Small Business Articles

Small Business Moonlighting--Great Part-Time Franchise Opportunities

November 24, 2008
For many, fulltime employment is a sort of golden egg, providing a steady income sufficient for a family, insurance coverage and benefits, investments for the future, upward mobility, and ultimately personal stability. However, sometimes outside circumstances can buck those expectations or simply put them in jeopardy, as, for instance, our current economic crunch has recently done to many Americans. With the stock market sucking America’s hard-earned investments into the proverbial toilet and with more and more companies having to lay off employees, the situation is getting rather scary for some, and the idea of financial independence sounds increasingly attractive.

As odd as it may sound, one of the wisest ways of loosening your dependence on your boss and the bi-weekly paycheck is to start with some side-work. Of course, working nights at the local convenience store is not going to pay off very well in the long run, but operating your own home based business in your spare hours can. Not only does running a franchise business from home provide a stream of secondary income, which is handy in light of economic conditions, but when a small business reaches optimum strength, many entrepreneurs find they can leave the rat-race entirely and focus fulltime on their own franchise business, freeing them from dependence on an employer who may soon need to make cutbacks.

If you’re interested in supplementing your income today and leaving the grind, with its threat of job-loss, tomorrow, consider taking advantage of a part-time business opportunity. To get you started, here is a quick list of franchises that offer such an option for part-to-fulltime growth.

MonitorClosely.com

Technological and communicational advancements in recent years have completely revolutionized the surveillance industry, and MonitorClosely.com is a home business putting all those advancements to use for franchisees. Selling their top-of-the-line products primarily to apartment complexes, childcare facilities, and homes for the elderly, franchisees offer their clients a security asset that most facility managers are looking for. What sets MonitorClosely.com apart, though, is the rare opportunity they provide of viewing live video feeds anytime, from anywhere, simply by way of the internet, allowing, for example, parents the ability to check in on their kids whenever they like. For the franchisee, business is all about selling products and maintenance services without ever having to worry about holding a stock of product, because everything is drop-shipped directly to the client from a central warehouse facility. The hours are up to the franchisee to determine, and sales are limited only by the franchisee’s desire to profit.

Furniture Medic

A subsidiary of the ServiceMaster franchise brand, Furniture Medic is the world’s largest and most respected name in furniture repair and restoration, specializing in services for wood and leather, including leather car upholstery. Currently 600 franchisees are putting this van-based, mobile franchise to work, servicing the furniture-repair needs of homeowners, business owners, moving companies, hotels, furniture retailers, insurance companies, property managers, and many others. No experience is necessary, and the rate of expansion is entirely up to the franchisee.

Glove Lady

Another mobile franchise, this business for sale has the glove and safety equipment industry cornered by bringing all the gear that clients need right to their doorsteps in the brightly colored Glove Lady (or Glove Guy) van. The benefit of this particular industry in the midst of today’s economic situation is that the safety equipment world is essentially recession-proof. Because companies will always need gloves and safety gear, particularly as safety regulation becomes increasingly stringent, there will always be a demand for Glove Lady. With a protected territory and a customized marketing plan to address that territory, work from home franchisees are ready and able to grow as the business comes, one day making this side-operation their primary source of income.

Global Broker Systems

Whether the economic market is up or down, people are always interested in making as much of their businesses as they possibly can, but doing that requires financing; financing that they often do not have in and of themselves. That is where the Global Broker Systems franchisee comes into play. Equipped with a marketing system that leverages the internet as much as possible, the work at home franchisee is taught how to best find business clients who he can then offer the best financing solutions to. A full range of finance services are provided, including debt restructuring, business acquisition financing, working capital loans, and much more. Many begin part-time in this franchise opportunity before realizing how much money they could be making on a fulltime basis.

The Photo Archival Company

Spend some time each night working on your own business in your own home office. Aside from marketing and client meetings to discuss projects, most of this franchise’s work can be done at any time of day from a home work station. The essence of the work is compiling client media (pictures and video) into single-format productions and/or simple data storage, and sometimes the task is as simple as converting VHS to DVD or duplicating home movies. The franchisor provides franchisees with all the necessary equipment and computer programming, and training is available for anyone lacking previous experience.

Even when times are hard and your days are full, there are still business opportunities to help you keep ahead. It’s just a matter of seeing those opportunities and taking advantage of them, even when they seem a little outlandish, like taking on a part-time small business and seeing where it takes you. The goal is to achieve business and financial independence when, soon, there may not be guaranteed job stability at your nine-to-five, and a home business can make that happen.
November 24, 2008