A Reason to Look at Service-Related Franchises

Joel Libava
Mon, 27 Oct 2008 12:20:00 +0000

Some financial experts say that part of the U.S. economy is moving towards a service-related one. I tend to agree. In franchising, a large portion of franchise concepts are service related. Let's look at one reason that service-related franchise concepts may make sense for you, when exploring opportunities in franchise ownership.

Since the late 1960s, more and more families have become dual-income households out of necessity. Before that time most households used to have the "Leave It to Beaver" family setup, in which Mom stayed home doing the daily household chores until the kids came home from school, while Dad worked at the office until 5 p.m., and came home to a fully prepared dinner. Well, Dad's paycheck didn't seem to be able to keep up with all the things that a growing family needed, so Moms all over America started going back to work to help out.

Well, it sure seems that the dual-income household situation isn't going to revert back to a one-income household situation anytime soon. As a matter of fact, with inflationary pressures on the rise, I don't see a change anytime soon. It really seems to take two steady incomes to make it nowadays.

The dual-income household not only produces more income, it also produces more aggravation. One such aggravation is the lack of time.

I'll give you a personal example. My wife works full time at a local hospital. Her hours are from 8:30 a.m. until about 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. My franchise consulting business keeps me busy during those same hours, plus some nighttime speaking engagements, and a couple of out-of-town trips every year. Of course, I work on my business on the weekends, also. We have a school-aged child and a dog. Our lives are full, to say the least, and that is a great thing. What isn't so great is the fact that we really don't have a lot of extra time for things that we would like to do as a family. We are not alone. The families that we interact with in our neighborhood and at school functions are, for the most part, in the same boat.

Hundreds of franchise concepts have emerged to help out harried households looking for some relief. Here are a few:

Residential cleaning franchises

Handyman franchises

Tutoring franchises

Pet-related franchises

Dry Cleaning delivery franchises

Household painting franchises

Lawn care franchises

These franchise concepts all solve the same problem that I discussed above, which is a lack of time. Do you think that these franchises are here to stay? Or is there a chance that the "Leave It to Beaver" households of the past will make a resurgence?