Investing in a franchise business like Signarama can be an exciting and fulfilling decision—but there are also many challenges that first-time franchise owners will face. Following are five reasons why owning a franchise can be challenging:

1. The Owners Have False Expectations

Yes, opening up a franchise is often a lot more affordable and less risky than starting a business from the ground up. But this doesn’t mean that as soon as you come up with the money and open your new franchise business that you’ve basically got a license to print money. You won’t suddenly have two dozen franchises within the next year, either—it takes time and effort to grow a franchise business. If you keep your expectations in check and work hard, you will most likely grow your franchise. Just don’t expect instant results—franchise ownership is about working towards long-term growth.

2. They Don’t Have Any Previous Business Experience

If you decide to start a business from scratch, then you had better have some business experience, or you’re going to fall flat on your face. One of the advantages of investing in a franchise, though, is that you don’t necessarily need that experience. The thing is, you might be a bit intimidated by all of the new things that you need to learn the first few months of ownership. Learning on the fly can seem like a bit much, after all—and a little risky as well.

Fortunately, many franchises, like Signarama, provide full-fledged training programs for new franchise owners to ensure that they learn what they need to know to run their franchise. In addition to taking an educational course, new franchise owners are provided with training at an existing Signarama store and then given technical market training at their own store for two weeks. This crash course in business will get you started—but you’ll learn plenty more through your own experience. If being tossed out into the wild like that scares you, don’t worry—Signarama provides continuous support that you can turn to for help and information.

3. They Don’t Have Managerial Experience

In addition to lacking business experience, you may lack managerial experience as well. While you’ll learn how to manage your store in the training sessions, knowing how to hire staff can be difficult. After all, the right staff makes all the difference. In addition to leaning on your franchise support system to help you hire the right staff, you should hire managers who have a lot of experience first, so that they can help you fill out the rest of your staff.

4. They Are Not Used to Being Their Own Boss

One of the reasons many people decide to invest in franchises is because they want to be their own boss. However, the responsibilities of being one’s own boss can be overwhelming the first time you’re faced with them. Fortunately, you’ll be working within a franchise system that’s set up to guide franchise owners and to limit the risk of failure.

5. They Don’t Know When to Expand Their Franchise Business

Many franchise owners want to expand as quickly as possible. However, doing so can leave them spread too thin. Knowing when to expand is important—you don’t want to open another franchise unless your first franchise is working smoothly and you see an opportunity for growth.

These are five reasons why owning your first franchise can be challenging. However, these challenges can be overcome with a strong franchise support system, such as the one at Signarama. Click here to learn more!