Buying A Tech Fr@nchise

Entrepreneur.com:

There are 3 basic types of tech-based franchises. I classify them as educational, creative and troubleshooting. The key attributes of each include:

* Educational. These franchises provide education to people to combat the ignorance that exists about tech matters. These franchises usually focus on the software side of franchising by teaching people how to use various common programs effectively. This could be something as basic as Word or e-mail or other popular programs like PhotoShop. Some of these franchises are even aimed at children as their primary market. The franchise operation may offer classes or one-on-one instruction, depending on the needs of the customer. The intent of these franchise companies is to educate people to the point where the fear or frustration is replaced with confidence and wonder at what computer programs are capable of producing for anyone with the knowledge to run them properly.

* Creative. Rather than try to educate customers, these franchises are simply going to do the work they need done. The most common variant of this approach involves the creation of websites and other web-based services that most companies need in today’s market. These franchises can come into a small company and set up the websites, the e-mail systems and all the other back-office needs to get the company set up for e-commerce, all for one set fee. The customer doesn’t need to know how all this work is done—only that it is done correctly and works effectively.

* Troubleshooting. This is my personal favorite. These franchises fix technology. The problems could be hardware - or software-related - whatever is wrong, they’ll fix it at one low price. Most of these companies have a small fixed location where customers can bring their computer to be fixed or will go to the customers on request for an extra charge. Most of the issues they deal with are incredibly fast and easy to solve for someone with broad expertise about computers but are impossible to deal with for a tech idiot like me.

There’s more here.