Where to search for that perfect franchise

Without leaving the comfort of your own home, you have the ability to easily search for information on just about anything you want. What used to take an entire afternoon at your local library now takes minutes, thanks to the Internet and the powerful search tools that are available to help you pinpoint the exact information you need. It wasn’t always this easy, though. It used to take quite a bit of time just to find out where to find the information!

One solid source of information, pre-Internet, was the Encyclopedia Britannica. Those shelf-hogging, gold-lettered reference books were used by millions of junior high and high school students to find information on everything up until the year 2000 or so. Recently, they were discontinued.

3,000 Franchise Concepts

There are approximately 3,000 different franchise concepts currently registered in the United States, and that fact alone can overwhelm most people. But there’s a simple way to whittle that number down to a manageable amount of opportunities to focus on, and all it requires is some self-introspection.

Recently, I gave you two specific ways to start that process. Once you’re done with them, you’ll be ready to seek out franchise opportunities that could make sense for you. 

Places to Search Online For Franchises

1.       Franchise Directories

There are a number of quality websites that focus on franchise opportunities for sale. These websites derive their revenue from advertising sales, so the franchises that are featured pay to be there. I reviewed 10 franchise opportunity websites, and they’re all great places to start gathering information from. Don’t be shy; request information from any franchises that match your criteria.

2.       News Articles

Every day, hundreds of articles on business and entrepreneurship are published. If you have a Google account, check out their free tool called, “Google Alerts.” They’re easy to set up, and I suggest creating the following search terms:

• popular franchises
• franchise business news
• franchise opportunities
• franchise businesses
• best franchises

Once you set up alerts, you’ll start receiving news articles about franchising topics. You can always add different search terms (or even delete them) whenever you want.

3.       Press Releases

Franchisors periodically release information about promotions that they’re running, company news or even grand-opening announcements. If you want to be among the first to hear about franchises that you may end up buying, subscribe to company newsletters and press release distributors.

For example, you can go to www.PRWeb.com, and sign up to receive franchise business press releases sent right to your email inbox. Go here and scroll down to the “Business” section, and you’ll see the “Franchise” area – just choose how you’d like to receive updates, free!

There are also industry-specific press release websites, like franchisewire.com and franchisesolutions.com, where you can check out all the latest stories about franchising.  

A Place to Search Offline

It’s a given that most of your time searching for a perfect franchise to invest in will be spent online. It could turn out that the franchise business you buy will be the result of hours and hours spent staring at your computer screen. If so, great! But there are plenty of instances in which franchisees have located their opportunities offline.

Have you ever gone on vacation, and saw a retail store or food franchise that you felt would be “perfect” for your local area? In most cases, it’s just idle chatter, but once in a while, someone does end up as the local franchise owner of an operation that they happened to run across while out of town.

Do you have a pizza franchise near your home? If so, grab one of their takeout menus. I’m pretty confident that you’ll see, “Franchises Available” printed somewhere on the menu, along with a 1-800 number to call to “Request More Information.” Do you think any pizza franchise owners found their franchise business that way? You bet they did.

Finally, your Uncle Harvey and Aunt Martha could turn out to be great offline sources of important franchise updates. That’s because once they learn that you’re seriously pursuing a franchise business to buy, they’ll come up with several ideas – just for you.

And one of them may even turn out to be The One.