the business side of the business, or any time for your life, then it’s time to think about hiring someone,” Richards said. “The object ultimately should be to build a business that has employees, that generates revenue, that can sustain itself without you. Then you are building value, then you have something you can sell one day.”