How to Find the Best Pizza Franchise for Your Future Goals

You want to open a pizza joint. You know the basics, but you’re afraid to be out there on your own. You’re competing with some of the most well-funded companies in the world. Pizza is serious business and, if you don’t bring your “A” game, you might as well quit right now. Do the odds seem overwhelming? They’re not. You just need to look for the right business model: a franchise.

The Competitive Edge
Franchises have a few major things going for them. One of those things is the name recognition. A franchise is so appealing, as a business model, because the franchise company has spent millions of dollars on branding.
In many cases, the franchise is a household name. That makes it a lot easier to sell. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on advertising. You only need to advertise your specific store location – but many franchise companies will even help you out with that.
The trust factor is there. You’ll basically just be taking orders instead of trying to convince people that you offer a great product. Odds are they’ve been to another franchise location and loved it – that’s why they’re here. They already love your company’s pizza.
A Great Reputation
Some of the best pizza franchise operations out there are also ones with the best reputations. It kind of goes hand-in-hand. You can’t be popular enough to be a franchise and simultaneously have a bad reputation. You have to please customers, have a killer product, have a great delivery system, and a marketing system that allows you to get the word out to not only customers but other potential business partners.
Reputations are always built on some type of unique selling proposition. Usually, this will be something like “quality,” or “fast service,” or “low prices.” Now, it may not be stated in these exact terms, but this will be the essential nature of the value proposition.
For example, The Down and Feather Company has, at its value proposition, the “perfect pillow policy.” It’s something that you, as a consumer, would probably love. It’s a “quality” type of statement. There are few things more frustrating than not being able to sleep well at night. Here’s a company that sets, as its policy, the “perfect pillow.” What more could you want?
Normally, this type of thing is very difficult to come up with on your own. Why? Because it takes years to hone a skill – even pizza-making skills. Even then, you need to come up with a value proposition that differentiates you from your competition.
Intensive Training
All good franchises offer intensive training. Franchises are systems. As such, nothing is really left up to chance. A pizza franchise, for example, will tell you what type of crust to use, exact ingredients and ratios to ensure a perfect crust (some will even require that you purchase the supplies from them directly), how long to cook the pizza, and even holding times and serving instructions. It’s almost impossible to fail with a good training program – and that’s one of the best things about owning a franchise.
Lucy Collins  is an entrepreneur. She loves sharing his tips to help people pursue their entrepreneurial spirit by writing for business blogs.