Gena Schneider recently opened a SeekingSitters franchise location in the Inland Empire. Several months prior to opening up her own SeekingSitters franchise, Gena discovered SeekingSitters when the SeekingSitters Orange County franchise ran a daily deal. Gena thought that SeekingSitters was an excellent concept for a business and immediately started to do more research on the company. Gena discovered that there was not a SeekingSitters in her area that she could belong to, but after more research of the company Gena told her husband SeekingSitters was exactly the type of business she wanted to own. Gena believes that flexible childcare is a necessity for so many families. Providing a safe childcare solution is a concept that she is passionate about and the SeekingSitters business model allows her an opportunity to provide a needed service in her community while working primarily from home.

Gena said, “Transitioning from full-time stay-at-home mom to full-time business owner and stay-at-home mom means I have to structure my time each day very wisely, work efficiently within those time constraints, but also be flexible for when it doesn’t go according to plan.” She is able to make time to answer phone calls and emails that fit around her and her children’s schedule. Gena said “I make most phone calls during naptime or while they play at the park, and write follow up emails at night after they go to bed. I visit other businesses while my daughter is in her pre-k class twice a week, and conduct interviews at night after my husband gets home.”  She believes that the hardest part for her has been to set and follow her office hours in the evening after her children are in bed. Most nights Gena has to set alarms on her phone to remind her to get up from her desk and call it a day.

Whether you're starting your own business or investing in a franchise, you have to have a foundation and source of support.  For start-ups, this is a little more difficult of a task.  One of the great benefits of a franchise is, the answer to your question is usually just a phone call away. At SeekingSitters, the person on the other end of that phone call is Christina Oliver, our Operations and Development Director.  From the time you come on as a franchisee, Christina is the one that trains you and offers ongoing support in running your franchise. 

There's certainly nothing wrong with starting your own business from scratch, but sometimes the answers aren't always a phone call away. This goes along with my last post, "Why Franchise?". The support is by far the most important asset you receive with your investment because, most of the time, the answer is a phone call or email away. There's no business plan to write, no special formula, it's all given to you: a tried and true business model.

What makes Christina so good at training our franchisees? She runs SeekingSitters locations also, so she faces the same issues our franchisees face. She knows what works and in turn, hands that information over to our franchisees. 

Our franchisees don't start up without Christina and really, you shouldn't either.  Click on the interview below to learn a little about Christina and what she does for our franchise system.

This is the one questions I get most often: "Why invest in a franchise? Why not just do this myself?"  My answer is always, "Why on earth would you want to?"

In this economy, why take the risk? According to a research by the American Bankruptcy Institute, consumer bankruptcy filings for the first half of 2010 were considerably higher than any six-month period since 2005. Now isn't the best time to take huge risks with your investment. That's the beauty of franchising: you can own your own business without the risk of a normal start-up. Additionally, there are costs savings  you get with the buying power of a franchise system as opposed to going solo.

You look at SeekingSitters system, and the money invested in programming and development of our website would far exceed the franchise fee if you were to try to start up on your own. But, you're investing in other attributes as well: a proven brand, a proven business model and a full plan of attack after you open your location. Most important though is trial and error. Starting from scratch is a ton of trial and error: what advertising will work best? who is my target market? What's the best formula for my pricing? These questions can sometimes take years to answer, but with a franchise, it's handed to you. 

So, if you're looking to start your own business. Why not look at a franchise? If you can find something that fits you well, it's a good, secure option. You don't have to go into business for yourself, by yourself.