Franchising Doesn't Have to Break the Bank

By LAUREN KAMINSKI Deciding to purchase your own franchise does not always require endless loans or being independently wealthy. There are plenty of affordable options to buy into at under $100,000—and these can include store-front choices. One such option is FAST-FIX Jewelry & Watch Repair. Established in 1984, the mall based stores don’t require any previous jewelry experience or a slew of employees. Instead, FAST-FIX has created a service based in quick and professional repair work for men and women to have their broken watches and jewelry repaired at their convenience while shopping. FAST-FIX even does the legwork for choosing the best site at the mall, negotiating the lease, and constructing the store, making the experience hassle-free and easy. The locations also sell jewelry-related cleaners and gifts, and corporate will walk you through the entire process to yield the most successful results. Another low initial investment option is The Maids, a residential cleaning franchise recognized by Entrepreneur magazine as No. 1 in the residential cleaning industry. With more than 30 years of industry experience, and the freedom not to work during weekends, nights, and the holidays, The Maids is an appealing business available to open at an affordable price. Buying a franchise opportunity with The Maids additionally allows the option to purchase large markets in which you can expand your business easily once you have established a solid local client base. Between the consumer recognition and the fact that Americans regularly look to a service to clean their home, the brand can provide for high return on your investment, with the average gross sales for a franchisee in business for at least four years reaching $959,000. Mathnasium* also offers a wealth of opportunity at an affordable price, requiring only $37,000 at signing. Mathnasium is becoming one of the fastest growing educational franchises in the world and it has become an appealing tutoring center because most children perform poorly in math from the lack of proper instruction at school. Making math fun might seem like a calculus problem on its own, but Mathnasium provides a method based on 30 years of research, ensuring that the franchisee will successfully run their own business while helping the children in the community excel in learning. An additional benefit for potential Mathnasium franchisee hopefuls is that discounts are available for anyone looking to buy multiple locations. These are just three samplings of options available, but if you think that you need to be a millionaire to open your own business, think again. You can see that the opportunities cover a large variety of industries if you just do your research.