Junk removal franchises have made a lot of millionaires throughout North America. However, there are many reasons NOT to buy one.
1) Limited National Name Recognition: When you buy a franchise you hope that you are able to buy into a customer base. When you purchase a Chick-Fil-A franchise you have tons of people who will be instant customers. You don’t have that national name recognition with junk removal. What that means is you are going to be building up the franchise name in your market. You lose one of the major benefits of franchises which is brand recognition.
2) You’re handcuffed! When you buy a junk removal franchise you don’t just have the initial franchise fee. You also have to pay a percentage of sales back to the franchisor, forever! This is despite the fact that you generally need the most support early on. That’s when you need to be trained and have the most questions. So what happens is you pay less early on when you need the most help and a lot more later on even if you need very little help at all.
3) You have to pay more to have additional territories. This is one of the main disadvantages with a junk removal franchise. If you want to expand geographically you will have to buy a new territory. That means you are good to operate with your given territory, but if you want to go 1 mile outside of the territory you purchased you have to pay another large territory fee. In addition, you might have to buy an option for that territory or someone else could buy it before you are ready to.
4) People love local. People love locally owned businesses. Many people assume the large national junk removal franchises are actually large corporately owned units. They don’t realize there is a small business owner behind that franchise operating it. You can get jobs all the time from people that said “I chose you because you are local.”
5) Why Would You Go With a Franchise? So you read all this and wonder, “Why would I want to buy a franchise?” A franchise is excellent at helping you get set up and established. They do all of your initial training. This is likely a week or two of hands on training. They also have great, professional branding. And you’ve got a coach that is helping you throughout the opening phase as well as on an ongoing basis. That type of support is definitely worth the price you pay! You will waste a ton of money making mistakes and you’ll miss out on sales by trying to figure it out on your own.
6) But, what about a great alternative? We’ve got an excellent alternative to franchising. JRA was founded by the owners of Junk Doctors Junk Removal and Hauling in North Carolina. Over a five year time frame they built Junk Doctors to a million dollar plus a year business. Instead of franchising, they decided to start JRA. JRA has complete operations manuals, an incredibly expansive video training and testing series, in person training, digital marketing management, a contact center, and on going services available to junk removal companies through North America. So we’ve taken the services a franchise provides and we offer them ala-carte. No long term commitments and only pay for what you use. You get the same, if not better, training than the franchises for much less money up front and A TON less long term.
JRA, as part of the Nth Zone family of companies, is changing the way prospective franchisees get in business. Contact us today at 919-617-1975 if you have any questions on how we can help you build a great business and gain freedom in your life.