How I chose what type of business to start

My guess is that for many other entrepreneurs this process is normally the other way around. First, they have a business idea, and then they decide to start it. But for me, after deciding that I wanted to start a business, I had to look at what kind of business would suit me best. I wanted to find a business that met all of my criteria for why I wanted to start a business in the first place, but also one that I would enjoy and that would be financially successful.

My wife and I were getting ready to have our first child, and some friends of ours had just had theirs a few months earlier. In the town we lived in, there was no baby store and our search began there. We researched what we would need to do to start a store, and even requested information on several baby store franchises.

One request for franchise information led us to a franchise broker. This would prove to be very fortunate for all of us. He had us write down what our main motivations for starting a business were, what our interests were, and what our strengths were. This exercise reminded us that we wanted a flexible schedule, and that a baby store, being a retail operation, would not provide this. Next, the broker gave us 10 different options for businesses that he believed would be an excellent fit for us. We narrowed this down to two that we were interested in and requested UFOC's (Uniform Franchise Offering Circular) for both.

After this, we did our due diligence research on both companies. We called current franchisees, went and worked with other franchisees in our area, and then went to a discovery day with the main office for the franchise.

We then sat down and wrote out the pluses and minuses to each. Our list of pluses for the business we chose:

1. Good cash flow from day one
2. Low overhead and startup capital requirements (approx $125,000)
3. Flexible working hours
4. An excellent support system from the lead franchisor and other franchisees (if you are going to pay into a franchise system at the very least you should feel you are getting something for your money)
5. A market that was largely under-served in our area

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