Overcome Recession Woes in the New Year With a Work From Home Business Franchise

With the recession in full swing, many businesses are now beginning to show whether they have what it takes to operate long term in the midst of a recession. While some businesses will try to simply survive until the economy turns around, the businesses worth investing in and getting behind right now are the ones that can not only keep their head above water during recession, but the ones that can actually profit when the economy isn't great. With the lowest overhead of nearly any type of business, work from home business franchises can be one of the most profitable and lowest risk businesses right now. With no office space to lease or storerooms to keep stocked, home based businesses put you at the helm of your own businesses for a low initial startup cost and operating costs that continue to stay low for the life of the business. If you've been thinking about a work at home business but have been waiting for the right time, make it your new year's resolution to start a home based business franchise, and take a look at some of the best choices currently available.

The internet has certainly transformed the way we live. Whether doing research, communicating with friends and loved ones or ordering everything from pizza to Pilates machines, for many of us it's difficult to imagine going back to life before the internet. Business, however, may be more affected by the advent of the internet that just about anything else, causing businesses to not only start to use the internet for sales and to attract new clients, but also causing entire industries to spark up to facilitate business and advertising on the web. While internet businesses are not unaffected by the recession, the interesting thing is to see how websites like Amazon.com reported their best Christmas sales of all time this year and many other internet companies were able to achieve record numbers despite a less than stellar retail season. What does all this mean? While no one can be sure if this is due to more people putting their faith and their wallets in web retailers or simply that retail is directly tied to recession and internet sales may not follow suit as easily, it's safe to say that an internet based business is probably a better choice than a retail "brick and mortar" business is right now.

WSI Internet is one of the most popular and profitable internet home based business opportunities. With countless awards including the #1 internet and technology franchise in the world, WSI Internet has built a massively successful model that is scalable and flexible for just about any situation. Franchisees do much of the sales and client relations and serve as the front end of the business, while the staff at WSI Internet headquarters handles all of the technical work so that literally anyone with a desire to run their own small business, regardless of background and training, can successfully own and operate a WSI Internet franchise. TVME Inc., another internet home based business, also relies on franchisees to meet clients, make sales and keep clients happy and taken care of well after the sales are final. TVME Inc. sells a unique product that provides nearly half a million music tracks and music videos designed to be deployed in public settings like restaurants, bars or bowling alleys. The beauty of this system, as a franchisee, is that you make a considerable profit from each media server that you sell, but you also continue to make a monthly profit from each customer. The devices that you will sell don't come with any media, they connect to the internet and then provide access to TVME Inc.'s massive library. With the commission from the sales of the devices and the ongoing service fee's, TVME Inc. estimates that in the right market and with a motivated franchisee, one could easily reach six figures a year and potentially reach 7.

Vending machines are another great industry during recession. Statistically, the industries that most often profit during recession are entertainment, alcohol and cheap food and snacks. While we probably won't see a vending machine liquor store for a while, there are plenty of entertainment and food/snack based vending machines available today that utilize new technology and proven market research. DVDNow is quickly becoming increasingly popular in the US. You may have seen their sleek red and grey DVD rental kiosks as the local mall or grocery store and been curious or even rented a movie or two. The concept is simple; provide convenient access to the most popular movies as a reasonable price. With brick and mortar video stores being crushed by online rentals and mail-based services, DVDNow has slipped into a great niche-market where many people still enjoy the spontaneity of picking up a movie on the way home from work (rather than having to wait a few days for the mail) and yet many people also still prefer a physical disc rather than trying to figure out how to watch the movie downloads through their computers. This concept has really taken off in Europe, and while it's gaining in popularity in the states, there is still plenty of room to get in on the ground floor. Another vending business that has shown no real sign of slowdown during the recession is Rocket Vending. They put a new spin on an old business; selling candy through vending machines that are labeled with "Support Our Troops" or "Breast Cancer Awareness". Many franchisees are seeing a boom in sales because people, when given the choice, will almost always choose to purchase from the machines that promise to give a percentage of the profits to breast cancer research or to the National Military Family Association. The product that Rocket Vending sells and machines used to sell it aren't exactly breaking new ground, but the philanthropic aspect of the business not only makes more money for the franchisee, but allows everyone from the franchisee to the customer to the franchisor to give a little something back to help others.

With 2009 in full swing, anyone looking to start their own business needs to consider the current economic climate while we're all optimistic that the economy will turn around, business owners need to prepare for and anticipate the worst. A home based business provides some of the best insulation from economic shifts due to it's low overhead and due to the recession-resistant industries dominated by home based business. This may not be the time for everyone, but if you have thought about starting a new business, make 2009 the year that you start an internet home based business that will not only survive recession, but flourish.

Find more work from home franchises including computer and internet franchises and vending machine distributorships at Home Based Business Opportunities

Home Business Franchise, Which Opportunity is Better for You?

by Naz Daud

The franchise world encapsulates almost every kind of home based business opportunity you can think of, through property management, recruitment, grass-cutting, tyre-fitting, sandwich-making, chipped paint removal, drain cleaning etc.

Should one possess certain skills or experience necessary for any particular franchise then it may well be advisable to push towards a franchise specialising in that area.

However, in my opinion, and put very simply indeed, franchises fall broadly into two main categories -- those that return a residual income and those that require a new piece of work to be carried out to gain any additional income.

This is not to say that in franchise opportunities that do return residual income that no work is required to maintain the customer base but that it is much easier to maintain, the cost is not prohibitive and continuous benefit is derived by the customer from maintaining the existing contract.

Additionally, if one of the reasons for choosing the franchise was to be working from home then this kind of defeats the purpose as all the practical work will have to be carried out away from home.

This is perhaps food for thought as many people searching for franchises often do not know the pertinent questions to ask or the correct way to go about the investigation.

Furthermore, eventualities such as illness or holidays need to be taken into consideration -- if the franchise is operating as a one or two man operation then a simple event such as those aforementioned could ruin the business's reputation.

Following on from this point, when one goes on holiday, it is nice to know that all the earnings during that period do not stop.

One can just imagine, for example, a customer waiting for two weeks to get their drains sorted -- I don't think so! What about if one is ill? Net result will be a lost customer and if the other contractor is good, maybe a permanently lost customer.

There is something else to bear in mind about this type of franchise opportunity, and I'm not picking on drain cleaning, it's just an example and very, very necessary. The hard facts of the matter are that the better the job done, the longer it should be before any repeat business is encountered again… points to mull over.

Having said all of this, the types of franchise that offer residual, repeat income may require greater or more excessive selling and marketing skills and this is an area notorious for putting the fears up for many people -- generally people don't like rejection or approaching a situation where they are trying to get something.

My own personal attitude to this is that we all sell ourselves every day whether we are lawyers, doctors, architects, accountants, franchise owners, mortgage brokers, or stock brokers. Think about it…

Thus, in summary, and I say this very generally, I would suggest that unless a particular skill is present or indeed a penchant for the franchise on offer exists and one is confident of his/her ability to speak to people and thus market a product/service well, then the easier option is to look for some kind of residual income producing franchise.