Finding the Right Niche for a Successful Franchise

Building a successful franchise operation depends on your own hard work and good forward planning. A big part of that forward planning goes into deciding what exactly your franchise will do and what niche it’s going to be in. Not finding the right niche for you or what your target markets need can mean that whatever work you put into the business, it’s going to be an uphill struggle to succeed.

On the other hand, finding the perfect niche matching your own strengths with market needs and little competition can mean you’re onto an automatic winner that grows excellently, and you could be looking at expansion after only a few years. Here we’ll take a look at what the right niche for your franchise looks like and how to find it.

Finding the Right Niche for a Successful Franchise

Find What You Enjoy

At the end of the day, you’re the one that’s going to be running the business, so it should be something that you at least don’t dread going into every day. If it’s your first time running your own business, it can be overwhelming as you can pretty much do anything at all. The only catch is you have to decide for yourself what that will be.

If you don’t already have a clear picture of your own strengths or preferences, take some time to think of previous jobs or elements of them that you enjoyed, hobbies that you have and if they can be turned into work or even interesting professions you’ve seen on TV. Take that list and break it down into specific niches, such as maintenance or food service, to get a better idea of the kind of niche that suits you.

Look at Current Successful Franchises

The current trends in what franchises are successful can give you a good idea about how to start yourself. Try checking out lists of the current and long-term successful franchises and see if any of the niches take your fancy. You can find many lists online, such as here and here, so you can collate as much information from multiple sources to improve your knowledge of how franchises are performing in different areas.

Target Audience Analysis

An excellent way of finding out what kind of franchise to open and in which niche to do it is by carrying out a target audience analysis. Quality target audience analysis can give you a detailed insight into what products and services people in your area are looking for, how much they’re willing to pay for it and how aware they are of the offering. You can perform target audience analysis yourself using online tools such as Google Trends and data from the Small Business Administration (SBA).

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Find a Niche That Solves a Problem

Another advantage of good target audience analysis is finding a niche that isn’t just discretionary but a necessity for your customers. Like screen doors or gelato in warm areas, insulation or roofing in cold or wet areas, or phone repair anywhere. The good thing about franchising is that you don’t have to come up with the winning idea on your own, your own research into possible niches combined with your target audience analysis should give you a shortlist of potential franchises. From there, your franchisor will be able to help you with the various business systems and products you’ll be delivering to customers.

Identify the Competition

Along with your target audience research, you should also investigate how much competition exists in that niche in your area. Some ideas might be an excellent fit, but several other companies might have got there before you and established their presence. That’s not to say the business still wouldn’t work, but it’ll be a tougher ride than stepping into a niche with high demand and low competition.

Look for Niches with Long-Term Potential

The best franchises are ones that stick around for a while, and as a prospective franchise owner, you want the security of being in a niche that’s going to last. Sure, plenty of places spring up selling bubble tea or other trend-of-the-day products, but you have to ask yourself where the business will be in five or twenty years. This is especially relevant if you’re taking out financing, as the financial institution will want guarantees about your long-term ability to repay. Of course, a recent trend could be the start of something big that you’re getting on the ground floor, but it’s always good to take a long-term view into consideration.

Find a Niche People Know

Marketing strategy is a major part of whether your business will succeed or not because, without knowing who you are or what you’re providing, it will be hard for customers to engage with you. These marketing efforts will be helped significantly if you’re going into a niche or opening a franchise that people already know. Being a franchise means that you will already be working under a known brand name, while a franchisor will also be able to pool resources to carry out state or national-level marketing, which would be beyond other small businesses.

Conclusion

Opening a franchise can take a lot of the guesswork and unpredictability out of starting a new business as you’ll be working with an established product offering and business system. However, you still have to find the right niche to open a franchise of. There are a number of ways to help you find the right niche for launching a successful franchise, ranging from finding what you like to doing to finding what others need doing. Using available resources and doing target audience analysis can give you excellent insight into what kind of franchise and what particular niche can bring you stable, long-term success as a business-owner.

If you’re considering opening a franchise home improvement is one niche that will always be relevant. As a $400 billion dollar industry in the US, which is growing at over 15% year-on-year, home improvement is a solid, long-term franchise proposition. To find out more about opening a franchise in the home improvement field with Screenmobile you can read more about it here or talk to our team.