By James CooperPut yourself in a situation where you have decided to start up your own carpet cleaning business. The next step is to ask yourself an important question - Should I go with a franchise or remain independent? This decision should be made with great care after exploring all the factors involved as it is probably one of the most important decisions you will ever make in terms of your career. In this article you will pick up some tips that will help you to make up your mind.Although franchises have some great opportunities attached to them and also many advantages they can also have limitations and disadvantages like anything can. It is because of these drawbacks that franchises are not suitable for everyone. One drawback of franchises is the cost. You will have to pay franchise fees for the whole time your business is up and running and this could cost you a lot if you are not making much of a profit from your business. You will also need to buy all the cleaning products and other equipment that you will need, however quite often you will be required to buy them from the franchiser at premium prices. If you were to do all of this and then drop out of the franchise you would need to start over from scratch as the customers that you would have obtained over your time with the franchise would belong to them and you would not be allowed to take any of them with you.Your idea of franchises is most likely to be very negative right now but there are also some advantages to them. Firstly, you have a significantly higher success rate when you choose a franchise as they have already learned how to run the business and market products and services. All you would have to do is follow their business model and you are pretty much guaranteed success in your career. If the franchise is widely recognised this could also help you a great deal. If you want to enter the water damage restoration area name recognition is also very important if you want to become a preferred vendor of the insurance companies.So that is everything you need to know about franchises at this decision stage. But what id you want to go down the route of independence? This will also have a number of advantages for you. For instance, you are able to choose and use the equipment and chemicals that you want to use and you will save a lot of money on these as you can search around for a place that offers you the best prices. The biggest advantage however, which you would not get if you chose a franchise, is that you would keep all of your profits.Again however, there are disadvantages attached to the independence route. Firstly, you have to teach yourself in both the skills and business sense. All the mistakes that a franchisor has already made in the business, you will probably make yourself and will then have to repair the possible damage yourself and this could cost you a lot of money, time and resources. You might not think that you will make mistakes but there is a very high probability that you will.The path that you take will determine the rest of your career and so it is very important that you choose the right one to take and the one that will suit you the most. Take time and care to weigh up all of the options available to you and then choose which one you think will be the right one for you. Even if you find one that you think is for you, ensure that you look at all the options and keep that one in mind, just in case there is another possible route that you may find later. Good luck!
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