A couple of years ago someone I knew attended a seminar at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas. The students had the privilege of meeting Dr. Pankaj Ghemawat , a Harvard professor of over 30 years. Dr. Ghemawat received his Bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics and his Ph.D. in Business Economics from Harvard University from which he entered at the age of 16, was accepted to the Harvard Business Ph.D. program at age 19, and graduated three years later. Ghemawat has also been the Anselmo Rubiralta Professor of Global Strategy at IESE Business School in Barcelona since 2006.
There has possibly never been a better time to start a franchise business, ever. Not only is the franchising model proven, but with a pro-business administration in Washington, the regulatory, and tax environment, along with consumer spending power has never been better! Please don't take my comments as a political endorsement of any politician or political party. I simply think that the facts stand on their own.
Every business can be identified in the following stages. Some actually move from one to the next, while others may stay at the same stage during their entire existence. Businesses in stage one are the most difficult. During this stage every system, product, etc. needs to be developed from the ground up. Most don't survive this stage to move on to stage two. That is one reason that franchising is so attractive to so many. When one invests in a franchise system, they are getting a business model that already survived stage one and two - and the franchise owner just needs to concentrate on following the system and doing it well!
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